Practical advice for new Barristers.

I have been to my fair share of talks where they gave little to no practical advice beyond “Be yourself” and “Enjoy it”. You probably shouldn’t be yourself for a few years and you certainly won’t enjoy it till you find your feet. This advice is designed to help you find your feet and is designed to be purely practical in nature. If any of this comes across as patronising bear in mind that this is all advice I needed during the first two months or so. If you can survive the first two months you will be able to figure everything else out for yourself. If you think I’m treating you like idiots- this is the advice I needed, so I was that idiot.

1. The golden rule of devilling is accept everything that is offered to you. You shouldn’t feel guilty as you will spend more money on other people’s devils than is ever spent on you. One way to get a free pint is to offer to buy one for any more senior colleague, they will feel morally obligated to get you one instead. Don’t try that one out on me as I will take you up on it.
2. There is no problem you can cause in your first few weeks that your master cannot fix. Probably.
3. The best thing to say in your master’s consultation is nothing. Don’t speak unless asked to.
4. Always have a pen and paper.
5. Buy a diary to cover the few weeks before you get your law library diary
6. Break your robes in early. Gents in particular. This is the one place in the world where men take longer to get dressed than women. Changing collars takes longer than you expect, particularly when they are new and starchy. Break your collars in before term starts. I don’t use the back stud but I am told by those that do that a tea spoon is handy for putting it in. The first time I tried to put on my collar I was in a rush and tried to robe in court whilst hiding behind the biggest barrister I could find.
7. Don’t robe in court.
8. If you plan on wearing your wig, no fringes showing.
9. Comfortable shoes you can run in, and stand in for long periods of time are an absolute necessity. As long as they look appropriate for court no one will care. The bar is not a fashion show.
10. Another necessity is a mobile phone with access to email, courts.ie and Irish statute book. You will need these on the go. There is no signal in most of the ground floor courts in the CCJ. There is a little signal near the door and interpreters box in court 5. Flexibility is one of your most needed strengths and this is the best tool in your arsenal.
11. Get used to running in robes. Gowns frequently get caught on door handles and may sweep you off your feet. You will see many colleagues whose gowns bear the scars of this. When you are moving in robes it is best to tuck them to your sides with your elbows.
12. Get used to running generally. Get some exercise in before term, it will help with stress and you will have to get used to moving quickly covering courts for your master. In my first few weeks I was so exhausted I regularly went to bed at 7 in the afternoon. There is a bar running club which is a good way to make contacts.
13. On the topic of clothes, dress modestly and appropriately. Visible cleavage will be frowned on, particularly if you are a gentleman. Always wear a suit in the library. Ladies- skirts below the knee, dressing otherwise will result in cheap jokes about solicitors getting into your briefs, not you getting into theirs. The law library and the courts are a very serious work place and should be treated appropriately. People may behind your back or even to your face if you are not dressed appropriately.
14. If you don’t know already, learn how to use a printer and photocopier. Ticking collate will save you a lot of time if you are printing off multiples of a case. Printing a pdf takes longer than printing a word document on our printers. You will need to put your white card on the printer to print off.
15. Nearly everyone forgets their cards on printers at some stage on those so try and get any cards you do find back to their owner, if you don’t see their owner give them to reception. Others will do the same for you.
16. If you see someone in robes printing or taking out books, give them priority as they are probably in court and things are a bit more urgent.
17. Learn how to use courts.ie Irish statute book Justis and westlaw. Courts.ie for lists and unreported judgements. Irish statutebook for statutes and current awareness and Justis for Irish reports. You can print off pdfs of cases from there.
18. Setting up a whatsapp group and facebook group generally is a good idea Whatsapp is particularly useful for civil devils to monitor lists. It’s still worth your while hanging out in court though to get a feel on how things work.
19.  Another good idea is taking down any Facebook profile picture in wig and gown and changing your name if possible. You don't want your clients to be able to find you, no matter how entertaining their statuses might be.
20. There are copies of the Court 5 list printed off every morning and left at the front desk. Get used to how the list works- if something has been left to second call that means it has been put back. Each court has its own order the list will be taken in but you will need to know Court 5’s in most detail as this is where you will do most of your work if you are devilling in crime.
