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A day in the life of a pupil
Peter Taheri became a tenant in October 2009 after successfully completing his pupillage. He now practises in all of chambers’ main specialisms.
There is no such thing as a typical day in the life of a pupil at 5 Essex Court!
By taking only one or two pupils each year, chambers is able to tailor the pupillage programme to ensure they develop according to their different needs. The events of a typical day will depend on who your supervisor is, what cases they are working on, what practice areas they specialise in and the particular style they have to teach you. Normally, you will have three “seats” during pupillage with a different pupil supervisor specialising in police law, public law and employment or PI law.
Your work will also depend on what stage you are at in the 12 months of your pupillage. You will begin by predominantly shadowing and completing paperwork for your supervisor and as you gain a degree of independence in your second six, you will do more paperwork for other members of chambers and begin to build your own practice, comprising both advisory work and then getting more chances to get on your feet in court. Different pupils will be ready for the next challenge at different points within the year and chambers will adapt to the individual.
At all times, my work was benignly and helpfully overseen (which is certainly comforting, especially in the uncertain early days of the second six!), and I had plenty of access to constructive feedback on my work. Of course, pupillage is about first learning and then gradually showing what you can do, putting into practice what you are learning.
I found pupillage at 5 Essex Court to be challenging, but made enjoyable by my interest in chambers’ practice areas and also by the genuinely friendly people and the unstuffy atmosphere – far from the stereotypes of the Bar. I was never in any doubt: I would be tested, but everyone wanted me to succeed, and people were willing to provide the support needed to ensure that happened, as long as I honoured my side of the bargain. There is, above all, no shortage of goodwill.
So, lengthy preamble aside, what follows is an account of a not atypical, but fictitious, day towards the end of the first six. The cases I mention are fictional but give you a flavour of the sort of work we do.
I arrive at chambers in time for the 9am kick-off and check in with the clerks. I take some coffee on board and have another look at the papers for this morning's case. (I had picked up the key papers the previous day and so I have already started to work out what the case is all about.) At some point in the next half an hour or so, I join the barrister that I am shadowing and we head off to court.
It is a Proceeds of Crime Act forfeiture hearing in a Magistrates Court in outer London. The barrister I am shadowing is at the junior end of chambers, and I am being given a taste of the sort of thing I could be doing myself in a matter of months. The story goes that a teenage boy has been stopped by Police in the street and has been found in the possession of drugs. The police visit the boy's home and find his mother frantically hiding what turns out to be large amounts of cannabis and thousands of pounds of cash. The cash and drugs have been seized. Criminal proceedings have taken place separately and the question for us is what to do with the money. If the police (represented by the barrister I am shadowing) can satisfy the magistrates that the cash is the proceeds of crime, or intended to be used in future crime, then the money will be forfeited.
Before we go into court, we have a brief conference with the officer in the case and new details emerge. I realise that no matter how prepared you are, you always have to be ready to deal with unexpected issues on your feet.
I sit in court and watch the drama unfold. Proceeds of Crime Act cases, while civil, often have a distinctly criminal flavour with colourful evidence and a wide variety of witnesses and this case is no exception. I am pleased to say we are successful and I see for myself the value of thorough preparation and flexibility.
We chat about the events of the morning on our way back, and I bombard the barrister with lots of questions. My first day on my feet is approaching and I am concerned to absorb as much potentially useful information as possible. We arrive back in chambers in time for lunch. Today 5 or 6 members of chambers are gathering in one of the larger rooms to have lunch together, a common occurrence. Those who are there exchange stories of recent victories, comic or dramatic developments in the cases they are involved in, and canvass opinion or seek advice from those with more experience. Again, I try and take in as much as possible!
In the afternoon, I return to my desk in my supervisor's room, having passed 2 or 3 smiling faces on the stairs, all of whom ask me how I am doing and what I am working on. I get back to the first-draft advice that I am writing for a member of chambers about a personal injury caused by a design defect in a spinning stress-relief ball, which is supposed to exercise the hands of the user. As I research the relevant law online, there is a steady stream of members of chambers who all, one after the other, visit my supervisor, a senior member of chambers. They have come to ask about problems they are encountering in their own cases: “How does that work?” “Have you encountered this issue before?” “What would you say in this situation?” “I am thinking of saying... Does that sound reasonable to you?” Each time, my supervisor puts down whatever he was doing at a moment's notice and helps deal with the issue. When the supervisor's own work is not being interrupted by other members of chambers, it is being interrupted by my questions! This is a place where it is second nature for those with more experience unhesitatingly to help and support those with less. I have worked in various offices before, but I have never seen so many people that are so generous with their time. At the same time, the variety of work that I am exposed to is far greater than I expected. Add to this the fact that the people are friendly and are not out to trip me up or catch me out, and I do not feel that I could be at a place better geared to setting the scene so that I can show what I can do.
At about 6pm, my supervisor having ensured that I know what I am supposed to be doing tomorrow (shadowing a senior member of chambers in a human rights case in the Court of Appeal), I pack up for the day. If I am still working away at something, and my supervisor leaves first, I am left with strict instructions that I do not stay for more than another half an hour or so.
As I walk away from chambers, my telephone rings, and it is a friend who is doing pupillage at another chambers, who wants to meet up over a coffee so she can tell me her latest horror story of the day. I head towards the coffee shop, thinking to myself that I am really rather fortunate.