Name: Paul Kerfoot Chambers: Trinity University: University of Durham Degree: Law
Having fun is important too But what skills do aspiring barristers
sense over the past few years. “It’s much more progressive now,” he says, reinforcing the social aspect: “I really feel like I’m involved in a community.” As with all jobs, there are aspects that are challenging and less enjoyable than others. Despite working well under pressure – an obvious benefit – Paul explains that there is a certain “responsibility that comes with the nature of the job; if you get something wrong, it can have big consequences.” For candidates contemplating a career in this practice area, it’s important to identify effective ways to cope with this. The Bar needs to recruit well This pressure can come in all shapes and sizes – internal and external – and affects people in different ways, as we have witnessed over the past year. With the effects of Brexit and the covid-19 pandemic rippling through the business and legal worlds, Paul comments on how “well insulated” the chancery Bar is from “volatile economic and political situations.” When the UK government announced a national lockdown in March 2020, businesses were forced to temporarily close – some of which have not reopened – and many other issues arose as lockdowns were extended or reinstated. These are all important issues to consider in a commercial sense, but one thing that Paul mentions is the huge backlog of cases that was exacerbated by the pandemic. Envisioning a future in which this backlog continues to rise, Paul considers a specific scenario: “Due to the increase in house prices as a result of the pandemic, there is likely to be more cases as more people will have more disputes because they now have more valuable assets.” Contemplating the knock- on effect of this – “the increase in cases and the backlog” – Paul imagines that “the Bar will have a lot of cases to get through in the next five years and so will need to be recruiting well across the board to deal with it.”
interested in a career at the chancery Bar require to be part of this recruitment? With no beating around the bush, Paul enforces the complex work that comes with this practice area and the need for candidates to have “a desire to be intellectually challenged.” Off the back of his warning, he adds that the process of working through the complicated work and getting to the other side “is also the most rewarding” – so the two go hand in hand. As with all areas of law, it is the lawyer’s job to digest a client’s potentially complicated issue, find the answer to their questions and be able to communicate the findings in an accessible way – so being able to distil complex legal issues into manageable and understandable answers is crucial. Academic excellence can only get you so far. Looking back on his success, Paul emphasises how important it is for candidates to demonstrate that they have a broad set of skills that sets them apart from the rest of their cohort. “I got my pupillage not because I had the best qualifications, but because I could show that I was a well-rounded individual. You need a breadth of experience so don’t sacrifice the non-academic parts of your CV,” he advises. Aspiring barristers should immerse themselves in extracurricular opportunities, whether that’s a university society, a local sports team or book club, and use these experiences to demonstrate that they’re “versatile, grounded, have good common sense and the ability to reach and express an opinion” – skills that Paul believes candidates can hone in experience outside of the classroom.
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