Barristers Barristers advise on specific legal issues and spend a lot of time representing clients in court. They receive their information and instructions through a solicitor and are essentially self-employed. When not appearing in court, they work in chambers where they prepare their court cases and arguments. Again, although barristers work in a wide variety of areas of law, the fundamental elements of the job remain largely the same. These include: • advising clients on the law and the strength of their case; • holding ‘conferences’ with clients to discuss their case; • representing clients in court, including presenting the case and cross-examining witnesses; and negotiating settlements with the other side (when a legal dispute is resolved privately outside of court). Upon being called to the Bar, a barrister is known formally as a ‘junior’. He or she remains a junior until such time as he or she is made a Queen’s Counsel (QC), also known as ‘taking silk’. A QC is a senior barrister with extensive experience who is regarded as having outstanding ability. The majority of barristers never become QCs. •
Areas of law There are hundreds of different types of law. However, at the broadest level, you can divide lawyers between those doing commercial work (ie, work for companies) and those involved with individual people. On the one hand, you could be a banking lawyer scrutinising a major loan by a bank to a corporation; on the other, you could be a personal injury practitioner advising an individual who has had a fall. Different practice areas are like different jobs: very little connects the everyday professional life of a human rights solicitor with that of a corporate one. See the ‘practice area snapshot’ below for more detail. Further reading
Solicitors www.lawcareers.net/solicitors Barristers www.lawcareers.net/barristers
Chartered legal executives and paralegals are also legal professionals who work in law firms, but the route to these jobs does not require a university degree. Find out more about paralegals, legal executives and apprenticeships further on in this guide.
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Human rights
Intellectual property
Private client
Public law
This practice area is incredibly wide ranging and includes immigration and asylum cases, privacy cases affecting celebrities and international law issues. Clients may range from low-income refugees and prisoners through to large news organisations and government departments.
This involves protecting the exploitation of intellectual ideas, normally by way of copyright, trademarks and patents. IP lawyers advise on issues ranging from commercial exploitation to infringement disputes, and agreements that deal either exclusively with intellectual property or with IP rights as part of larger commercial transactions.
Private client lawyers advise on all aspects of the financial affairs of clients, including capital gains tax, inheritance tax planning, setting up lifetime trusts and preparing wills. Private client lawyers also handle a wide range of charity work.
Public law concerns relationships between people and government. This might mean challenging the level of care provided to a disabled person by a local authority, or on a larger scale, advising the government on national infrastructure development, such as a new energy or transport project.
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