The Barristers

Oh dear. The Barristers, the first episode of which was screened on BBC2 on Friday evening, was intended to demystify the profession and demonstrate to lay people that it wasn't a profession laden with toffs and impenetrable to ordinary folk. As I say, oh dear. Opening scenes in the grand surroundings of Cumberland Lodge and cameras flitting (rather annoyingly I found) around the Dickensian surroundings of Middle Temple. Dinners being put on in the Middle Temple hall with an apparent lavishness that the majority of people will never experience in their lifetime. Lots of stuffy (albeit no doubt very nice) old men poncing around in gowns and adhering to the most alien of customs, including processing in to dinner following a man who bashes a large stick on the floor. It may as well have been a programme about men on mars, so divorced was it from most people's understanding of normality. That's fine, except that this programme was meant, I thought, to portray to the public an impression of the profession which was contrary to the stereotypical impression of stuffyness and elitism.

We were introduced during the first episode to 4 BVC students. One imagines they were chosen to illustrate the diversity of students studying for the Bar. Perhaps the public are expected to be left with the impression that these people are future barristers and that the profession is therefore made up of a diverse cross section of people who everyone can relate to. Let's look at each of them in turn.

We have Cat, the northern lass with a lovely smile, who, incidentally, is an Oxford graduate, albeit with a 2:1. Cat, of course, recognised that most of the tenants at the chambers she was interested in had Oxbridge firsts, masters degrees from anywhere that is anywhere, and had copious amounts of work experience with every worthy organisation on the planet. We see that she gets a VC, which is great, but she is without a pupillage. So, what this tells us is that to date, no chambers has thought that she, an Oxford graduate with a 2:1, is sufficiently inspiring to warrant offering her a place. So she is clearly not typical of the profession then.

Next we have Anna. Bright, bubbly, rather posh. But, she has failed something on her BVC and is unable to be called. She has had at least one pupillage interview but has no pupillage. We do not know what degree she has or from where, except that she did the GDL so she has a first degree in a different discipline. Given her failure of her Civ Lit paper on the BVC and her delay in call, she is clearly no further forward in her pursuit of a career at the Bar. So she, it seems, is not a typical barrister as she hasn't yet got in.

Then we have Iqbal. Again, a bright, enthusiatic chap, and less posh this time. We don't know what degree he has or from where. We do, however, know that he did not win his moot at Middle Temple and that he only got a Competent on the BVC. His prospects are looking less bright. He doesn't yet have a pupillage so he has not yet broken into the profession. So is he typical of the majority of barristers? No.

We'll come to Jo in a minute who is the only one of the four featured students to have secured a pupillage. But first, what of the prospects of the three students already mentioned? Honestly, Cat's prospects of getting into a top commercial set with her qualifications are pretty slim. She'll need a damn good helping of luck if she's going to pull that one off. She'll struggle to get herself through the door and I suspect that even if she does manage to get herself in front of a pupillage committee, she'll probably come across as being significantly less polished than her contemporaries. She'd be better off lowering her horizons and going for a general common law set or heading for a good set in the provinces. The other two? Anna's failed Civ Lit and Iqbal's Competent (without knowing more about their other qualifications) could well present huge obstacles to their future careers at the independent Bar.

Now there's Jo. A 32 year old career changer who has secured a pupillage. We don't know anything of her academics but we do know she won her moot at Middle Temple and she got a VC. She was also the most earnest and aloof of the students featured and perhaps the one who most fitted the stereotypical impression of what a barrister would be like. I don't mean this as a criticism of her. She is clearly a very determined and driven individual and has done incredibly well to achieve what she has. However, she is much more in the typical mould of a barrister anyway, whereas the other three are not. Of the four students featured Jo is the one who it is least surprising has succeeded in obtaining a pupillage. The really interesting exercise would be to see all of the BVC graduates who did get pupillage offers that year and see if they conformed to the stereotypes with which the Bar is so commonly associated.

So, has this series done anything to alter the public's perception of the Bar? I rather doubt it. If anything I suspect it may well have re-inforced it. There are lots of other aspects of the programme I could talk about, but it's Sunday morning and I have stuff to do. However, I would just note that whilst the other more senior barristers featured were again, not necessarily conforming to the "Etonian" stereotype, they did little to disabuse the lay viewer of the notion that the Bar is an exclusive little world which admits only limited people. I am hoping that the remaining episodes will do more to counteract this impression, but the reality is that they can only portray what is there to portray. Oh dear...