The Training Contract& Pupillage Handbook

2014The Essential Law Careers Guide

THE TRAINING CONTRACT & PUPILLAGE HANDBOOK564

Chancery

Chancery work is split into two areas: traditional and commercial chancery litigation. Traditional chancery includes trusts, probate, real property and tax, while commercial chancery covers a wide range of finance and business disputes. Chancery work often has an international dimension, relating to asset tracing, cross-border insolvency and offshore trusts.

For most of his time as a student at the University of Oxford, Leon Pickering was more interested in Beowulf (the Anglo-Saxon epic, not the Ray Winstone-voiced box office flop) than barristers: “For some time I had no idea at all that I was going to end up at the Bar. At school I had a vague, TV-influenced idea that there is a special type of lawyer who stands up in criminal trials and wears a wig, but I had no idea at the time that barristers also did civil work. It was through talking to people at university that I started to find out more.”

After graduating, Leon carried on studying for a two-year medieval master’s before converting to law via the GDL and BPTC. He also boosted his chances of securing pupillage (not to mention his confidence) through some legal work experience. “Mini-pupillages are really important,” Leon explains. “It’s not necessary to do loads of them, but it’s good to get on a few because they are a great way to get a feel for the atmosphere and work areas at different sets. There would be nothing worse than scrapping for pupillage, finally getting there and then realising that you want to do something different.”

These experiences – along with some stellar credentials – helped to make Leon an attractive prospect to the country’s top sets. He landed a pupillage with Ten Old Square and immediately found himself acclimatising to the challenging nature of life at the Bar. “Pupillage was a tough year; there’s no way around that,” he says, “but the overall

experience was great. I felt very welcome and was treated as a true member of chambers from the outset. The level of work and responsibility with which I was entrusted slowly ratcheted up over the course of the year, which prepared me well for tenancy. Even as a very junior tenant, you are thrust in and have to call the shots. You might be telling solicitors with 30 years of experience what to do, which is fantastic – if also slightly terrifying! The work that I did as a pupil tended to be short-term, one-off applications and tasks. Today I’m involved in cases that go on for much longer and am often instructed as sole counsel for the duration of a claim, right from pre-action to judgment.”

Now a tenant at Ten Old Square – a set covering a broad range of chancery work – Leon often focuses on the private client side, frequently dealing with wills and trusts as well as property matters. The balance between paperwork and time in court is what drew Leon to this practice area: “I came to the legal profession from a very academic background, so research-heavy areas of law really appealed to me. In private client chancery work, there is a great mix of interesting, complex law to get my teeth into that nonetheless still involves working with individuals rather than large corporations. Most inheritance disputes, for example, are between family members and are therefore coloured by their relationships, so my legally heavy work is very much grounded in the day-to-day human world.”

The critical thinking and methodical approach honed at university has certainly stood Leon in good stead at the Bar. “Circumstances differ from case to case and I tend to do a good mix of court hearings and office-based work, which can range from producing written advice to drafting pleadings, wills or deeds of trust,” he explains. “However, the methodology remains largely the same: when instructions

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565BARRISTERSSign up at www.LawCareers.Net/MyLCN

Name: Leon PickeringChambers: Ten Old Square ChambersUniversity: University of OxfordUndergraduate degree: Medieval English

come in, I immediately go through them to identify what the issues might be, research any complicated points and think of ways to solve the problems my clients face. Barristers need good lateral thinking skills.”

A couple of key factors sum up why Leon enjoys working at the Bar so much: “I am in the privileged position to have a fascinating insight into the lives of my clients and also enjoy being essentially self-employed. The autonomy that I have is great – though I am bound by my work diary, subject to the demands of my clients and the control of my clerks.”

Of course, being subject to an ever-changing diary has one obvious downside. “The worst aspect of working at the Bar is what it does to your social life,” says Leon. “Barristers are famously flaky; you can arrange your party or night out perfectly, only for some last-minute instructions to come in – friends tend to understand, though.”

When pondering the future of the chancery Bar, Leon suggests that the supply of work should remain relatively secure: “Chancery is often considered to be counter-cyclical; the amount of insolvencies, for example, increases during times of economic hardship. People don’t stop dying, so inheritance disputes remain constant or even become more common during times in which people are having more financial problems.” Nonetheless, impending changes to the costs budgeting rules are something to be aware of: “Getting the hang of these new rules will be particularly difficult for commercial and chancery work, because cases in these areas are often very long-running and complex. The idea of drawing up a costs figure for a case that might only get to court four years from now is daunting. However, the revision of costs budgets may provide a new source of work for junior entrants to the profession.”

Leon is much more concerned about the outlook for the wider Bar in the face of cuts and widely disputed proposals to introduce lowest-bidder tendering for criminal barristers: “The big issue at the moment is the cuts to legal aid, which will have an impact on the whole profession. It may not seem like this will have a direct effect on the chancery Bar, but what might happen to the criminal Bar is very worrying for everyone. A huge number of barristers do criminal work and it’s uncertain what they will choose to do if and/or when all these cuts are implemented. Many may leave the Bar; many may move into chancery work. I have friends who are criminal barristers who cannot see how they will be able to afford to work at the Bar any more.”

For those undaunted by this uncertainty and the highly competitive nature of the Bar, Leon has some advice regarding the skills and characteristics that you will need to succeed: “Self-motivation is key; barristers are self-employed and, unless you’re lucky enough to be led on a big case, there won’t be anyone to tell you what to do from week to week. Something to really work on is projecting an air of confidence, even when you’re not feeling confident. As a junior barrister going to court, you’ll often be meeting your client for the first time. You’ll then have 30 minutes in which to chat to them, explain the situation and inspire them to have confidence in you – without coming across as arrogant.”

You will also need to be prepared to roll with the punches in court, which is difficult to master, as Leon explains: “Having come to the Bar straight from academia, it was a bit of a shock to have judges interrupting me. I was used to presenting to an audience that would wait until I had finished to launch their awkward questions. However, although it was a shock to start with, I now absolutely relish the cut and thrust.”

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