Name: Kelan McHugh Chambers: 1 King’s Bench Walk Location: London University: Trinity College, Dublin Degree: English literature
the family division,” he predicts. “Where those who can afford it choose arbitration or other dispute resolution and the courts are left for those who can’t afford it.” However, for the present he’s focused on serving his clients as best he can. When asked what makes a good family barrister, McHugh pauses to think. “You need the courage of your convictions,” he reflects. “As a barrister you’ll be thrust into difficult situations while you’re still relatively junior and there’s little support structure. You need to be prepared to take points that you think you’re right even if they’re difficult points. However, there’s simply no substitute for preparation or hard work.” He acknowledges that the stress levels are significant. “You need to know yourself, to know what you can take,” he warns. “Early on, someone did say to me: this is your career now, you feel like you have an exam the next day for the rest of your life. And it’s true in a way. You have no one to turn to and nowhere to hide in court, and you can’t do over. And yet knowing that I would still have chosen this path. Maybe it’s a matter of self-knowledge: if that’s who you are, then there’s no better career.”
happen in real time,” McHugh confirms. “If there’s an abduction risk, it’s imminent. You can’t just switch off your phone – you have to be there for clients.” He admits that the weight of such matters can be considerable but warns that it’s vital not to get too closely attached: “It stops you doing your job as well as you might. As you get older and more experienced, you do become more self-assured, more confident. All you can do is set yourself a standard and uphold that. You don’t ever become immune, but you have to learn to let go.” In a rapidly changing world, even the way that families are shaped is altering. “Lifestyles are more international,” McHugh points out. “It’s now perfectly normal to live four years in one place and then move to the other side of the world – genuinely international families. From my point of view this means I have to be able to understand different legal systems. Sometimes that involves forging links with lawyers in different jurisdictions, which isn’t something you’d necessarily consider.” And lifestyles aren’t the only things that are evolving. The criminal Bar has undergone devastating changes due to transformations to legal aid and publicly funded work. “There’s a greater demand on court services, with fewer, shorter hearings,” he explains. “Ten years ago, you might expect to get three or four days before a judge in a particular type of case. It’s much less now, which means that as a barrister you have to be a lot more surgical, present more cleverly – there’s often less time to explore all the issues.” Although he’s careful not to join the doom- mongering prevalent in the profession right now – the take up of alternative dispute resolution is one exciting development that offers a lot of interesting avenues to barristers – McHugh is cautious about the future of the sector. “I firmly believe that there will always be a market for legal services but I think that, sadly, it could end up in a two-tier system in
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