Work that I could do

I spent two days last week shadowing a barrister here in London who specializes in corporate insolvency.

On Tuesday, I arrived in Chambers and spent most of the day reading through papers from a recent insolvency case. My task was to prepare an oral argument as if I was representing one of the respondents. It was great fun. I got to read the applicable statutes, witness statements, supporting evidence, and skeleton arguments for the other parties. At the end of the day, I presented my case to the barrister with whom I was sitting, and she told me about how she had approached the case and gave me the judgment to read. My presentation could have been better, I think, if I'd had my laptop (all my notes were scribbled by hand), but I was pleased with the amount of material I'd been able to cover in a comparatively short time.

On Wednesday, I got to go to court. The Companies Court, to be precise. One of the other barristers from Chambers took me with him in the morning to see the Winding-up List. This is where creditors petition for liquidation orders against various companies that haven't paid their debts. I was impressed by the court's efficiency -- they handled over a hundred cases in about an hour and a half, and apparently that was a quiet morning! It worked as follows: about forty barristers in wigs and gowns were seated in rows in front of the judge. The clerk would read out the name of the next case. The barristers concerned would stand. One of them, usually representing a creditor, would petition the judge. Most of the time, he granted the petition immediately. Sometimes, though, he would ask a question or else another barrister, representing the company, would oppose the petition, usually to request more time. Occasionally, a company director would stand in the public gallery and speak to the judge on his own behalf. Because of the speed at which the cases were processed, the courtroom looked a little bit like a life-size version of the gopher game -- barristers popping up and down all over the place, only to be hammered back into their seats by the judge's decisions.

That afternoon, my host took me to court again where she was making some routine applications for time-extensions for companies currently in administration. She thought it was boring, and maybe it was, compared to the rest of her job, but I found her interactions with the judge fascinating. I spent the late afternoon reading and editing a paper she that she's in the process of writing, and before I left, we had a nice chat about training for the bar and other chambers where I might apply for mini-pupillages.

I came away thinking "This is work I could really enjoy!" Barristers seem to have everything I value most in a job: fast-paced work, lots of variety, and plenty of competition to keep them on their toes. At the same time, they're self-employed and have a certain level of control over their schedules. It would also make great use of my research skills.

It'll be interesting to see how the next few years unfold...