21. The Library staff are your new best friends, they can help you with a lot more than books. You will need the IT staff to set you up on the print network. You will also need to have your blue card activated by the security staff to enter the CCJ library and cells.
22. Your clients are not your friends. They are on their best behaviour in court, less so in town. Do not under any circumstances approach them outside court for any reason, even if you got them a good result. I was told that if a client ever enters a pub, that’s your signal to leave. You will frequently see regular clients in town.
23. There is a devils handbook filled with good advice and handy precedents. Never have it in court. I did once and had a solicitor approach me with a client only to have him turn around and tell the client “hang on till we get you a real barrister” when he saw it.
24. Don’t cross in front of the front bench in the High court or any higher court. You may be rebuked for this by the judge, if the judge doesn’t a colleague will. The old saying goes, never walk behind a horse or in front of a senior.
25. As a general rule of thumb refer to the court as Judge, NEVER your honour.
26. Another general rule of thumb, if you don’t know how to make an application simply ask for it. Can I have X should do.
27. Second call is your friend if anything goes complicated.
28. A section 56 order is an order for the videos of interview, an arraignment is somebody pleading guilty, a mention is the case is in for a particular reason or just generally. Never hand an arraignment over or do it yourself without your master’s permission. This is the most lucrative part of the case.
29. You are eligible for legal aid work after 6 months. However your solicitor is the one who receives legal aid in the district court, so you can do district court legal aid work from day 1.
30. The forms to apply for legal aid can easily be found online and any colleague will help you with them.
31. Generally your master’s work takes precedence over your own, but if it is just covering court 5 then there will always be someone who can stand in for you. Run it by your master if you can do it.
32. In your first year or two your clients will often know more criminal procedure than you do.
33. When you start getting cases of your own always run them past another colleague, particularly if you are in a new court. The worst that can happen is they will tell you what you are doing is right. Perhaps they might tell you it is wrong, or can be done in a better way, or is technically correct but this particular judge prefers it in a particular way.
34. The question of whether or not you should work for “dodgy” solicitors for experience and exposure is subject to endless debate in the library. In my experience it’s rarely the exposure you want and you get better experience watching others run hearings. Your master may disagree, there are as many opinions on this as there are members of the library.
35. After you finish your own district court work you will need to do up a report called a return. Any colleague will help you in doing this. This should be given to your solicitor on the same day.
36. District Court practise is very different to what you will learn from your master.
37. It is not appropriate that I say it here but any colleague will advise you what the legal aid rates are for district court work.
38. You have the same right to be paid as any senior. Any work you do has value. Plus if it is legal aid work the solicitor is definitely getting paid anyway.
39. Collegiality is not just some ideal, it goes to the heart of what we do at the bar. If it wasn’t for my colleagues help I would be long gone by now. You will see that most of my advice has been ask for help. Never be afraid to ask any colleague, no matter how senior, for help. Never refuse to help any colleague. I learned this on my first week when a senior asked me for help on a legal point I had researched, something which admittedly has yet to ever happen again.
40. In your first while most of the work you will get will not be from your master but from friends a few years ahead of you in the bar.
41. Make friends with people a few years ahead of you in the bar.
42. We always refer to each other by first name.
43. You argue in court, not with the court.
44. If you are in first year and have a speciality listed on the bar website be wary of solicitors who you have never heard of ringing you out of the blue to do something in that aread. It may be a land mine of a case.
45. If you have language English (Fluent) listed on the bar website then people will laugh (Fluent) at you.
46. Never comment on a case on social media, either your own or others. Your own may be a breach of ethics and others may be Sub Judice which is a form of contempt. It’s also not very classy.
47. Bar social events and clubs are a great way to meet colleagues who you might otherwise not meet. Many have trips which should be subsidised by your master. They are a good way to blow off steam, this job is very stressful and you will need to find some outlet.
48. Gossip is the currency of the bar, take care it is not about you. The sheds can be a dangerous place. Incidentally 99% of the stories told there that begin with the phrase “I was in Court” are not worth telling. If you ever do hear salacious damaging gossip, do the decent thing and tell it to me.
49. If you can master all of this then you can probably get through to the point where you have learned enough to learn more yourself. Then you can be yourself and enjoy it.
50. 50 is a good number to end a list on.