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I am the youngest child of a large Irish family raised in England. While it seems strange to say it nowadays, I felt a strong sense that we were outsiders, separated by both culture and faith, as well as being anomalous in the sheer number and variety of the family members.
My father was in the Merchant Navy and had been on convoys in the Second World War which, no doubt, impacted him more than we ever realised. His temporary episodes of what might now be recognised as depression were leavened by a very keen sense of humour, which was usually directed at someone displaying pomposity or insincerity. Although not formally educated after the age of 15, at which age he went to sea, he was a highly intelligent and well-read man and was very proud when a child of his became a barrister; something he considered ‘unimaginable’ when he was growing up in poverty in what is now a very ‘chichi’ part of London.
My mother resembled Pride and Prejudice’s Mrs Bennet in so many ways (including her ambitions for her children), and I feel very much the repository of her ambition and encouragement.
The third key influential figure was my eldest sister Mary who, by the time I arrived (when she was a teenager), was already exhibiting the signs of mental ill health which have blighted her whole life. Her experiences have, I hope, made all the family a bit more tolerant and compassionate, and it provides me with an empathy with clients and witnesses who need help navigating a way through situations they did not choose but which have significant consequences.
I knew I wanted a profession, and for a time was undecided between law and medicine. I was fortunate enough to be offered a place at medical school before deciding the law was for me after all.
I was very fortunate to gain a place at UCL, and I am sure it has stood me in good stead. Unlike some of my fellow students, I had no contacts in the law and felt the lack of this advantage keenly. So much so, that in my first summer holiday I walked around the City of London knocking on doors offering my services as a law student. It was my great good fortune to knock on the door of ‘Andrew Keenan Solicitors’ which had some of the leading criminal defence work in London (the Brinks Mat Case being one of them) and was willing to take a punt. Andrew offered me some holiday work clerking a case at Inner London Crown Court. To my immense good fortune, the cream of the London criminal Bar happened to be co-defending in a conspiracy to print counterfeit currency. This was an education in itself, and gave me the bug I have not been able to shake off all these years later. Reflecting over the last 30 years, and looking forward to the next stage, I can clearly see a number of things which have been pivotal to my personal and professional development.
Those days working at the solicitors’ firm and meeting the barristers at court gave me my first taste of mentorship; an essential component of success in most professions and key at the Bar.
My Inn (Middle Temple) provided me with fellowship from day one. I am still friends with the young man I met at the introductory tea party in Hall who deservedly went on to greater and better things (HHJ Andrew Jefferies KC), changing the law along the way, and the lovely woman I shared a room with at my first Cumberland Lodge weekend (Bozzie Sheffi) who gives me wise counsel to this day.
The Inn also provided me with funds to attend the South Eastern Circuit Florida Advocacy Training Program (sic), the English delegation for that year was being led by Tim Dutton (now KC) and his family. It was my first exposure to advocacy training, and as it was all videoed I therefore have tangible evidence of warm and encouraging trainers coaxing something out of my wooden and stilted advocacy. There are, no doubt, many of my clients grateful for the skill of these (and subsequent) trainers.
That trip gave Tim the idea that we should be doing something of like kind in the UK. With the support of the Leader of the South Eastern Circuit, the then David Penry-Davey QC, he set up the now renowned Keble Advanced Advocacy Course which is still going strongly thirty years later.
Around that time Michael Sherrard QC set up Middle Temple Advocacy, and made a point of encouraging young barristers to become involved as trainers. Being an advocacy trainer is one of my great joys – nothing like watching people’s confidence bloom and confidence build.
I harboured secret dreams of being an actor, but lacked confidence to try until a colleague directed a play for the Bar Theatrical Society and cast me in When We are Married with David Etherington, Alex Chalk (whatever happened to them...) and the matchless Rachel Lawrence, who bore her lifelong illness with courage and grace. That and subsequent productions have balanced a busy professional life and generated endless fun!
