William Byfield's Secret E-Diary

An old hand’s guide to the Machiavellian machinations of chambers  

May 8, 2012: “…and there is no new thing under the sun” Ecclesiastes, Chapter 1, Verse 9.

The impending collision of two of my cases, one overrunning and one about to start, was averted: not by my learned junior in the former case keeping his promise that I could leave after my speech since, by then, he had vanished himself, but owing to the modern habit of prosecuting authorities to leave until the last possible moment the service of evidence that it has had for ages but has only recently perceived as being both in its possession and vital to the successful prosecution of the case. Thus, the arrival of about two thousand pages of evidence recovered from defendants’ computers, served last week in the latter case, has had the effect of aborting the whole trial until next year. Despite threats by the trial judge about wasted costs orders against the prosecution, I will believe it when I see it.

A yearning for the good old days when murder trials could be wrapped up in a fortnight and juries usually came to a verdict in a day

April 15, 2012: “Did you like her?” “Did I like her?” “Yes, that is the question.”                       
The opening of Frederick  Seddon’s cross-examination by Sir Rufus Issacs KC

Why do criminal trials take so long nowadays? The thought struck me as I re-read the trial of Frederick Seddon in Notable British Trials, – a wonderful series that some enterprising soul should resurrect, save that each major trial would now need 15 volumes.

A look at the battle tactics and power struggles that have governed the reigns of Heads of Chambers since the beginning of time...

March 11, 2012: “Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.” - Niccolo Machiavelli
 
March is the season of our Annual General Meeting. In times gone by this was a rather jolly affair in which we took rooms at leading London hotels and had a good old natter, followed by a decent lunch. There has, however, been a tendency to slum it in recent times. We have started hiring conference rooms with decidedly inferior cuisine or pokey little rooms in the Inns. However, the siting of this year’s meeting at a church hall in Hackney represented a new phase in our existence.

Regret at the loss of beauty, simplicity and mystery from language and the unstoppable spread of “lifeless modern civic terminology”

St. Valentine’s Day, 2012: To assume is to presume” Jude Morgan, Indiscretion.

However classless society becomes, you never turn down an invitation from a High Court judge. That covering of scarlet, flashed with white fur and black scarf, still thrills the senses in a way sadly.not achieved by circuit purple. The difference is that the original robes evolved from real costumes worn in a genuine context when the House of Plantaganet was in its final flower. You cannot create uniforms any more than you can create cities...hence Milton Keynes.

January 10, 2012: “I love everything that’s old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.” - Mr Hardcastle in Oliver Goldsmith’s  She Stoops to Conquer.

Anger that the Government is kicking the public Bar when it is already down; and the New Year doesn’t feel happy for long

William Byfield, Gutteridge Chambers : A sad acknowledgement that although the problem of late payment is not a new one, this time round the effects are more acute than ever

December 1, 2011: “A man who pays his bills on time is soon forgotten” - Oscar Wilde.

Chasing fees is a perennial problem. I remember a dinner party in the early nineties at the house of an old university friend, also at the Bar and now an eminent civil practitioner and fellow Head of Chambers. At the time we were both going through what might loosely be called a cash-flow crisis. After a wonderful dinner cooked by his most glamorous and exotic wife, talk turned to the irritations of life.

November 11, 2011 @ 11:02
“The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche.

I can record truthfully that I never like staring at defendants in court. I remember a perfectly lovely character at the Bar, glorying in the name of Marmaduke Rapp-Pitney, who was incredibly short sighted and wore a rather terrifying pair of spectacles, which contained glass so thick and spiralled that it almost hid his eyes. When a defendant was brought up, Marmie would turn round and simply stare at the poor alleged miscreant. All, except the most brazen, flinched. Some changed their plea.

An enthusiastic return to the Temple and to Chambers as the summer fades away and autumn begins to fall 

October 10, 2011: “The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.” ~William Shakespeare, Othello

A sortie into the outside world leads to questions about how to adapt to modern times 

September 10, 2011:  “Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get”
- George Bernard Shaw.

The life of a barrister can be self-absorbing. From the Temple we venture out to all points of the compass, meeting people from walks of life we would rarely, if ever, encounter in real life.

Summertime - and the living is no longer quite so easy in the Temple during August.

August 3, 2011: “In summer, the song sings itself.” -William Carlos Williams.


Publicly funded barristers nowadays work all the year round. When I was a nipper at the Bar, it was simply not done for a Silk to be seen in the precincts of the Temple during August. Today, there is the appearance of a holiday season – my club closes, there are no more meals in the Inns of Court and the like; but, in reality, professional life carries on.