It’s been an exciting time to chair the Commercial Bar Association (COMBAR), a specialist bar association (SBA) representing the cream of English and Welsh barristers advising the international business community. With 1,600 individual barristers and 38 leading chambers, COMBAR is a hallmark of excellence, with members advising and appearing as advocates and arbitrators in high-value, complex commercial disputes in the UK and abroad, acting as expert witnesses on English law, and advising governments and trans-national corporations on legal reform as well as a wide range of commercial transactions.

When I began as a member of COMBAR’s executive committee back in 2012, little did I realise just how varied and interesting the work would be. The last two years as chair have been demanding but stimulating. The more usual range of duties has included representing COMBAR members on the Bar Council’s general management committee, which has involved seeking to address a wide range of issues facing not only commercial barristers but the Bar as a whole (access to justice, funding of legal services, equality and diversity (E&D) issues etc.), chairing meetings of COMBAR’s governing executive committee, liaising with our various sub-committees, in particular on E&D issues, and representing COMBAR at a wide range of legal events. As part of its normal year-to-year activity for which the chair, executive, and E&D Committee are responsible, COMBAR has an extensive and varied continuing education programme. It also provides substantial support (financially and through administrative and barrister time) for a number of initiatives, including financial awards together with practical work experience in COMBAR sets to promote access to the commercial Bar by young people from disadvantaged backgrounds; supporting the work of Advocate (formerly the Bar Pro Bono Unit) both by direct financial contribution and indirectly through the many cases which COMBAR members undertake on a pro bono basis; supporting the CLIPS pro bono scheme operating in the Chancery Division of the Business and Property Courts and helping to set up a new pro bono scheme soon due to operate in the London Circuit Commercial Court; providing financial support to schemes set up to enable young commercial lawyers from Africa to come to London to gain experience of work at the commercial bar. There are many other important areas of COMBAR activity both domestically and internationally that are too numerous to mention.

Challenges and opportunities

In an increasingly connected and fast-paced global business world, London continues to maintain its unrivalled position as a centre for international commercial dispute resolution. The numbers tell their own story. More arbitrations take place in London than in any other City in the world; the total number of commercial and civil disputes resolved through arbitration, mediation, and adjudication in the UK in 2017 was nearly 33,000 (compared with nearly 26,000 in 2016 and 23,000 in 2015); companies are significantly more likely to choose English law over any other governing laws for arbitration.

The Commercial Court remains predominantly an international court, with 70% of its business in 2017/18 comprising international cases. Although Brexit may present challenges, a recent survey indicated not only that London remains the most preferred arbitral seat, significantly ahead of Paris, Hong Kong, Singapore, Geneva, New York, and Stockholm, but also that most respondents considered that its pre-eminence in international arbitration would continue irrespective of the result of the Brexit negotiations.

COMBAR members, and David Joseph QC in particular, should be commended for playing a leading role in representing the Bar on key committees providing guidance and technical advice to the government on Brexit-related legal issues. As an SBA we are proud of the amount of high-quality pro bono work our members have contributed to this important task and for continuing the outstanding and influential ‘Brexit papers’.

We must maintain the high standards of advocacy, advice, and overall client service that have been the hallmarks of the commercial Bar throughout the 30 years’ of COMBAR’s existence, while being flexible and innovative to meet our domestic and international clients’ changing needs. Through this continuing quality of service we should strive to play our part in helping maintain London’s premier position as a dispute resolution centre and English law as the law of choice for the resolution of commercial disputes around the world.

We must also continue and build upon the work to promote E&D. There are still too few entrants to the profession from BAME or disadvantaged backgrounds and there is a continuing challenge over retaining talented female barristers for the duration of their career. I have initiated a process under which I hope significantly more funding will be made available by COMBAR over the coming years to assist in undertaking this important work.

Key achievements

As chair I have been instrumental in helping the Commercial Court to launch two extremely successful Judicial Assistant Pilot Schemes. Under these pilots, the Commercial Court judges have been provided with judicial assistants (JAs) recruited from the ranks of the junior commercial Bar. Not only do JAs help lighten the administrative burden facing our incredibly busy judges, but they also gain enormously from the experience.

During the two years for which the schemes have been running, securing funding has been a major challenge, overcome initially by individual sets providing funds in support and then by the COMBAR membership as a whole. COMBAR’s commitment to the idea that judges need JAs, and that it is important to ensure they get them sooner rather than later, has borne fruit. As a direct result of these two pilots, the Ministry of Justice has agreed to fund a JA scheme to support judges in the Business and Property Courts and in the Family Division from October. COMBAR can rightly be proud of its contribution to this important development.

Advice to my successors?

My two-year stint as chair has been varied and challenging, requiring the support of a talented and committed executive and our amazingly hardworking and knowledgeable administrators, Veronica Kendall and Alison Tighe. I would advise my successors to try to approach as much of the work as possible as a team effort, while never forgetting the responsibility vested in them.

Maintaining and growing our already significant membership is important, as is ensuring that we offer them what they are looking for in terms of continuing education and other aspects of professional support and representation at the wider Bar level. We need to do more to encourage more women to sign up as members – and, with a current membership split of 70 men to 30 women, there is clearly more to do.

Our new chair is Sonia Tolaney QC of One Essex Court, who formally took over on 6 June 2019. I’m confident that Sonia will relish the challenge of this busy role and will take COMBAR forwards from strength to strength. n

On becoming sole senior clerk at Essex Court Chambers I reflected that as the Bar, and indeed the world, has modernised, so too has the role of the barrister’s clerk. What a complete transition it has been – from chambers comprising 15 barristers to sets now in the hundreds; low key business development has evolved into targeted global marketing initiatives and I am proud to have been at the spearhead of this progression.

