The Big issue
Talking about mental health issues is difficult for us all,
especially lawyers. Chris Parsons is the chair of Herbert Smith Freehills’ India practice group, a mental health champion, and someone who can speak from personal experience about the challenges of practising law while struggling with stress, anxiety, and depression.
Parsons first shared his personal struggles, medication, and experience of mental ill-health during the ‘This is Me’ campaign a City of London initiative aiming to encourage openness on the subject and address the stigma attached to mental illness. Since then, Chris has travelled to different countries to conduct deeper conversations and deliver trainings on the …
Continue reading “Vulnerability is empowering”
The Bar
No5 Barristers’ Chambers’ Michelle Heeley QC looks at the treatment of vulnerable people in the criminal justice system and the soon-to-be mandatory training designed to protect them in court
For the last two years, the Inns of Court College of Advocacy has been rolling out a training programme to teach practitioners how to deal with vulnerable witnesses. The move has been in response to criticism about how vulnerable witnesses are treated within the criminal justice system. The Crown Prosecution Service expects all counsel who …
Continue reading “A sea change for cross-examination?”
The Bar
Steven Fennell, company and insolvency specialist,
Exchange Chambers (Call 2014; Solicitor 1996)
My route into law started with a training contract in 1994. Before then, I completed a postgraduate degree and taught at a university for a few years. I decided to go into practice because academia wasn’t as interesting or rewarding as I thought it would be and even then, the system seemed to be offering …
Continue reading “Exchanging places”
The Bar
Bill Braithwaite QC, head of Exchange Chambers
For many years there has been talk about the amalgamation of the solicitors’ and barristers’ professions; a fused profession, a one-stop shop, and so on. It seems to have gone quiet at the moment, but maybe that’s because it’s happening stealthily! Some of our most successful barristers (over 10%) are former solicitors, and it’s fascinating …
Continue reading “Making a successful transition”
The Bar
Why do City solicitors join the ranks of the independent Bar? The answer to that question is as varied as the partners and associates who leave the ivory towers of Big Law behind for a life in chambers – bewigged or otherwise. Within the last decade, former partners and department heads such as Judith Gill …
Continue reading “The lure of chambers”
The Bar
Atkin Chambers’ David Barnes talks to Bar editor John van der Luit-Drummond about the ever-increasing movement of barristers, why good clerks are in demand, wellbeing in chambers, and why the Bar can’t afford to rest on its laurels
How have the roles of senior clerk and chief executive changed/evolved during your time in chambers? Roles have had to evolve in response to the changes in the commercial environment in which barristers’ chambers operate. I started my career in the early 1980s and at that time there were no titles such as CEO. The …
Continue reading “There is a war for talent”
The Bar
After five years away, Steven Gee QC explains why he has returned to the independent Bar and what he learnt from operating in the law firm environment
In March 2019 I joined Monckton Chambers having spent five years in independent practice as a QC and a partner at litigation boutique Joseph Have Aaronson from December 2014. I have been in practice at the Bar since 1976 and was head of chambers at Stone Chambers in Gray’s Inn for 15 years before joining …
Continue reading “Back at the Bar”
The Bar
As Andrew Spink QC finishes his two-year term as COMBAR chair, the co-head of Outer Temple Chambers looks back on the association’s recent key achievements and talks about the challenges ahead for the commercial Bar
It’s been an exciting time to chair the Commercial Bar Association (COMBAR), a specialist bar association (SBA) representing the cream of English and Welsh barristers advising the international business community. With 1,600 individual barristers and 38 leading chambers, COMBAR is a hallmark of excellence, with members advising and appearing as advocates and arbitrators in high-value, …
Continue reading “Reflections of a commercial silk”
The Bar
Fresh from an internal restructure, senior clerk Joe Ferrigno explains how he has future-proofed Essex Court Chambers clerking function amid an evolving legal landscape
On becoming sole senior clerk at Essex Court Chambers I reflected that as the Bar, and indeed the world, has modernised, so too has the role of the barrister’s clerk. What a complete transition it has been – from chambers comprising 15 barristers to sets now in the hundreds; low key business development has evolved …
Continue reading “Building a modern clerks’ room”
The Bar
As highlighted in previous issues of fivehundred, the backgrounds and experiences of chambers chief executives are broad and varied; they come from the traditional clerking ranks, the armed forces, the public sector, education, marketing and advertising, and, yes, the legal profession itself. Rebecca Priestley comes from the latter, but unlike her contemporaries she has held …
Continue reading “Knowing what clients want and what winds them up”
