Name: Peter Wadsley Chambers: St John’s Chambers Location: Bristol University: University of Cambridge Degree: Law
the law: “You need to have a grasp of the essentials in your particular cases and have the courage to stick with them when you come against the other side who might be saying that the essentials are something else entirely.” Having an eye for detail and the ability to deal with experts are also on Peter’s list. Expanding on the ability to deal with experts, Peter puts his advice into context: “For example, if you’ve got a developer who wants to build houses on a particular plot of land, but the local authority and environment agency have said the developer can’t because there are flooding problems, it’s likely that both sides will appoint experts. These experts will then talk about the dangers of the river flooding or the sea encroaching, whatever it may be. “They’ll be highly professional and technical people and you, the advocate, must be in a position to master what they’re talking about and to cross-examine them on it. There’s a whole range of expertise you’ll need to master because if you don’t understand what the expert is talking about, you won’t be able to cross-examine them effectively.” Offering a nod to reality, Peter shares some closing insights. Having been drawn to the Bar for several reasons, including “more control” over his work, he explains that this isn’t the case in every sense. While you can control the work you take on and when you take time off, for example, “if a client wants you to do something for them, then you have to make yourself available and this may involve very long working days – and nights!” But it’s this unpredictable nature of the job that also makes for such an exciting and rewarding career at the planning Bar.
fact that local planning authorities are under- resourced, are just some examples.
While the increased use of technology poses a variety of challenges, Peter is also keen to emphasise the positives that can come from this: “It’s particularly helpful if you’ve got minor hearings that might last only an hour. It’s much better to do it virtually, rather than have everybody travel to some remote part of Devon to spend an hour discussing what we’re going to do at a public inquiry in six weeks’ time.” On top of this, Peter also outlines the trends to watch out for “on the environmental side of planning”, including climate change which “involves issues including flooding and what land you can build on”. He adds: “People are much more interested in the planning process than they used to be – partly because there’s a fair amount of nimbyism because people don’t want houses in their backyard but also because, more positively, people are much more environmentally conscious – climate change and its problems are an obvious example.” Referring to a recent case, Peter says that “during a planning inquiry in Devon, the locals really turned out in force – there were a lot of people who were heavily opposed to this development. There’s just so much more public interest due to the important environmental impacts”. Standing your ground As well as staying up to date with these trends, it’s crucial that aspiring barristers “have a wider interest in society and the broader issues because you’re dealing with areas of huge public interest, including flooding, the addition of a new town on the edge of an existing town, and increases in population and what this means socially”.
Peter outlines other skills that are key to making it as a top barrister in this area of
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