Ex-barrister re-qualifies as a solicitor

We have previously interviewed a solicitor who moved to the Bar, so we decided to also speak to someone who has done it the other way round.  Three months after his pupillage finished, Robbie Constance decided to make the jump to being an assistant solicitor.  He has now re-qualified and is very positive about the move. 

mtl:  Hi Robbie, tell us about your decision to be a lawyer and why you initially chose the Bar rather than doing a training contract?  

Robbie: I wanted to go to Edinburgh University and there was no point in studying law there, so I did philosophy and politics instead, with a view to converting afterwards.  At the end of my degree I applied to some top ten law firms but felt that they weren’t really for me and that I would instead go the barrister route.  I thought it would suit me well as I am independent, confident, I like speaking, I’m argumentative, and my mother was a barrister briefly, so there was no mystery about it. 

I really enjoyed studying law on the CPE from an intellectual perspective and this reinforced my decision to go to the Bar rather than become a solicitor.  I did a couple of mini-pupillages and was offered a pupillage at 22 Old Buildings, in Lincoln’s Inn.  It is a very friendly, general civil set, albeit not a high profile one, with lots of very able practitioners.

During Bar school I liked what I learnt about the Bar.  I enjoyed the bizarre pomp and ceremony of it, with its antiquated systems and quirks.  I felt that it was a privilege to be joining this world and was confident that it would suit me.  I was called to the Bar in November 2001, shortly after starting my pupillage. There were some sterotypical moments – before even meeting me, I heard my first pupil master growling “where’s my slave?” while walking up the old wooden stairs to our office!

The first six months of my pupillage included determining sentences for burglars and drafting advices on cerebral palsy damages. I spent the second six months, starting ironically at the Edmonton County Court on April Fools’ day 2002, “on my feet” in court, dealing with a mixture of road traffic claims, repossessions, small claims, bankruptcies, and the odd bit of criminal work.  It was fun and varied but each new experience meant something else to stress about.  At the end of my pupillage I “squatted” for a few months as I got on well with the clerks and tenancy wasn’t an option there, while considering what to do next. 

mtl:  What decision did you come to?    

Robbie:  I decided that I didn’t have a future at the Bar, that I was satisfied with this decision and that I was not sad to leave it behind me.  I think that the intellectual intensity required to be a really good barrister at one of the top sets was either beyond me or didn’t in reality suit me.  If you work in a top set, you have to be thinking in a legal context at such a high level for so much of the time and I wasn’t willing to commit to that.  

To work in an average set that couldn’t offer a high-flying career seemed a bit pointless to me, particularly as being a barrister is a lonely, stressful, competitive and repetitive job wherever you do it. Being a barrister involves irregular working hours and financial insecurity.  My first pupil master warned me that there was no point staying with my girlfriend as “marriages never last at the Bar”.  He told me that it takes over your whole life to be a good barrister and that it is very difficult to have a good family life in that sort of environment. 

Basically I was probably not suited to or prepared to go for a high-flying career at the Bar and was not willing to settle for anything less than that. I also realised that I was, in any event, more interested in the commercial side of law and that I wanted to be able to develop client relationships. I went to see a recruitment agent who specialised in moving barristers into law firms and she found me a job at Squire & Co., a small insurance and commercial litigation practice.

mtl:  How was the transition?    

Robbie:  I was given plenty of responsibility at Squire & Co. and had to learn a lot very fast because I had to figure out how to be a solicitor as well as specialising in a new area of law. I picked up the skills but decided that I wanted to be part of a bigger organisation with more support behind me. 

In June 2004 I therefore moved to a highly regarded team at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, where I do professional liability litigation in relation to accountants and the financial services. I work for insurers, who are sophisticated clients who know what they want.  I report on insurance claims to them in a similar way to how barristers advise and it therefore provides plenty of intellectual challenge.

I prefer being a solicitor because I like being part of a team in an office where I work together with colleagues for the same clients.  I like having the support of colleagues, supervisors, trainees and secretaries and I like the fact that the disputes are long-running, high value and interesting. Getting paid every month is preferable to being self-employed in my opinion and I appreciate being able to switch off my computer and my brain and go home at a decent hour.  I didn’t enjoy the inevitable feeling at the Bar of being under-prepared for court - Sunday nights often used to feel like going back to school without having done my homework. 

Of course there are some things that I miss about the Bar, such as running my own time, working when I wanted to, the buzz of being in court, swanning through the RCJ in robes and the charm of the Inns.  However, even when I hear my friends’ war-stories, I do not regret my decision to leave. 

I am also glad that I didn’t have to do a training contract, though I think I would have benefited from doing a corporate seat.  I enjoyed Bar School, whereas I’m told that the LPC is tedious and my pupillage experience was fantastic.  Above all, I’m glad that I have ticked off being a barrister as I had some amazing experiences and may have wondered about it had I not tried it.  I have no thoughts about going back to the Bar and my ambitions are now focused on partnership.   

mtl:  Do you have any comments for barristers thinking of making the switch?    

Robbie:  I found it very easy to move across but then I moved at an early stage in my career. There still seems to be some degree of kudos at law firms for being a barrister.  The key thing for me was adjusting from the mindset of having to deal with something immediately in court the next morning having only just received the papers, to growing with a case over time - sometimes for years.  For the first year I found it hard to take a step back and let the process take its course as I was used to immediate results. The buzz of solicitors’ work is less intense than going to court, but I find that the commercial issues are enough to sustain my interest. 

If you switch to working in a law firm, you can be an employed barrister so long as there is another barrister at the firm with (I think) eight years experience who can be your supervisor.  You have to continue your CPD as a barrister and it can be hard to keep this up in a law firm, particularly the advocacy side of things.

To become a partner in a firm though, you have to be a solicitor, so I cross-qualified by taking the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test.  This was straightforward; it involved only a three-hour exam in accounts and ethics after a week of evening classes at BPP, paid for by the firm. 

My main advice if considering your career at the bar would be to think to yourself whether you are prepared to be a barrister first and foremost?  Are you doing it because your sense of self requires the status of it or because you are doing good, well-paid and interesting work? If it is the former, then think long and hard about whether it is worth the enormous sacrifice just to sound impressive at dinner parties. 

mtl:  Thanks Robbie. 

 If you know any other lawyers who have gone and done something interesting or unusual with their lives or who have a great work/life balance then please get in touch.

WITHIN LAW

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