My Journey to the Bar
To most people, I imagine, the Bar may seem elitist and out of touch, old fashioned if not antiquated. Perhaps it’s the 17th Century outfits and the Latin. That is, if they think of it at all. It never crossed my mind when I was growing up that I would or could be a barrister. My high school did not expect its pupils to go to university, let alone get a profession. I left school with AS and A-Levels I could spell the word “BED” with, but which were otherwise pretty useless. After university, I went back to my home town and worked whatever jobs were available — mainly data entry or call centres (there were no ‘graduate’ jobs and I couldn’t afford to move elsewhere) — and studied an MA part time in an effort to keep my brain from shrivelling up completely. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-twenties that I realised I wanted to be a barrister. That resolution gave me the direction and motivation to begin what was likely to be a long and arduous transition from poorly paid ‘unskilled’ worker to member of an unfamiliar and alien profession, via some very expensive qualifications.
I saved up and studied the GDL at my local university, the most cost-effective option. The downside was that I was one of only two people on the course who wanted to be a barrister (rather than a solicitor). My co-aspirant changed his mind half-way through, no doubt in part due to the active discouragement we received from tutors and careers advisors. I fumbled my way through the BPTC (now Bar Training Course) application form, failed — twice — to secure an Inns Scholarship (not that this should discourage anyone: I was truly bad in both interviews), and eventually found myself City Law School. There, the landscape was entirely different. Being around people who had the same dream as me was a real plus. There were so many Pro Bono and other CV-enhancing opportunities to be had, within and beyond the Law School. I took on as much as I humanly could, hoping to gain plenty of relevant experience. City Law School gave me an award for my efforts (the Sibel Dedezade Pro Bono Prize). Post-BPTC, I was lucky enough to secure a Kalisher Trust scholarship for a 4-month internship at the charity JUSTICE, and ended up working there until I started pupillage at Red Lion Chambers in London, where I am now a tenant.
My ‘journey to the Bar’ was definitely a case of trial and error, and not always fun. I spent a year commuting to London by coach, four hours each way, to undertake a job I believed would give me experience and improve my chances of gaining pupillage. Taking weeks off work and staying in hostels to undertake mini-pupillages is not the most glamorous of experiences. But one thing that became very clear as I got closer to my goal was the fact that the Bar (and the wider legal profession) encourages and nurtures aspiring members, including — in fact, especially — those from ‘diverse’ backgrounds. It recognises the value of being itself diverse and if you are from a diverse background you should consider yourself and your experiences not just welcome but valuable and necessary. They are certainly not something you need to hide in order to succeed. I made this mistake with my first, unsuccessful round of pupillage applications. Second and final time round, I was much franker — not for the sake of it, but in order to show how it equipped me with skills and experience beneficial to a criminal barrister.
From the Inns of Court, to organisations such as the Kalisher Trust (www.kalishertrust.org), to individual chambers (for example my chambers runs a year-long mentoring programme for students in partnership with ELBA, and is involved with Bridging the Bar) there are numerous sources of funding and work experience. I would encourage anyone aiming for the Bar to seek out these opportunities, and to apply for them even if you assume the other candidates will be more ‘accomplished’ than you.
Whilst there are still enormous (including financial) hurdles between diverse candidates and pupillage, I see little sign that the Bar (at least the criminal Bar) is stuffy, out of touch or antiquated, as I might once have assumed. It seems to me that the Bar is making a concerted effort to diversify itself, with increasing success.
Zoë Chapman — Red Lion Chambers
