News / Events

Conflict in the workplace is on the rise and the Bar is no exception. With diaries to manage, difficult colleagues to navigate and competition as fierce as ever, stress levels within the profession remains high. So what can be done to de-escalate conflict and reduce stress? An increasing number of chambers are looking to mindfulness […]

Let’s just take a minute to think about Greta Thunberg. She is the 16-year-old Swede who posted a picture of herself sitting outside Sweden’s parliament building, with a handmade cardboard sign which read, “Skolstrejk för klimatet”. As a result of her dogged determination, there was a climate strike of global proportions on Friday 20th September. […]

Addressing “Wellbeing at the Bar” has become a widely known and talked about concept. Largely in response to the work that The Bar Council has undertaken (not least of all the construction of a Wellbeing website), our chambers decided that a wellbeing “policy” was required. But how do we codify wellbeing? Or a commitment to […]

Real talk. It jolted me when one of my children asked, “What is most important; sleep, work or playtime?” I had to ask myself whether this was a hint that I was neglecting those close to me? That I had succumbed to the insidious grasp of the demands of life at the Bar? Those pressures […]

What would be your deepest fear? Of being alone? Of not being loved? Lack of recognition? This year something happened to me that gave me insight into my worst fear – not being able to communicate. After feeling unwell for a while last year I had a blood test that showed that one of the […]

This weekend I have read two Tweets, each describing what their respective writers, both senior members of the Family Bar, consider to be oppressive and unreasonable judicial behaviour. It is very much a sign of the times (a) that such incidents are occurring and causing sufficient exasperation to lead to publication on Twitter and (b) […]

Recently, I caught up with a friend from university. In the 20 years since we met, he’s pursued a career as an academic scientist. I have become a commercial barrister. Over coffee, my friend was surprised that I was planning on doing a few hours work later that day (a Sunday). He asked when things […]

If someone were to ask me to describe my perfect evening, I can think of no source of greater joy than sitting at home in my pyjamas doing nothing. There are times at the Bar when you feel a tiredness that is so bone-sapping that it permeates every fibre of your being. Yet somehow you […]