Name: Katie Lee Chambers: Hardwicke University: University of Bristol Degree: Law
inconvenience and loss to various parties in the chain. The crux of many cases is working out how the long the delay is, what losses this has led to, what caused it and who is to blame. This is often complicated by six or seven different things going wrong in a project that overlap – calculating delays and losses can be a bit of a minefield in such cases.” On your feet Advocacy is of course a key part of the job and the opportunity to be on your feet in court is what draws many barristers to the profession. Katie’s personal highlight in this area so far is “the first time I won a three-day trial against a barrister seven years more senior than me. The case was on the cusp and could have gone either way, but I felt that my advocacy was at its best during that closing argument and I could see that the judge was being persuaded by what I was saying, which is not something you feel very often, particularly if you’re inclined to be self- critical, which I think a lot of academic people tend to be because it is a trait that pushes you to be better. At the Bar it is very easy to lack confidence because once you get through pupillage, people stop giving you constructive criticism, as well as praise. As a barrister, you generally only hear people on the other side telling you that your arguments are not very good. Judges rarely give praise – although some do – so you tend to live in a bit of a vacuum without an objective sense of whether you are any good at the job,” she laughs. If you are resilient, she says, the rewards do come: “There is a direct return on the hard work you put in. Equally, the flexibility is good because I have a child, so while I still obviously have to make certain commitments in terms of timing, the paperwork is very flexible and I can fit it around doing things with my daughter.” Is there a part of the job she doesn’t enjoy? “The occasional opposing counsel whose submissions are very close to the line or
unnecessarily obstructive, which wastes the court’s time and your client’s money. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does it is disheartening because I try to play everything with a straight bat and be a good officer of the court. It often results in the judge being cross with both of you, but unfortunately you can’t tell a judge that your learned friend was being a pain in the bum!” Flexibility is key Looking more widely at the Bar’s role in the legal profession, Katie identifies the biggest challenge facing barristers is “the increasing specialisation of solicitors’ firms. Rather than always going to barristers, firms are now more inclined to keep matters – for example, mediation – in house because they can make more money doing it themselves. Traditional work such as pleadings still remains the preserve of counsel for the most part, but it is not uncommon to do the pleadings and then not hear from the solicitors again until trial. Barristers need to work more flexibly with solicitors and demonstrate that they are another part of the team, rather than someone who can only be instructed for formal set pieces. The Bar is not like it used to be, when barristers were parachuted in at the last moment to save the day – there is much more teamwork. It is not just about sitting in chambers, waiting for instructions to come in. Part of the job is about going out and meeting people and building relationships with them, for example, solicitors on big cases to whom you could be seconded for a long time. You need them to trust you and want to use you as their preferred counsel.” Katie’s advice for aspiring barristers seeking pupillage is to “treat your application like a skeleton argument – say more with less and avoid flowery language. Instead, keep it simple and give examples of advocacy experience, such as a moot court competition you entered. Approach your application in the same way you will need to approach the job.”
485
Sign up to
BARRISTERS
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online