Dear Judge,
I love your column! Thank you for sprinkling so freely the gold-dust you gleaned during your distinguished years at the Bar. I wonder if I may ask you please, if you could be kind enough to pass on any tips you may be able to share to help one through the agonising throes of pupillage? Also, should you find the time, now you’re not sitting, to produce a Surviving Pupillage pack for purchase, I’m sure it would be a game changer.
Best wishes, Maisie
Dirty Rotten Law Judge replies:
Dear Maisie,
As a young barrister I recall well reading David (now Lord) Pannick’s wonderful book ‘Advocates’ in which he refers to a quote which I believe is ascribed to Lord Bowen, describing Bowen’s far from fabulous early days training as a pupil barrister at Lincoln's Inn: "The whitewashed misery of the pupil's room ... so bitter is the thought of it that death itself can hardly be more bitter."
It seems pupillage back in the day was not all that it could be, but far from putting off anyone thinking of joining the Bar, I am pleased to say that pupillage today has improved somewhat for most aspiring barristers since the late nineteenth century. I almost said ‘young’ aspiring barristers in that last sentence, but in fact the age of pupils is gradually increasing so I’m told, perhaps a reflection on why bringing life experience to the Bar is highly considered by most sets of chambers. After all, if I were fighting for my children, my freedom or my livelihood, I probably wouldn’t want a spotty youth in a wig turning up to represent me, even though I was once a spotty youth too.
Pupillage, of course, is no more than an apprenticeship, but with a name designed to make it sound like something more special, which frankly it is not. So for every apprentice everywhere, my top tip is to maintain enthusiasm at all times. There will be happy moments, sad moments, moments of reflection and moments where you realise with awe why you have put yourself through such a gruelling process of education and training to reach your goals, and of course that goal will be ever closer as each day passes. One final tip for pupils, a new wig can look out of place in a court robing room, so flicking cigarette ash on it and kicking it around a bit can give it that patina of maturity so many of us search for so earnestly in our early years.
Finally, as far as the Pupillage pack you mentioned is concerned, I hope that both the wonderful letters I respond to here and my reflections in The Judge blog will serve as precisely the legal survival kit all wonderful legal people will need, at the very least to wear a smile each and every day.