It is no secret that life at the Bar is a challenge in all sectors, and the self-employed publicly funded Bar especially so. As a result, it was a great relief to attend the first Temple Women’s Forum and not to feel alone. A golden opportunity came around that time in the form of the ‘Wellbeing at the Bar’ initiative, created by Rachel Spearing and the Bar Council’s Sam Mercer with the support of each of the Inns of Court and full buy-in from the Institute of Barristers’ Clerks. Examining the daily stresses of life at the Bar brought both insight and increased self-care, surely of increasing importance as the pressures seem to compound year on year.
My involvement with Wellbeing at the Bar dovetailed with work the Inn was doing in developing the ‘Survive and Thrive’ Programme which seeks to innovate outside ‘black letter law’ subjects. It is in its 10th year, and until the start of last year, I had the privilege of chairing the working group which charts the future of the enterprise.
It is no secret that being a woman at the Bar means we have to work ‘twice as hard to be thought half as good’. Financial data also reflects the ‘pay gap’ across all sectors – bar media and entertainment law. I am not sure that the rate of change is anywhere near where we need to be. That is something reflected across all professions albeit more widely acknowledged than when I first started out.
More than 30 years in and my work diet is mainly serious sex work, which is technical, relentlessly demanding and high stakes. Since the pandemic, the number of barristers willing to prosecute or defend in these cases has fallen, while demand has increased. Accordingly, it is possible (if you are not careful) to do ‘back-to-back’ rape cases. Fortunately, my clerks have a sympathetic attitude to the wellbeing of their counsel, so there are also ‘respite’ cases, which are less emotionally charged and allow a period of recovery.
Looking back from this end of the telescope, all the shaping influences are still at play: my father with his people skills and work ethic; my mother with her ambition and maternal instincts; the injustice of a life frustrated; mentors and fellowship, passing on skills learned to the next generation; wellbeing, fun and frivolity – all coming together to build the resilience needed for life at the Bar.
I hope this article might be of assistance to people coming to the Bar who may feel that they are ‘outsiders’, or who lack connections or (worse) confidence. It is possible to navigate your way through all these obstacles using the key skills of resourcefulness and resilience.
Louise McCullough is a senior junior practising from Deka Chambers in crime (both prosecuting and defending). She is a Bencher of the Hon Society of Middle Temple and is interested in mentoring and wellbeing among other things.
I am the youngest child of a large Irish family raised in England. While it seems strange to say it nowadays, I felt a strong sense that we were outsiders, separated by both culture and faith, as well as being anomalous in the sheer number and variety of the family members.
My father was in the Merchant Navy and had been on convoys in the Second World War which, no doubt, impacted him more than we ever realised. His temporary episodes of what might now be recognised as depression were leavened by a very keen sense of humour, which was usually directed at someone displaying pomposity or insincerity. Although not formally educated after the age of 15, at which age he went to sea, he was a highly intelligent and well-read man and was very proud when a child of his became a barrister; something he considered ‘unimaginable’ when he was growing up in poverty in what is now a very ‘chichi’ part of London.
My mother resembled Pride and Prejudice’s Mrs Bennet in so many ways (including her ambitions for her children), and I feel very much the repository of her ambition and encouragement.
The third key influential figure was my eldest sister Mary who, by the time I arrived (when she was a teenager), was already exhibiting the signs of mental ill health which have blighted her whole life. Her experiences have, I hope, made all the family a bit more tolerant and compassionate, and it provides me with an empathy with clients and witnesses who need help navigating a way through situations they did not choose but which have significant consequences.
I knew I wanted a profession, and for a time was undecided between law and medicine. I was fortunate enough to be offered a place at medical school before deciding the law was for me after all.
I was very fortunate to gain a place at UCL, and I am sure it has stood me in good stead. Unlike some of my fellow students, I had no contacts in the law and felt the lack of this advantage keenly. So much so, that in my first summer holiday I walked around the City of London knocking on doors offering my services as a law student. It was my great good fortune to knock on the door of ‘Andrew Keenan Solicitors’ which had some of the leading criminal defence work in London (the Brinks Mat Case being one of them) and was willing to take a punt. Andrew offered me some holiday work clerking a case at Inner London Crown Court. To my immense good fortune, the cream of the London criminal Bar happened to be co-defending in a conspiracy to print counterfeit currency. This was an education in itself, and gave me the bug I have not been able to shake off all these years later. Reflecting over the last 30 years, and looking forward to the next stage, I can clearly see a number of things which have been pivotal to my personal and professional development.
