OU on the BBC: The Barristers - Programme 4

I think that the most important change which could be made to the Bar concerns the manner in which barristers are trained, and the system of pupillage. There are two principles which need to be adopted. Firstly, the costs of education, from the first year of university study right through until the end of pupillage, should be covered by a loan system on the model of the current scheme as it applies to undergraduates. The loan should be at 0% interest, only repayable once the barrister starts to earn more than £15,000 p.a., as is the case for other students. This would involve a longer period of study than is the case with normal students, and a much larger loan, but it seems, to me, to be the most equitable solution. Secondly, it would be desirable for the Bar to find a way of training its future members which is analogous to the medical profession. Once a Doctor is qualified, s/he can work as a junior doctor, a houseman, then a registrar, before becoming a consultant. Once a barrister is qualified, has passed the BVC, and done a year, or perhaps two, as a pupil then s/he must be able to work, on the basis of decent remuneration, in some capacity which will serve the Law. This is where the State could come into play, allowing fully qualified junior barristers to work for the CPS, and the State Defence Service, or in government departments, for a guaranteed period of time, say seven years, while they applied for a place in Chambers. In the medical profession, those who do not become consultants by the time they are 35-40 are not going to make the grade. A similar position applies in the armed forces; if you are not a major by the time you are 35 then you should start thinking about doing something else for the rest of your career. If a fully qualified barrister cannot get a place in Chambers after seven years of work on the lines which I have suggested, then they should think about another line of work.

However, while this change would address some of the problems currently associated with training to be a barrister, it remains vital to defend the independence of the Bar from excessive state intervention. This is a difficult balance to get right but, following Aristotle, surely we are capable of striving to achieve the ‘golden mean’, in the Law of all places! Aristotle was a great philosopher of justice, one of our first ‘professors’ of jurisprudence, we should take him as our exemplum, our primus inter pares.

I would broaden the access to training by creating a pool of new incumbents from which Chambers can draw randomly or for the sake of the pupils in rotation.

This would provide a broader training and whilst waiting in the pool I would introduce a system of legal assitance from the pool for the general public to access. Fee to support the pupils can be drawn from all chambers and some minor fee from the legal assistance.

Perhaps some form of paralegal work could also be introduced.

This aspect I believe would eliminate the uncertainty faced once being called.