Name: Adam Smith Chambers: Maitland Chambers Location: London University: University of Oxford Undergraduate degree: Classics
Commitment is key So what makes for an excellent property barrister? According to Adam, it is broadly the same set of skills you would mark as essential in any civil area of law: “Commitment to the job is essential; the most successful barristers make themselves available to clients and are constantly looking for the best angle to achieve the client’s objectives. Analytical ability and knowledge of the law are key. There is often a large amount of information involved, so you need to be able to distil that into the far smaller amount of critically relevant information. You need advocacy skills, both oral and written; a lot of work goes into written as well as oral advocacy. If you can get a judge on your side even before the hearing has started with a good skeleton argument, a significant proportion of the hard work is done. You also need good people skills – the ability to get on with both professional and lay clients, to be pleasant and easy to work with, and to inspire confidence.” Adam suggests that the first steps on the path are to do well in whatever undergraduate degree you have chosen – “proving your analytical ability and ability to sift information is possible in all or nearly all degrees” – and to complete perhaps five or six mini-pupillages in the practice areas that you are interested in. “In addition, you need to show an interest in advocacy, so debating or mooting as a law student, or other public speaking, is particularly important.” His final tips include joining an Inn as soon as you’ve decided that the Bar is for you, because it is “a great opportunity to meet people, do some mooting and explore funding options through Inn scholarships”. He also suggests trying a vacation scheme with a solicitors’ firm, as a way of “understanding the day to day work of a litigation solicitor and the pressures that they can work under and demonstrating that you’ve made a well thought-out decision to join the Bar as opposed to qualifying as a solicitor”.
there’s no checking in with the boss. When you’re involved with a case and something needs to be done, obviously that has to happen; but, to a certain extent, when you take a case it’s your decision to do so.” The ability to make a real difference through your work and the keen intellectual challenges are other draw-cards: “Very many cases throw up interesting problems, so there’s nearly always something to think about. It’s also satisfying to see what we do having a direct impact – if you win a case for an individual, for whom it has been the last throw of the dice, it’s personally very significant.” There is no denying, however, that this career can be all-consuming at times. “That can be good and is part of the excitement of it – we are very invested in it; but, at the same time, your personal life can suffer as a result,” he admits. “I’ve had to work through holidays and frequently cancel plans. There is often a lack of predictability, so that all of a sudden something needs to be done urgently, such as seeking an interim injunction. You can also be under a lot of pressure, particularly close to and during trial. As you get more experienced, you become more comfortable with being in that position and working out how to juggle things.” Adam reflects on how life at the Bar is evolving, both in his own field and elsewhere: “Commercial property work is unlikely to change much in the next few years, other than (in terms of its volume and the nature of disputes and issues which arise) as a result of general economic forces; the biggest upheaval is occurring at the criminal Bar, with major structural changes to publicly funded work. One change that has already occurred generally at the Bar is increased specialism. Less and less you see people with a general common law practice – clients appear to be increasingly keen to be advised and represented by a barrister who is a specialist in the relevant field.”
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