Those days working at the solicitors’ firm and meeting the barristers at court gave me my first taste of mentorship; an essential component of success in most professions and key at the Bar.
My Inn (Middle Temple) provided me with fellowship from day one. I am still friends with the young man I met at the introductory tea party in Hall who deservedly went on to greater and better things (HHJ Andrew Jefferies KC), changing the law along the way, and the lovely woman I shared a room with at my first Cumberland Lodge weekend (Bozzie Sheffi) who gives me wise counsel to this day.
The Inn also provided me with funds to attend the South Eastern Circuit Florida Advocacy Training Program (sic), the English delegation for that year was being led by Tim Dutton (now KC) and his family. It was my first exposure to advocacy training, and as it was all videoed I therefore have tangible evidence of warm and encouraging trainers coaxing something out of my wooden and stilted advocacy. There are, no doubt, many of my clients grateful for the skill of these (and subsequent) trainers.
That trip gave Tim the idea that we should be doing something of like kind in the UK. With the support of the Leader of the South Eastern Circuit, the then David Penry-Davey QC, he set up the now renowned Keble Advanced Advocacy Course which is still going strongly thirty years later.
Around that time Michael Sherrard QC set up Middle Temple Advocacy, and made a point of encouraging young barristers to become involved as trainers. Being an advocacy trainer is one of my great joys – nothing like watching people’s confidence bloom and confidence build.
I harboured secret dreams of being an actor, but lacked confidence to try until a colleague directed a play for the Bar Theatrical Society and cast me in When We are Married with David Etherington, Alex Chalk (whatever happened to them...) and the matchless Rachel Lawrence, who bore her lifelong illness with courage and grace. That and subsequent productions have balanced a busy professional life and generated endless fun!
It is no secret that life at the Bar is a challenge in all sectors, and the self-employed publicly funded Bar especially so. As a result, it was a great relief to attend the first Temple Women’s Forum and not to feel alone. A golden opportunity came around that time in the form of the ‘Wellbeing at the Bar’ initiative, created by Rachel Spearing and the Bar Council’s Sam Mercer with the support of each of the Inns of Court and full buy-in from the Institute of Barristers’ Clerks. Examining the daily stresses of life at the Bar brought both insight and increased self-care, surely of increasing importance as the pressures seem to compound year on year.
My involvement with Wellbeing at the Bar dovetailed with work the Inn was doing in developing the ‘Survive and Thrive’ Programme which seeks to innovate outside ‘black letter law’ subjects. It is in its 10th year, and until the start of last year, I had the privilege of chairing the working group which charts the future of the enterprise.
It is no secret that being a woman at the Bar means we have to work ‘twice as hard to be thought half as good’. Financial data also reflects the ‘pay gap’ across all sectors – bar media and entertainment law. I am not sure that the rate of change is anywhere near where we need to be. That is something reflected across all professions albeit more widely acknowledged than when I first started out.
More than 30 years in and my work diet is mainly serious sex work, which is technical, relentlessly demanding and high stakes. Since the pandemic, the number of barristers willing to prosecute or defend in these cases has fallen, while demand has increased. Accordingly, it is possible (if you are not careful) to do ‘back-to-back’ rape cases. Fortunately, my clerks have a sympathetic attitude to the wellbeing of their counsel, so there are also ‘respite’ cases, which are less emotionally charged and allow a period of recovery.
Looking back from this end of the telescope, all the shaping influences are still at play: my father with his people skills and work ethic; my mother with her ambition and maternal instincts; the injustice of a life frustrated; mentors and fellowship, passing on skills learned to the next generation; wellbeing, fun and frivolity – all coming together to build the resilience needed for life at the Bar.
I hope this article might be of assistance to people coming to the Bar who may feel that they are ‘outsiders’, or who lack connections or (worse) confidence. It is possible to navigate your way through all these obstacles using the key skills of resourcefulness and resilience.
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