I am passionate about the wellbeing and support of barristers and staff that work alongside me and, in an effort to increase client care and at the same time improve the clerks’ wellbeing, I implemented a significant restructuring project at Essex Court. This transition resulted in the clerks’ room growing from three clerking teams to four; and facilitated five internal and two external promotions. The result has been simply fantastic, with an immediate increase in productivity and huge appreciation from my team for the reduced, and flexible, working hours that I have put in place. I very much hope that these types of initiatives will be embraced by every set as an aid to improving work-life balance.

One of the great strengths of the Bar, and by extension, its clerks, is its adaptability. As clerks, we are proud of what we do and see ourselves as a stand-alone profession with a unique skillset. The development of those expansive skills guarantees sufficient intellectual stimulation to ensure a completely fulfilling career. At Essex Court we recognised that our clerks’ room is a reflection of chambers and to reinforce our ‘magic circle’ status have always been rigorous in identifying the highest calibre of candidate for any vacant position.

Graduates or school leavers?

Historically, clerks started their career when they left school at 16 and more often than not were drawn to the profession by family members and friends who were already in chambers. This is changing rapidly and now graduates are seeing clerking as a very attractive career path. When I first started to recruit graduates, one of the initial obstacles was ensuring they did not see clerking as a stepping stone to a career as a lawyer. I am pleased to report that as the role has progressed we face this issue less, especially as many colleges and universities are now promoting the profession as an alternative to becoming a lawyer. I am proud of the fact that a third of my clerks hold good degrees and, more importantly, that their degree is an asset to the room.

When writing this article, I discussed with several of my graduate clerks what they feel the benefit of having a degree is in our industry. The strong consensus is that a degree provides vital experience in working to deadlines, organisation, diary management, effective communication, content drafting, professionalism, interpersonal skills, juggling workloads, and has given them a work ethic standing them in good stead for a career within the clerks’ room.

That is not to say that I do not still appreciate the grit and endeavour of a young adult, fresh out of school, who is looking to make a mark on the world. The school leavers in my clerks’ room have been able to grow within the role and tailor their skills effectively to the specific requirements and attributes of a clerk, and the benefits of being able to mould their skills from the outset to suit chambers is very beneficial. Also speaking to them, they feel it is advantageous that from early on in their career they have not had a structured routine and understood the importance of flexibility and that no two days are the same, they have a drive to challenge themselves and expand their knowledge whilst on the job. I have also found that graduates who see clerking as a long-term role very much respect the abilities of traditional clerks and are keen to learn from those who came through the ranks.

Progression and responsibility

As I touched on earlier, the requirements of a clerk’s role have increased and the skillset required has expanded to include complex fee negotiation (often now with the clients, funders and other professional bodies), business development and compliance with ever-increasing regulation. The evolving legal landscape of people with different and sometimes competing interests – barristers, solicitors and support staff – means that a modern and forward-reaching clerks’ room is a must if you are to provide a seamless and client-friendly service.

Career progression is changing and where traditionally clerking roles began with several years of manual labour as a ‘junior clerk’ before opportunity was given to perform the wider functions of a ‘desk clerk’, we, as a profession through the Institute of Barristers’ Clerks, and internally here at Essex Court, are providing more and better training than ever before. We think the increased focus on training will enable junior clerks to progress up the ladder quicker, creating a fast-track to desk clerking.

During my restructure I was able to promote two graduates to the senior team from the junior clerks’ team, with less than 16 and 22 months in the job respectively. This was on the basis that more intensive internal and external training was available in their respective new roles, and their status as graduates meant we could rely on them already having the ability to withstand the intellectual rigours of clerking the complex practices of barristers. Traditionally we would have not considered such a promotion until completion of three years as a junior clerk.

I am not advocating that a modern clerks’ room should be made up entirely of grads: far from it. Simply that a modern clerks’ room must be diverse and armed with a full set of skills to better equip us in serving our clients and members in the ever-changing, ever-challenging landscape that is the modern Bar. We reflect and enhance the flexibility, responsiveness and creativity that is the strength of any successful chambers. Relationships with individual barristers and clients forged over an entire career should never be underestimated, no matter what your level of education.

Retaining talent

For those entering the profession now, it is also a much more attractive career choice for women. While discussing the recruitment of graduates generally, one thing the clerking profession can congratulate itself on is the rapid change to the gender demographic in our clerks’ rooms. However, it is important not to get complacent and at Essex Court, we have tried hard to look at the way we work to encourage the retention of our staff.

Solicitors firms have been way ahead of the Bar in terms of female- (and family-) friendly policies; but at Essex Court, we have not just looked at how we can encourage the recruitment and retention of female barristers, we have looked at how we can do the same for female clerks. We have put in place enhanced maternity policies and more flexible working practices, which we hope will reassure our female clerks that should they chose to combine a clerking career with raising a family, the level of practical support we can provide, both whilst on maternity leave and upon their return to chambers, should allow the right balance to be struck. I cannot speak for wider statistics in clerking, but in my clerks’ room we have a 60/40 split of men to women.

Market-leading clerks need to have a hunger for success and an insatiable appetite to achieve. Graduate or non-graduate starter clerks know that if they work hard, it will pay off and with the new makeup in our modern day clerks’ rooms this profession has a very exciting future ahead!