Geeklawyer received the following tearful missive from a prospective entrant to the Bar.
“=rant=
I read the news today about Blackstones’ senior Clerk quitting today with absolute incredulity, not because of his circumstances (obviously) but because I learned in the same article that Blackstone were hiring out their rookies at £150 a day. For fucks sake, I thought I was the lemming.
I might not know much about Law yet but I do know about business. And when an industry that is under huge threat from all kinds of external influences begins undercutting itself things begin to look pretty desperate. It is the act of a dying man who has lost all hope. Christ it makes me angry: I may be hopelessly naive but I happen to believe that the Bar is the only thing standing between us as free members of a (barely) just world and the ravaging spectres of a government trying to politicise justice, big business trying to buy justice and an increasingly corrupt and incompetent solicitors profession seeking (and lets face it: winning) to replace the Bar entirely. This is hardly contentious, so why oh why are some of our more prominent representatives handing it to them on a plate? Are these, for want of a better word, utter cunts really so spineless? Or maybe they are just despairing that the 3 afore-mentioned spectres are taking too long about finishing us off? Ghaaaa…I remember after the dot-com crash the spoof pictures of tramps walking around wearing “will code html for food” boards. I anticipate seeing 4 New Square fly-posters on lampposts declaring “Will prove negligence for chips” before the week’s out.
=end rant=I hear Ruthie is similarly a bleeding-heart liberal too: I would be interested to hear her take on events also but note that her excellent blog does not invite contact.”
Geeklawyer thinks you have him wrong: bleeding heart would describe his gastronomic rather than political preferences.
The pimping of younger members of chambers is hardly a new thing: Geeklawyer recalls a decade or so ago one set of chambers punting its pupils out to a City law firm for £25 an hour, on condition of the very greatest secrecy. The astonishing thing here is the idea of anyone at Blackstone’s, however junior, working for £150/day. In my day Blackstone’s was the elite chambers: if you had a photo of Prince Charles sucking off an aide called Tap and your silence was bought on the promise of a pupillage at a chambers of your choice Blackstone’s was where you’d choose. Geeklawyer has an intellectually intimidating friend there.
Calling solicitors corrupt and incompetent is totally wrong: Geeklawyer may never wish to be one but he doesn’t question their integrity. The main issue with the Bar is the assaults upon it of the government and the changing structure of the UK legal sector.
As I...
Ah GL: the original bleeding heart liberal I was referring to was me, I never imagined that you’d never admit such a thing :p
You’re right: my criticism of the solicitors was ill-done and unwarranted. Apologies all, it can be a damn fine profession. I guess it came from a fear that one of the key ways solicitors maintained integrity was by having a strong distinction between the 2 professions, with the barrister ideally acting as a check on the solicitor handling the case. As the distinction blurs then so this integrity must be called into question. After all, when in the hands of a bad solicitor who else is going to advise the end client tat they’re in trouble?
This is really secondary to my main argument though, which is that any weakness or infighting within the Bar is tantamount to conceding defeat. Lets not give up just yet, eh?
did you put rant at the start of the post just for first-time visitors? or the terminally dim?
so do i, as a barrister in waiting, kick against the pricks and do crime, or accept that it’s pointless and specialise in eu?
If you get any choice, and you may not be lucky enough to get a choice, Do EU. If only for the novelty of being able to pay the mortgage off, which I understand is all the rage nowadays among young people.
not young - and not doing this just for money (note just) tho do have 2 kids to feed. but i do like the capacity of eu to confer benefits of real importance that individuals can use. also the feeling it’s a pretty fresh area that is developing really quickly (as he eyes up the 30+K offered for pupillage). also don’t mind media or soft ip (from a previous 20 year career in the arts) but would like a more obviously social relevance to my law.
“i do like the capacity of eu to confer benefits of real importance that individuals can use.”
Aren’t you better off becoming an MEP? No barrister I’ve ever met has appeared to have “benefiting society” at the top of their priority chain, and the need to bring in fees is kind of important.
Dear Cynic. I am horrified you know me so well and yet you can make such a statement
Hurt I am - hurt.
“Her excellent blog does not invite comment.”
Thanks for the compliment, but we’re like the Mafia over at Ruthie’s law: you don’t find us, we find you…
“Excellent”? Well, yea, VMs post’s are good if invariably wrong I’ll grant; but Ruthie is crap, which is why I booted her off this blog.