The ‘Why do you want to be a barrister?’ question is a staple element of pupillage application forms. For students it often means long evenings of rephrasing sentences about their life-long quests for justice in a bid to make them less vomit-inducing. But what happens when a silk of 20 years’ call has a crack at answering it?
1) I work for myself
"For me, this is the number one issue. I have no objection to being beholden to someone to do the best job I possibly can — that is how barristers feel towards their clients. But I want my success measured by how well I do my job, not by how well I get on in the office. I do not want to feel that advancement requires the approbation of someone I dislike or don’t rate. I actually don’t mind calling someone ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’, but I want to choose who that person is."
2) I want control over my practice
"Now, of course, there are some people who do have an influence over professional advancement and there are equally areas over which barristers have little control. But I decide what type of work I do and whether or not to take opportunities offered. Even junior barristers can do this — it is always a struggle with your clerk, but one that can be won. The downside is the lack of security. It’s nice to keep what you earn, but the corollary is that if you don’t work, you don’t get paid. Illness can be financially devastating."
3) I enjoy the camaraderie
"The provincial Bar is an intensely friendly professional environment. On the northern circuit, we know the tiny minority who cannot be trusted and everyone else gets on. Your colleagues will cheerfully help you with your work, give you advice on how to approach the judge with a tricky point and point you in the direction of recent authority. They will also gossip like mad — it’s a small profession — and laugh their heads off when you get a nose ender in cross-examination."
4) I truly believe that what barristers do is useful
"People need representation: they are often too unsophisticated or ill-educated to advance their own case. And they are always too subjective. The more disgusting their beliefs or their behaviour, the more important it is that the jury or the judge decides the case on the evidence, and that the result is not determined because the legal profession turns its nose up at representing them. I refuse to judge my clients, not because I am a moral void or because I like criminals, but because I believe that the law should be the same for everyone."
5) I enjoy the flexibility
"If I want to watch cricket all day and work all night then, if I’m not in court, I can. No one makes me clock in. I can go on holiday when I like, provided I am not letting anyone down. When I have lots of work to do, I can work as many hours as I can physically manage. When I have less work to do I can take a long walk or go and see friends. I never have to go and do something just because of a requirement to fill a set number of hours per day."
6) My job is interesting
"I meet lots of different people who do lots of different jobs; I enjoy talking to them. Even though the issues in cases may repeat themselves, they do so in unlimited permutations of different facts and personalities. Plus, the case changes daily in court, while outside court, it needs to be planned out, challenges foreseen, traps laid and bluffs undertaken."
7) I enjoy the competition
"Most barristers are bright, focused, competitive and prepared to take risks. Pitting oneself against those people is fun."
8) There is always the opportunity to improve
"Measuring progress can be one of the great pleasures (and sometimes one of the great pains). But it is rare that there is no further opportunity to get it right next time. Plenty of people who do not shine at the beginning of their careers go on to achieve great things. And plenty who were future Lords of Appeal at two years call succumb to the pressures and go nowhere."
9) No other job offers such opportunities to do advocacy
"Solicitors do some advocacy, but they are not usually the best people to handle a long, difficult trial. Expertise tends to wither unless frequently exercised. The discussion and testing of approaches and tactics that goes on in chambers is constant. Just because it happens over a drink or a coffee doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable practice. Solicitors do not usually have the time to adopt the same approach."
10) Being a barrister is still the best way to become a judge
"How many other careers offer the chance to start a new job at 50? You may not want to follow that route, but the possibility is there. My answer comes in somewhat over the Online Pupillage Application System (OLPAS) form word limit of 150 words to which students answering this question must adhere, but hopefully it sheds some light on what makes barristers tick. If you find these reasons bizarre, then it may be that you have a different take, or perhaps this is not the job for you."
… and why not to be a barrister
"While I’m on the subject, here are three reasons that are often cited as motivations for becoming a barrister, but which, in my opinion, are rubbish."
1) I will earn loads of money.
"Actually, you probably won’t. But even if you do, it strikes me as a poor reason. You won’t enjoy the Bar unless you see it as more than an opportunity to generate cash. If you don’t enjoy it, you probably won’t be much good at it. What’s more, you need a life. The Bar makes that difficult enough as it is. If you are so motivated by earning large sums that you have to take work on holiday, or miss birthdays, then your personal life will turn to dust."
2) I will be perceived as very important.
"Wrong again. Your criminal client will try to forget you whatever the result. Your personal injury or family client will be grateful to you if you win, not if you lose. And any gratitude will be fleeting. Your corporate client will regard you as an employee of sorts. This country barely respects doctors any more. In terms of kudos, these days lawyers are ranked alongside estate agents and politicians."
3) I will bear the flaming sword of truth.
"Unlikely. Every case has a loser. You will represent scoundrels, liars, opportunists and people of extreme moral flexibility. That is why I suggest that your commitment be to the process, rather than the result. Leave the substantive decisions on right and wrong to the judge and the Almighty, both of whom have had many years of practice."
Simon Myerson is a tenant at Byrom Street Chambers.
Click here to comment on this article.
