Pupillage At 7BR
The run up to starting pupillage was an anxious one, made easier by having a chambers ‘buddy’ – someone who I could go to with all of my slightly random questions like what kind of laptop do I need and what can I expect in the first few weeks.
After an introductory first day setting up IT systems and having a tour of the building, pupillage started in earnest when I was handed a file and asked to write an opinion in an occupier’s liability case.
My civil supervisor, James Weston, is an experienced practitioner in personal injury and clinical negligence work. I had no real experience in either area, but a gradual progression from writing opinions to drafting particulars of claims, defences and schedules, meant that I was able to better understand the issues in these kinds of cases, before developing my more technical skills.
In my first seat I attended lots of conferences, taking a note for my supervisor. Personal injury / clinical negligence is a really interesting area of law because you have the opportunity to learn all about the specific injuries and illnesses from experts. James also does a lot of abuse work, which is a staple part of chambers’ civil practice. It is an area of law that engages the ECHR and recent caselaw on common law duties of care. I was fortunate enough to be able to do some research on a case that was heard in the High Court over three days and it was probably one of my favourite parts of pupillage. I also attended two inquests and drafted the particulars of claim on one of them as my final piece of work in my civil seat. My supervisor was kind enough to tell me that ‘our’ particulars had led to an admission of liability.
The majority of my civil seat was paperwork based, with sporadic short court hearings and conferences most days. That is to be expected and offers an opportunity to develop your written skills.
My crime seat began a little differently to my co-pupils as I worked through an old drugs and firearms case of my supervisor’s -reviewing the papers just like she did and drafting the defence case statement. I also had to pretend my supervisor was the judge and tell her how I would manage issues like the defendant absconding and whether we ought to proceed in absence.
As the first two months of the crime seat are in your first six, we focused on making sure I had drafted as many template applications and responses in relation to issues like bad character and hearsay as possible so that I had them ‘in my back pocket’ when I was on my feet. I also shadowed lots of junior members doing sentences and PTPHs, as well as going to the Magistrates’ Court to see some prosecution lists.
I started ‘on my feet’ with a last-minute whiplash quantum hearing which was slightly terrifying but a good ‘first go’. I was able to ask other members in chambers about the whiplash regime and mixed cases.
It is amazing to look back over my second six and my final month of tenancy – what once took me days now takes an hour or two and my confidence has grown massively and in tenancy, the stretch remains as you keep growing your practice and doing more difficult work in higher courts, but there is also something quite surreal about having ‘made it’ and finally being a barrister.