Simon’s blog
Getting on With Clients
I'm sorry that I haven't posted for a while. I hope to do so soon. Meanwhile, please familiarise yourself with the diagram below. It is uncannily accurate. Because your clerks will collect your fees, the issue of when to bill is a matter for them. However, if you want...
Tenancy and How to Get It Part 3: Paperwork
So, there you are, in situ (or - as we must now say - with your feet under the table). The question is how you get to put your feet on the table. I dealt with advocacy in the last post. There is another aspect to a Barrister's life in which ability must be...
Tenancy and How to Get it Part 2 – Advocacy
This is a partial answer to how you communicate your abilities during your pupillage. It also, I hope, goes some way to address the fears of the BVC students that their advocacy is 'a trainwreck' (a direct quote - and whoever originated that description is showing...
Tenancy and How to Get It: Part 1
I concede that I embark on this post with a degree of trepidation. I pretend to no great expertise on how one converts a pupillage into a tenancy. It has happened to me twice: at the end of my pupillage in London, when I suspect the motive was the future payment of...
The Law and Democracy
V I do accept that the size of the photographs may tell their own story, but in the spirit of investigative journalism I am sure Mr Paul Dacre (in the left corner - the mere thought of which is probably giving him collywobbles) will appreciate the discrepancy. Mr...
Oxbridge
As the question of Olpas rears its ugly head again, I thought I would try and inject some reality into the perennial 'do I have to have an Oxbridge degree?' debate. The Answer is 'No - but it helps'. I can say this with some confidence because I have actually done...
Why I Want to be a Barrister
One of the things about having a search function is that it reveals what you haven't written about, as well as what you have. I was surprised to find that I hadn't covered this topic and I thought it might be useful if I did. I know that you all want to be barristers,...
What Type of Law Should I Do? Redux
As a special celebration of the new pad... Environmental Law When Megabastard plc pumps raw sewage into the village pond, when Exploitthethirdworld SA decides that India's legal system isn't up to preventing it from pumping out dioxin as if it were Glade®, or when SS...
Desolation Row (Lyrics Here)
I have the permission of the author of the question below to post my answer: "Been reading your blog for quite some months now. However, unless I'm mistaken, there is something of an omission from the listings - what should you be feeling if you fail to get a...
The Chance of Success
Pupillages and tenancies are being hurled around like confetti for those lucky few - to whom we (all of us being nice enough to rejoice in the joys of others) extend our congratulations: and the Bar is drawing its feelers in for the unlucky many. These are interesting...