As the blurb to my new book, Bewigged and Bewildered? A Guide to Becoming a Barrister in England and Wales (Hart Publishing, 2007, £15) says: "Misunderstandings and jargon prevent many from seriously considering a career as a barrister in the belief that such a career is not for them or that they are not for it. Others know that they might want to become barristers but not how to go about it, or just want to know more about this somewhat mysterious profession."

I try to put this right in the book by explaining what different types of barristers do and how best to get through the various stages (including Bar school and pupillage) to becoming a barrister.

In this shorter article I have two more modest aims. The first is to encourage all people considering a career as a lawyer to give serious thought to becoming a barrister, rather than settling without reflection into the well-worn groove of the career path to becoming a solicitor. The second aim is to make all those considering the Bar to think again, before coughing up thousands of pounds on training when they may have no realistic hope of becoming a barrister.

First, some background. Barristers are specialists in advocacy, law and litigation. Not every patient needs to see a specialist doctor and not every client needs a barrister. It is therefore right and proper that there are more solicitors than barristers (about 100,000 solicitors with around 5,000 training contract places in any one year compared to about 15,000 barristers with about 550 pupillage places per year), just as there are more GPs than specialist doctors. It is therefore inevitable that the road to the Bar is the road less-travelled. By saying this I am not trying to romanticise the Bar; rather I am trying to explain why, quite rightly, most people who become lawyers become solicitors. Still, as the above figures also show, the Bar is not so small that you should not give it any thought.

You might ask why I say you should consider the Bar. The answer is obvious: it might suit what you want out of life better than the career of a solicitor. You have to consider what you are going to spend 40 or 50 of the 80 waking hours from Monday to Friday actually doing. Whether the Bar suits you better or not depends upon things that I do not know about you, such as your own personality and goals. I make the following points more fully in my book, where I have space to back them up a little and talk about what solicitors do. But, by way of brief generalisation, you might prefer being a barrister to being a solicitor if:

- You are the sort of person who likes to argue and will enjoy advocacy (i.e. speaking in court). Everyone who wants to be a lawyer should try doing a moot to see whether they are this sort of person. (You should note, by the way, being nervous does not mean you are not this sort of person; nerves are what give you the buzz that makes it all so enjoyable.) For a number of reasons and despite the advent of solicitor-advocates, barristers do the majority of advocacy and certainly do the most interesting stuff.

- You are the sort of person who enjoys intellectual matters in general and the study of law (i.e. researching and writing about it) in particular. On the whole, barristers, who often have to write lengthy legal opinions or arguments or orally argue points of law in court, do more of this than solicitors.

- You are independent and organised with a good work ethic, and would like to be your own boss. Although 80% of barristers operate within a chambers, they are self-employed. They do not share their income with anyone else, their cases, or (if they are negligent) their liability (unlike law firms, which is where most solicitors work). They may be as busy and stressed as solicitors, but barristers have to have a different mind-set, knowing that most of the money that their client pays goes to them, that if they are negligent it is their insurance and ultimately their own house that is on the line, and being solely responsible for juggling their workload and deciding whether to work early or late or weekends, and how long to take for holidays (which are always unpaid).

- You are perhaps slightly eccentric and so are interested in or amused by, rather than contemptuous of, a slightly old-fashioned profession.

To suit being a barrister you do not have to have all of the above characteristics, because they do not apply to all barristers. For example, if you like advocacy but are less keen on intellectualising then the criminal or family Bars may be for you, whereas if the opposite is true then you may want to be a commercial, Chancery or tax barrister.

As for my second aim, which is to make those considering the Bar be realistic about it, the first thing you need to do is think about the above list and honestly ask yourself whether you want to do the things on it. The next thing to do is ask whether you are able to do those things. If you are not intelligent, a good communicator, independent and with a strong sense of integrity, then the Bar is not for you. However, there is more to it than that. One of the things that gives the Bar its prestige and keeps it successful is the remarkably high quality of almost all barristers. Speaking as a barrister who has to argue in writing and orally against these people, it truly is terrifying. There is, therefore, no getting around the fact that entry to the Bar is very competitive.

You may have been told that if you are a woman, not British, from an ethnic minority or not posh that you will not make it at the Bar. I can honestly say that, as far as I have seen, this is rubbish. However, what is true is that if you do not have at least an upper second-class degree (whether in law or another subject) from a top-tier university then your chances are very slim. Also, if you are not willing to do some leg-work (researching chambers and doing mini-pupillages) and soup up your CV a bit (by doing mooting, for example) then you will also find it difficult to distinguish yourself from the other candidates for pupillage.

Only about one-third of those paying the £10k or so to do the Bar Vocational Course (BVC) ever get a pupillage. This should make you think. Further, at least a quarter of those who do get pupillage are never offered tenancy at their chambers or elsewhere; although this latter group, who by the end of pupillage are fully-qualified barristers, do not usually find it difficult to gain employment in law firms or elsewhere.

Be realistic. The only financially safe way to go about this, and the best way if it is possible, is to only go to Bar school if you have already secured your pupillage (many chambers make their offers 15 months before pupillage) or a major scholarship from one of the Inns of Court. I do not want you to be one of the many people on the BVC with no pupillage and no hope of getting one.

So, if after you have read the above you are sure that you do not want to be a barrister or would not get offered a pupillage then great. If you think you might make it but do not want to take the risks of failure (which are greater than those in trying to become a solicitor) then fine. But if you think the Bar might be for you and that you are a good candidate with a good CV and are motivated to succeed, then you should at the very least investigate further. Do mini-pupillages, which are periods of work-experience, at chambers. They are unpaid but only last between a day and a week and usually only require a (carefully prepared) CV and (carefully prepared) covering letter.

Even if you think you want to be a solicitor, it is worth doing a mini-pupillage or two just to get a feel for what barristers do and to confirm that you have made the right decision not to go to the Bar.

More about the Bar including what barristers earn, personal taxation of barristers, how maternity leave works at the Bar, mini-pupillages, choosing and joining an Inn, dining, applying for and doing the BVC, applying for pupillage (inside and outside the OLPAS system) and succeeding in pupillage can be found in the pages of this Legal Week Student and in my book.

Good luck and, for a few of you, welcome to a wonderful profession.

Adam Kramer is a barrister at 3 Verulam Buildings.

The article appears in the Spring 2007 edition of the Legal Week Student supplement. Click here for a full list of articles. To order a hard copy email [email protected] or ring 020 7004 7422

Legal Week Student Spring 2007