Without the institutional support seen at law firms, many barristers find the feast or famine nature of the job makes the work/life balance difficult to achieve. Ben Rigby reports

First, the good news: a recent joint Bar Standards Board (BSB) and Bar Council survey, 'Barristers' Working Lives', found most were satisfied and enjoyed the variety and challenge of their work. Yet there is a tougher edge to the survey, notwithstanding the glossy stereotypes seen in Law & Order: UK, Silk or, further back, This Life.

Only 38% felt satisfied with the amount they earned, and few felt they were not under pressure at work or did not find the life stressful.

A life in balance

The broad-ranging survey looked in part at the impact of workload, stress and work/life balance on the Bar, noting: "The Bar is not seen as a family friendly profession and two thirds think it is difficult to work part time as a barrister." Female self-employed barristers, the survey noted clinically, reacted least positively to such issues.

That balance, as Zoe Saunders, a family barrister at St John's Chambers in Bristol, notes, may be a reflection of societal norms: "Women are still responsible for more of the domestic work and childcare than men are, even if both partners are working."

Responding, Bar Council chairman Michael Todd QC stresses: "More can be done to support working parents, through our campaign for a Bar nursery, for example," while BSB chair Baroness Ruth Deech says the results reinforce her belief that the Bar's new equality and diversity rules are needed to ensure appropriate parental leave measures are in place.

Personal injury (PI) barrister Charles Cory-Wright QC of Thirty Nine Essex Street acknowledges that for some sets, things are changing: "We have a lot of members with families, including a lot of female members, none of whom has given up work after having children, because the chambers is supportive of families and work/life balance."

Married to another barrister, he understands such pressures, saying: "Making sure you both – equally – balance out childcare needs and both have input into daily life is important. It's a matter of working to resolve any problems that arise and communicating what needs to be done.

"It's also important to recognise that it's impossible to 'have it all' and do everything. It's enough to focus on family, friends and work and to make the right choices for all three," he adds.

One in four (24%) men at the self-employed Bar thought the profession was family friendly compared to 17% of women.

Commercial silk Nick Vineall QC of 4 Pump Court agrees with the majority: "My feeling is that the Bar may not be family friendly, but it is a qualified no. This is because when you are involved with a case, that has to come first, and so, however you might like it otherwise, concerts and parents' evenings go by the wayside because you are under pressure."

Julia Beer, a chancery/family barrister at Ten Old Square, agrees: "When things are urgent, work always comes first. I came to the Bar because I felt I could make a difference, and when you are more involved in a case, you will work to make that difference."

Stresses and strains

Few felt they were not under pressure at work or did not find the life stressful, with only 34% of the self-employed Bar feeling their work was not too unpredictable; 47% felt able to balance their home and work lives and well under half did not feel emotionally drained by the work.

Unsurprisingly, there was a strong correlation between working hours and workload pressure at the Bar, although Alison Padfield, an insurance barrister at Devereux Chambers, agrees that, while life at the Bar is a high-pressure job, "that pressure isn't always inappropriate, such as before a significant hearing or a trial.

"Occasionally, you do have to work hard – sometimes all night – to get everything done before a hearing and then go and cross-examine or make your submissions; it's not desirable, but it is what the job demands," she notes, adding: "I can remember being asked by a prospective pupil what vital quality you needed for the Bar, and the silk I was with – now a High Court judge – simply said, 'stamina'. He was right!"

Yet for Cory-Wright, dealing with over-work is an important issue. "If you wholly fail to confront it, there can be tears before bedtime, which is why you need those around you to help you recognise if it has become an issue.

"There have always been very ambitious barristers who are overly preoccupied with success, some because of the desire to build reputation, some, more venally, for money, who work so hard that they're in real danger of burnout. The sad irony is that they tend to be the very people least likely to recognise these dangers.

"The institutional checks and balances are different from those that would exist in a law firm or a company; they inevitably tend to be more personal."

And clerks largely seem to agree, suggesting this was where the pastoral side of clerking – knowing when counsel have worked too hard, too long, too often, or 'overtraded' – kicks in, acting as a sounding board for members stressed and frustrated with the demands of the job.

Not every clerk agrees, however: "Barristers seem pretty good at rolling with the 'feast or famine' nature of the business. After all, the long hours are usually connected with trials, which is, of course, the work they really enjoy."

Ben Lynch, one of Legal Week's Stars at the Bar for 2012, echoed this, saying: "Job satisfaction really ties back into career opportunities," such as at trial.

Vineall agrees, saying he has always taken holiday when he wished to, but "to do so, you have to manage the other time carefully – and sometimes ruthlessly, when the work is there. However, it isn't sensible not to take a holiday".

Lynch says: "Happiness in one's set, including getting on with one's colleagues and support in the workplace, is important. Workload and work hours tend to be pretty heavy, even at the best of times."

Padfield agrees: "Some of us might go to the pub for a drink after work from time to time; it can be quite important to do that, as the job can be solitary and sometimes quite stressful, so having a drink with your colleagues helps members talk over the good and bad things of the day before starting all over again."

Cost of feeling and caring

The impact of 'feeling emotionally drained by their work' affected significant minorities of men and women (39% of women and 24% of men). Proportionally, fewer women felt able to cope with job stress, which the survey linked to the high proportion of women working in family law.

