Happy holidays - my final post

Its the end of the year and time for reflection and my final posting on this blog.

When I started this blog it was my intention to blog about my route to becoming a working barrister but as time has passed I have decided that I no longer want to pursue this route. Why is this? its simple - the rejections have taken their toll plus I really don't want to be bothered with the financial uncertainty of aged debt and having to keep everybody happy (clerks, solicitors and clients)

Having fought off bankruptcy (having to appear before the Master from hell at the RCJ was not a happy occasion) and repossession during my BVC year is enough to focus your mind on your finances, I have done poverty and its not a place I will visit again.

If somebody could say I would earn approx £xx in year one and £xx in year two, this would be enough but nobody can say with any certainty how much I would be able to earn, I know of two pupils one is in a criminal set and is not making much money and the other is in a leading set and has guaranteed earnings of £100000 for the next 24 months, this is a wide deviation.

The profession is also changing, the are numerous barristers at the bottom of the pile all trying to take a slice of a very small pie, plus all the people working for peanuts on behalf of LPC, who seem happy to get £27 for a hearing and are under the misapprehension that selling yourself short is going to get you pupillage. The profession will contract and if anything I think there will be a number of Barristers who will seek admission as Solicitors as their work dissipates.

In my humble view the profession is very close to becoming an endangered species, the CPS is performing more advocacy in house, this was in the past where the young Barrister got to cut his teeth, there are far more students who want to enter the profession than the profession can clearly support, the competition for pupillage's has increased as the numbers of available pupillage's have reached an all time low. This is not a popular view but I am now of the opinion that the number of BVC places offered should be cut by 50% and the course condensed into a shorter time frame, as opposed to restricting BVC places to those who have pupillage or a certain classification of degree.

I am currently revising for my QLTT exam which I take in March and will then do my required 24 months of legal work (with a bit of luck the Law Society may give me some discount for the work I have performed for the EHRC) and from thereon I will obtain higher rights, after that who knows :)

In life sometimes you have to compromise and its not something that comes easy, some of you will no doubt say that my goals were unrealistic, the story that follows is why I changed my mind about becoming a working Barrister (obviously the pupillage rejections were also a major contributing factor)

Two years ago I spent a week marshaling for a District Judge, I just so happened to bump into him again at a garage in Cheshire (this was not your typical Ford Garage) a couple of months ago, I was picking up my new car and he said "you must be doing well" I was in a hurry as I had to pick up my little one from school but he said give him a call, so I thought nothing more of it but out of courtesy did give him a call and we went out and got some lunch. I told him about my failing to get pupillage and the devastating effect my BVC year had on my finances and the resulting depression etc, etc. He just turned to me and said "you are 37 years old, I am in my sixty's - You must be doing something right" pointing at my car on the pavement, -we got talking and I told him my plans to transfer back to the bar once I had become a Solicitor and he just said "Don't waste your time, I have been in this game a lot longer than you if you want to be on your feet, just qualify and just go for higher rights, the Junior bar is not a place that you want to be in, lots of little fish looking for crumbs" We then talked about the inevitable and I will clearly make more $$$ as a Solicitor than a Barrister, as the restrictions placed upon me are less onerous than the restrictions placed on Barristers in relation to whom you can set up with in business and the manner in which that business is incorporated and ran on a day to day basis.

In case any of you are wondering the dent to my finances are as follows:

1. Bar Vocational Course fees £8000
2. Loss of earnings £120,000 (based on my average earnings for the 3 years prior to the BVC)
3. Legal costs in respect of repossession proceedings £900
4. Legal costs in respect of bankruptcy proceedings £750
5. Living costs (mortgage, etc, etc) £12000

In respect of my application for pupillage's, the breakdown is follows: 24 Olpas rejections, 29 Non-Olpas rejections. 1 Non Olpas 1st round interview and 1 Non Olpas 2nd round interview.

I wish you all the very best of luck and hope you all find what you are seeking. I would just like to give a final quick thanks to Simon for all his help and advice to LawMinx for bringing a smile to my face when reading her posts and to Troubled Barrister, although TB and I did not see eye to eye all time time he is pretty on the ball most of the time. I will be reading the blogs and may just update this one from time to time.

What I can tell you with certainty is that on new years day I am packing my case and going somewhere hot for a couple of weeks. It been a hell of year.