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Emma Price and Emma-Louise Fenelon are researching where the solutions lie for parents returning to the Bar and how the profession can achieve positive change
‘How on earth am I going to do this job with a baby?’ A question many barristers will have asked themselves at one moment or another. For me (Emma-Louise) it was eating my hurried breakfast in an unheated Nottingham Airbnb on a freezing January morning, fielding late disclosure emails with inoperable attachments about an expert witness I was due to question that day, as the happy/terrifying news of pregnancy started sinking in. For me (Emma), it was at 4am, having just settled my then four-month-old for the fourth time that night, exhausted, contemplating my return to practice.
Although these moments were several years apart, when we shared our experiences we found we had both searched for information and guidance for would-be or new parents at the Bar and found it to be limited; and instead found the advice and encouragement we needed informally from fellow barristers. So we decided to write the book we both looked for but did not find. A book covering the immediate considerations but also the years and evolving challenges which follow. A book built on the experiences of parents at the Bar.
We started small initially, sending a basic Word document survey to a few friends and close colleagues, asking for their warts-and-all experience of parenting at the Bar, encouraging them to tell us the things that don’t make it onto LinkedIn. Twenty two people responded (thank you if you are reading this!), and we were hugely encouraged by the enthusiasm for the project. Nearly every respondent told us that their primary/only source of information about what to expect when having a baby at the Bar was informal advice from other barristers.
With the support of the Inns of Court Alliance for Women and help of Survey Monkey we have now surveyed 225 barristers (again, thank you!) covering those practising in all areas of law and at all levels of call. Comments such as those which follow have made us all the more convinced of the value of drawing together and making available to those who might benefit from them, insights and perspectives from across the Bar:
‘It would be helpful if people could be a bit more open and honest about how difficult it is juggling parenthood and a career at the Bar. There seems to be a cultural expectation that you will go on maternity leave and come back doing the same work at the same pace as you were before, and that you will be able to manage that despite the demands on you at home.’
‘I would have found it really helpful to have heard from some other women that they found they were unable to continue working as they had before and what they had to do to adapt to their new situation as a parent at the Bar. It would have made me feel less like I was failing when I was struggling and I would probably not have pushed myself to the point of exhaustion.’
‘For a long time I stumbled around in the dark as to how to deal with what was acceptable and what was not in terms of how much or how little work I was expected to do...’
‘There was next to no support or advice that I can recall at that time and I would have appreciated receiving more reassurance... I probably experienced a lot more anxiety than I needed to.’
Through our research, one clear theme that emerges is the struggle by those ‘clinging on through the early years’ and ‘holding their nerve’ about their decision to stay at the Bar. When we had concerns about practising as a new parent we were lucky that we had people we could turn to. Not everyone does.
Such support is particularly important for mothers at the Bar, given that this issue disproportionately affects women: women barristers are significantly more likely to be the primary carer (Diversity at the Bar Report 2023, BSB, January 2024), and are leaving practice prematurely in greater numbers than men (‘Key trends shaping recruitment and retention at the Bar’, Bar Council blog, 31 October 2022). Bar Standards Board research found that the dominant cause for the higher attrition rate for female barristers appears to be that practice is difficult to combine with primary caring responsibilities for children (Trends in retention and demographics at the Bar: 1990-2020, BSB, July 2021).
We hope that our book will make a real difference to women worried about their professional future once they become a mother; be a source of reassurance and guidance for those clinging on through the early years; and encourage more women juggling parenting and a career at the Bar to carry on aiming high. We also hope that providing an unvarnished account of the challenges which exist for parents at the Bar will encourage open and honest discussion about where the solutions lie and how the profession can achieve positive change.
If you would like to take part in our short, anonymous survey, please click here.
Emma Price is a barrister at 5 Essex Chambers, specialising in inquests and inquiries, judicial review, human rights, data and information law and personal injury. Emma is on the Attorney General’s A Panel of Counsel.
