Life After Your Law Degree: A Barrister's Guide

So, you have your academic qualifications, but to my mind the next and most important step is to decide whether you really want to be a barrister, because the path to get there, whether it be long or short, will put your resolve and self-esteem to the test!

Find out what being a barrister is really about…

First, do not underestimate how much both the bar course, and application process for pupillage are a microcosm of the reality of being a barrister.

It is a role which requires you to be resilient, independent, and make the best of often limited resources.

Some people (myself included) can feel shocked at how little ‘teaching’ there is on the bar course. You pay all this money, only to be expected most of the time to scrabble around frantically for the answers yourself!

This, however, it transpires is the reality of much of life at the bar. Cases even in the areas of law most familiar to you, will invariably throw up something new that you are required to research. Moreover, in your career, solicitors and clients will be looking to you to have the answers, even when you are a second-six pupil or baby junior.

What the bar course, pupillage application process, and then pupillage itself have taught me, more than anything else, is to have courage in my own convictions. It is not a career where you can expect always to seek the reassurance of others that what you think or say is right.

Second, the reality of life at the junior bar is that it will vary extensively between practice areas.

Whilst the following is somewhat of an over-simplification, the spectrum ranges from a court-centred diary, with last-minute preparation that characterises the criminal bar, to the commercial chancery bar where most of a baby junior’s time will be spent in chambers on written work or doing research for led work.

My own practice, which is ‘mixed civil’ offers something of a halfway house between these extremes. I am in court around 3 days a week and will often have separate advice or drafting tasks to be working on in the background.

Third, there is no one ‘typical day in the life’ of a barrister, it is a role where what is to be expected is the unexpected!

It is certainly only a job to take on if you can roll with the punches and are comfortable with things changing last minute.

…that said, don’t expect to have all the answers right away.

Having completed a law degree, or as in my own case, a law conversion course, don’t feel that you must be poised at this moment to commit to a career in a particular area of law. Some are, but I certainly wasn’t.

An area of law which you found fascinating from an academic perspective may strike you as mundane in practice, and of course the opposite can be equally true.

This is where mini-pupillages are invaluable. It is the opportunity to see first-hand what work in an area of law is like. If you are given the choice of whom to shadow, I would always recommend shadowing a junior practitioner, as their practice is likely to be much closer to the reality of what you will be doing for a good number of years post-qualification.

Mini-pupillages are more competitive than you think

Do not underestimate the application process! I remember (and cringe at) how I initially dashed off forms, thinking the fact I had a GDL scholarship from Gray’s Inn was going to be a magical passport to securing mini-pupillages.

Treat an application for mini-pupillage as seriously as you would any job application, and indeed would an application for full pupillage.

As regards any applications you may make, be it for a ‘mini’, for a scholarship, or for pupillage my basic advice is as follows:

1)      Keep things concise. Use short sentences and avoid ‘flowery language’ (cut all the adjectives and adverbs). People are not being paid to read your prose, so getting to the point simply and swiftly pays.

2)      Structure your writing. Consider using bullet points than long paragraphs.

3)      If you assert a quality about yourself or interest in something, always have a concrete example to back it up.

4)      Do not shy away from non-legal experience. When answering a competency question, think about what experience best meets that competency, and not what appears most impressive from a legal standpoint.

Finally, a little note on networking…

Networking is important but think quality over quantity. Adding a bunch of barristers or pupils on LinkedIn is not going to bring you success by association. I have had plenty of people add me since becoming a pupil, never ever to reach out and actually speak to me!

I would suggest you focus on maintaining connections with people that you have actually met at events and cultivating those relationships so that in future you might approach them for advice or feedback on applications.

Simon Haywood

3PB Barristers

simon.haywood@3pb.co.uk