Name: Rachel Owusu-Agyei Chambers: Old Square Chambers Location: London University: Cambridge Degree: Law
the pandemic and the government schemes introduced to support those earning less as a result of lockdown. “Many people fell through the cracks because they’d either not been self- employed for long enough or they didn’t have enough tax evidence to access the scheme, for example.” Working on one of the first judicial reviews to arise out of the pandemicwas a highlight of Rachel’s past year at theBar. Alongside three colleagues, she reviewed the government’s schemes and the fact that they failed to protect a lot of peoplewhowere ‘workers’. Despite the reviewbeing unsuccessful, Rachel thoroughly enjoyed “workingwith a union that was supporting individuals facing real financial difficulties and exposure to the virus. Martialling the arguments and supporting these people, who otherwisewould not have had the advocacy to pursue those claims, was really rewarding.” Persevere! The twowords that Rachel stresses when asked for wisdom to impart to budding barristers is ‘resilience’ and ‘perseverance’: “Be ready to do thework! Alongwith good academics, get somework experience to demonstrate your interest in the field and make sure youwant to do this. Go to a tribunal hearing to see how it works – this shows that you are self-motivated. At the Bar youmust manage your time effectively to ensure your work is done. I don’t knowanyonewho has had a straightforward journey to pupillage; so a lot of perseverance and resilience are required to get to pupillage stage and then to have a successful career at the Bar.” As a closing statement, Rachel encourages future lawyers to not be put off by any preconceptions. “If you find a chambers that you like, but it has lots of peoplewho look and sound the same, there’s no reasonwhy you couldn’t excel there too. Don’t hold back,” she urges.
George Floyd have hadwithmany organisations forced “to look internally at their own culture and consider the extent towhich theymight perpetuate the various issues that were being protested about.” Looking to the future, Rachel predicts that over the next year “peoplemight be prepared to speak about their experiences of race discrimination and harassment in the workplace in away that they weren’t before. The employment Bar might end up playingmore of a role in conducting investigations to assist organisations where those issues are raised.” The daily grind Day-to-day work is, as youmight expect, paperwork heavy, whether in tribunal hearings or during the extensive preparations leading up to them. Preparation, in fact, is the name of the game: “You deal with a large quantity of documents, so you’ll spend a lot of time reading and researching beforehand. Youwill continue to prepare until you enter the courtroom for whatever is ahead – it might be a cross- examination, it might be delivering submissions to the tribunal. Even in preliminary hearings, you still need to be very familiar with all the claims and facts, andwhat is likely to happen at the final hearing –what arguments are likely to come out andwhich facts still need to be settled.” However, the reams of paperwork, while integral to the system, can also be a spanner in the works, not least because the digital revolution hasn’t yet fully transpired in the legal sector. The legal aid crisis has also hit hard: “A lot of people cannot afford legal advice, sowhen I act for a respondent, I’moften against litigants- in-person. Employment law is becoming increasingly technical, so the system is becoming evenmore difficult for thosewithout representation and one of the challenges is learning tomanage this.” Regardless of the pitfalls, what keeps Rachel coming back is the human interest at the heart of every claim. She thinks back to the start of
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