Life as First Year Tenant

Christina Lyons
(Pupil October 2005 - September 2006. Became a tenant in October 2006)

Upon completion of my pupillage I was thrilled to be offered a tenancy. Having begun a practice in pupillage centred on criminal and civil work, I looked forward, albeit with some trepidation, to building a practice in these areas. A year has since passed and my practice now lies across several of Chambers’ specialisations, namely personal injury, employment, business crime, mainstream crime and child law.

As a tenant I found that the steep learning curve that I had first experienced as a pupil was, at times, steeper than a rock-face during the first year of tenancy. In any given week I worked across as many as four practice fields on cases ranging from a road traffic prosecution in the Magistrates’ Court to an interim care hearing in the Family Proceedings Court. The opportunities arising meant that I had to work under pressure and be prepared to travel to far-flung courts on the South East and Midland circuits.

An exciting new challenge came in the form of instructions from the Crown Prosecution Service Headquarters in an organised fraud case and the Serious Fraud Office in a highly sensitive corruption case. My primary task in respect of the former was to identify evidence for disclosure purposes, and in respect of the latter to identify relevant evidence which was in Spanish. My involvement in each case lasted between one and two months. I benefited in many ways from these experiences, but in particular, they sharpened my understanding of disclosure and relevance issues and taught me how to perform computer forensic examinations using specialised software.

In the spring of 2007, I took up a secondment at the Special Crime Division of the Crown Prosecution Service. There I practised exclusively in the area of extradition law and procedure, having been trained by the Special Crime Division’s senior extradition lawyers. The work involved advising and representing foreign governments in extradition proceedings and drafting European Arrest Warrants and extradition requests in respect of category 2 territories. The highlight of my experience was prosecuting a two-day extradition hearing that was reported in local newspapers and online, and which resulted in an extradition order being made. Since returning to Chambers I have gained experience in a wide range of employment and personal injury cases. My practice also includes drafting and advisory work on liability, quantum and evidence.

Few sets can rival the strength and breadth of 7 Bedford Row. As a first year tenant, my experience to date has been full and rewarding.