Both Beer and Saunders echo this, with Beer saying: "Court work can be really quite intense; clients are upset, they wear their emotions on their sleeve, the stakes are high and you have to be professional, as you are always on show." Saunders says: "It is a tough job and stress and pressure come pretty much as a given."

Given that only 38% felt satisfied with the amount they earn, Saunders echoes Cory-Wright's point about ambition, but thinks it is "more likely as a result of the Government's continuing efforts to drive down the amount they pay for legal aid work".

She says: "Family law can be really tough, but most of us do this work because we find it worthwhile and fulfilling, and the idea that we can somehow apply a 'pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap' approach to our clients just isn't feasible."

Ruth Cabeza, a family barrister at Field Court Chambers, agrees, saying childcare barristers are "under intense competition from solicitor advocates seeking to take the work in-house, while there is intense competition for work and pressure on fees from local authorities and the Legal Services Commission alike, and it's easy to see why some feel dispirited as a result."

Cory-Wright, as a PI barrister, takes a different slant, saying: "Injury cases can be emotionally charged, but that emotion, that human interest, for me provides the reason why I do the job. And being emotionally engaged as well as legally interested is important; it's a tool you use to achieve your client's goals – it spurs you on."

He suggests: "The more experienced you get, the more you can manage your feelings and use them to assist your clients; detachment is important, but when you deal with the most serious of cases – cases where lives, especially children's lives, have been devastated or ended – while you try not to dwell on it, that is hard: particularly as a parent, it is hard not atavistically to think 'what if' about your own children.

"Of course, that's only natural; the secret is not to be depressed or deflected by that emotional empathy but to use it in communicating both with and on behalf of your client."

Commercial barristers, however, were generally happier in their careers. As Lynch states: "The work is intellectually stimulating, reasonably well paid, diverse, demanding and constantly challenging. It is also broadly unaffected by cuts in legal aid, problems with conditional fee agreements and so on. The clients tend to be relatively easy to deal with, commercial and intelligent. Other barristers tend to work at a very high level and one can always expect to have to do the best."

That too can carry an emotional cost. One commercial clerk had experienced difficulties with barristers experiencing bereavement, saying: "A sensitive but firm hand is needed to guide them away from work commitments, which is surprisingly difficult, without them feeling like they're letting anyone down."

The sticky end of the stick

There was one group of barristers, however, who were, perhaps justifiably, unhappy with their lot. Criminal barristers were much less likely to say they would still opt for the Bar if they could start their career again (60% compared to 83% of commercial counsel).

More criminal barristers wanted to leave the profession. One senior junior – speaking anonymously – vehemently agrees: "Our work is nearly always stimulating, but everything now is becoming an ordeal."

She cites examples ranging from court errors over counsel's availability to "an overworked Crown Prosecution Service not responding to prosecuting counsel's calls, advice or emails, resulting in loose ends being sorted out on the day of trial".

Nor is defence work glamorous, with "defence solicitors not taking a proof until the defendant has entered a plea (in cases where they plead guilty), and solicitor representatives not attending trial, even when the case is serious".

She also cites "not being paid for months while being chased for VAT and tax, having to pay tax on money not received and legal aid being changed constantly over what we can and can't get paid for."

One in three at the criminal Bar were not satisfied and were considering their options, and this senior junior knows why: "Many are saying that they cannot afford to practise and many silks are scrabbling around for work. The financial situation is bad, getting worse soon and due to get even worse. Coupled with all the extra work for less money that we have to do, who can blame them?"

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

Law, order and motherhood

Sarah Clarke (pictured), Bar Standards Board (BSB) member and barrister at 3 Serjeants Inn, read law as an undergraduate at Durham University. These days, in between painstaking trial preparations, she finds herself reading The Phoenix and the Carpet, a childhood favourite, to her two young sons, aged five and eight.

Her days begin at an "unhealthily early hour" when she sees her children off to school. Her time is then spent either in court or preparing for court, while evenings are dedicated to BSB or Professional Standards Committee meetings.

"Juggling my career and motherhood is simply down to hard work, painstaking preparation, attention to detail and sometimes very long hours. I have a fantastic nanny who I've had for eight years since my son was born and I couldn't do this without her. I also have amazing parents who are a huge support and role models to my kids who [themselves] are wonderfully cheerful and good natured. These are the three things that make it work."

Called to the Bar in 1994, Clarke initially spent 10 years practising in a general crime set of chambers, where she prosecuted and defended all manner or criminal offences. She then went on a secondment at the Financial Services Authority (FSA), acting for the regulatory body in most of their early authorisations tribunal cases. At the end of that secondment, the FSA enforcement division began to set up an in-house litigation team, on which she was invited to stay. She did, becoming a technical specialist and an in-house counsel on the litigation team. Thereafter she carried on acting for the FSA and a variety of regulatory and disciplinary proceedings and also advised on conducting most of the early insider dealing prosecutions. After a "fantastic" six years, she decided it was time to bring her experience to private practice.

She says: "My generation owes a great deal to the previous generation of professional women who paved the way for equality, often at huge personal cost. We, however, in my view, owe the same responsibility to the next.

"Many women at the Bar leave practice when the demands of the profession collide with the needs of a young family. Those of us who remain can try to influence the profession to better recognise and reflect the ways in which our lives and responsibilities are different from our male colleagues. We are proving that these differences can be accommodated without compromising on standards of professional excellence."

By Vanessa Ip

• Click here for the latest reader comments as they come in