Emma-Louise Fenelon is a member of 1, Crown Office Row and specialises in clinical negligence, inquests, inquiries and human rights law. She co-presents the podcast Law Pod UK.
‘How on earth am I going to do this job with a baby?’ A question many barristers will have asked themselves at one moment or another. For me (Emma-Louise) it was eating my hurried breakfast in an unheated Nottingham Airbnb on a freezing January morning, fielding late disclosure emails with inoperable attachments about an expert witness I was due to question that day, as the happy/terrifying news of pregnancy started sinking in. For me (Emma), it was at 4am, having just settled my then four-month-old for the fourth time that night, exhausted, contemplating my return to practice.
Although these moments were several years apart, when we shared our experiences we found we had both searched for information and guidance for would-be or new parents at the Bar and found it to be limited; and instead found the advice and encouragement we needed informally from fellow barristers. So we decided to write the book we both looked for but did not find. A book covering the immediate considerations but also the years and evolving challenges which follow. A book built on the experiences of parents at the Bar.
We started small initially, sending a basic Word document survey to a few friends and close colleagues, asking for their warts-and-all experience of parenting at the Bar, encouraging them to tell us the things that don’t make it onto LinkedIn. Twenty two people responded (thank you if you are reading this!), and we were hugely encouraged by the enthusiasm for the project. Nearly every respondent told us that their primary/only source of information about what to expect when having a baby at the Bar was informal advice from other barristers.
With the support of the Inns of Court Alliance for Women and help of Survey Monkey we have now surveyed 225 barristers (again, thank you!) covering those practising in all areas of law and at all levels of call. Comments such as those which follow have made us all the more convinced of the value of drawing together and making available to those who might benefit from them, insights and perspectives from across the Bar:
‘It would be helpful if people could be a bit more open and honest about how difficult it is juggling parenthood and a career at the Bar. There seems to be a cultural expectation that you will go on maternity leave and come back doing the same work at the same pace as you were before, and that you will be able to manage that despite the demands on you at home.’
‘I would have found it really helpful to have heard from some other women that they found they were unable to continue working as they had before and what they had to do to adapt to their new situation as a parent at the Bar. It would have made me feel less like I was failing when I was struggling and I would probably not have pushed myself to the point of exhaustion.’
‘For a long time I stumbled around in the dark as to how to deal with what was acceptable and what was not in terms of how much or how little work I was expected to do...’
‘There was next to no support or advice that I can recall at that time and I would have appreciated receiving more reassurance... I probably experienced a lot more anxiety than I needed to.’
Through our research, one clear theme that emerges is the struggle by those ‘clinging on through the early years’ and ‘holding their nerve’ about their decision to stay at the Bar. When we had concerns about practising as a new parent we were lucky that we had people we could turn to. Not everyone does.
Such support is particularly important for mothers at the Bar, given that this issue disproportionately affects women: women barristers are significantly more likely to be the primary carer (Diversity at the Bar Report 2023, BSB, January 2024), and are leaving practice prematurely in greater numbers than men (‘Key trends shaping recruitment and retention at the Bar’, Bar Council blog, 31 October 2022). Bar Standards Board research found that the dominant cause for the higher attrition rate for female barristers appears to be that practice is difficult to combine with primary caring responsibilities for children (Trends in retention and demographics at the Bar: 1990-2020, BSB, July 2021).
We hope that our book will make a real difference to women worried about their professional future once they become a mother; be a source of reassurance and guidance for those clinging on through the early years; and encourage more women juggling parenting and a career at the Bar to carry on aiming high. We also hope that providing an unvarnished account of the challenges which exist for parents at the Bar will encourage open and honest discussion about where the solutions lie and how the profession can achieve positive change.
If you would like to take part in our short, anonymous survey, please click here.
Emma Price and Emma-Louise Fenelon are researching where the solutions lie for parents returning to the Bar and how the profession can achieve positive change
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