Name: Ini Udom Chambers: 5 St Andrew’s Hill Location: London University: King’s College London Degree: Law
For most people, coming before the criminal courts is a crisis in their lives and to be able to help them through that period is extremely rewarding.” Top tips Turning to her advice for those seeking pupillage, she highlights that work experience and exposure are essential: “You have to demonstrate that you are sufficiently dedicated to have sought experience, and developed relevant skills. Build up your CVwith experience by volunteering. Think outside the box – it doesn’t have to be experience in a criminal law firmor advice clinic. Think about the key skills that you can demonstrate, such as interacting with clients, or being given documents that you needed to understand within a short timeframe and succeeding. If I was applying for pupillage now, I would be applying broadly and resisting the temptation to pigeonholemyself to certain chambers. Look at the range of chambers and the work they do and youmay find that there aremany types of chambers that youmight fit with.” Ini’s final – crucial – piece of advice emphasises the value of planning your own career path. “The one thing I would push to readers is the need to have a plan, ideally a five-year plan,” she argues. “When you start your practice you need to have an idea of where you want to go and what you want to achieve. When you are self- employed there is always the fear that if you turn down work, nothing else will come along, so it is easy to get into a pattern of taking on any work that people are sending or is allocated to you, but you also need to think about the direction that you want your practice to go. A plan helps you to tailor the work that you seek out and the instructions you accept.”
Prosecuting those suspected of involvement in complex organised crime inevitably means that there is an international flavour to the work. “Themoney generated from the index criminality in the UK is passed around the country before being transferred overseas,” Ini explains. “In preparing these cases, we need tomake enquiries internationally to try to trace themoney and find out what other interests the suspects may have.” This international aspect is particularly important to her personally: “I have an international background and I am also qualified at the NewYork Bar, so keeping an international element inmy work means that I can use all my qualifications.” In fraud cases, the advocacy itself is different from that of other criminal trials. Cases are document heavy and complex. “An important focus in a fraud trial is making sure that the tribunal understands the case you are presenting,” Ini observes. “That means prioritising simplification, clarification and highlighting the links or key points that you are trying tomake. In contrast, I find that the advocacy when you are dealing with a robbery or assault will need a different approach.” Weighing up the contenders for the highlight of her career so far, Ini admits that she “can’t pinpoint a single case because they are all so different.” Instead, she points out that “the reward I get frommy work isn’t from the monetary value of the case or winning the argument, but the impact you can have on the client – even though that may sound cliché. I also do a lot of regulatory work, where clients are individuals from various professions that have been called up in front of their regulator and could face being struck off, so it is incredibly rewarding and satisfying to listen to them, take their case and present it in a way that they feel is fair and appropriate. It’s the same with crime – if you are defending, a lot of your clients will feel that they have never been listened to and it is an incredibly humbling and powerful thing to act as their mouthpiece.
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