Teaching Bar students to become competent barristers is a huge responsibility. It goes far beyond the skills and knowledge subjects that all good Bar Providers deliver. At the ICCA, we set out to introduce competences that we hope will prepare students fully for what lies ahead. At the same time, we are ever mindful of […]
I need help
Barristers inherently face very specific challenges on a daily basis. If you need some help click on support to find contact details and advice on seeking support.
The professional lives of clerks and chambers’ staff include many potential stressors. If you don’t know how to broach an issue, want advice on your options.
These resources have been designed specifically for those who have completed their BPTC and for pupils up to tenancy.
Resources
Guidance on how to introduce wellbeing policies and initiatives and on tackling a wellbeing issue in chambers.
Examples of successful wellbeing initiatives adopted by chambers, Specialist Bar Associations and the Inns of Court.
Support
Who to talk to, how to get help in coping with the pressures and demands of life at the Bar.
Who to talk to and how to get help, resources are for clerks and staff themselves.
Support for students and pupils
Who to talk to and how to get help for those who have completed their BPTC and for pupils up to tenancy.
The confidential 24/7 helpline with access to counselling for barristers, pupils, clerks and chambers’ staff.
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News
A barrister and a clerk in conversation about wellbeing …
This blog is partly a tribute to one of my clerks, Nancy, who has been a real champion of wellbeing in chambers. It also contains some musings from the two of us about how to have conversations in chambers about wellbeing. At the beginning of last year, I felt completely overwhelmed by events in in […]
Navigating grief: one barrister’s perspective
This is my experience of grief. It may not be the same as yours. Grief of a partner, sibling or child I would suspect would look very different. I don’t propose to have the answers in the below, but hope that this blog will assist you and supporting others at the Bar who are dealing […]
Wellbeing at the Bar Chair’s Blog 2022: The Action Plan
…we now have data to empirically measure the mental health of the Bar. It will come as no surprise to hear that the results were low in the happiness thermometer. Rewind to 3 years (that feels more like 10 years ago at the moment) in 2019 when the founder and Chair of this committee, Rachel […]
In praise of team sports
This is a blogpost in praise of team sports. In my case it has been hockey, but I am sure it would be the same with football or any other team sport or club activity. I used to play hockey at school and university, but stopped playing after that, about twenty years ago, with the […]
The M-Word
In days gone by our mothers and grandmothers may have mentioned it in hushed tones while men rolled their eyes. It’s been a long time coming but finally we are seeing more and more women openly talk about it. Yip the menopause actually, and more appropriately, the peri-menopause, because ladies that is where it starts. […]
Kindness and the Bar
Rolled out across the Bar and judiciary we might even get kindness to rule the world… In the book ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’, by Harper Lee, a neighbour tells the lawyer Atticus Finch’s children, “there are some men in this world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father’s […]
Pupillage: Are we being fair telling Bar students that they will eventually succeed?
Pupillage is hard-fought. This year’s competition for pupillage has been like no other. 3,301 aspiring barristers applied for 246 pupillages advertised through pupillage gateway (total number of pupillages overall was 435 in May 2021). Some sets of Chambers offered funding to publicly funded sets to enable them to offer pupillages that might not otherwise have […]