By Ashley Young-
One in six young barristers have expressed a desire to leave the bar over unmanageable or unpredictable working hours, according to a study by the Bar Council.
The potential health consequences of remaining at the bar was one of the key issues cited by barristers who have been practising law for less than seven years, and who are considering quitting, with the report recommending that ‘work allocation needs to be fairer and workloads need to be more manageable’.
The report added that to ‘avoid burn-out and the loss of young barristers from the profession’, the report added.
The research within the report considers the demographics of the Young Bar, and what this means in terms of access to justice and the profession in the coming years. It explores differences by practice area, and what this might suggest in terms of targeted action and support.
The report captures the experience and views of young barristers on life at the Bar, aspirations for their future, career development and their wellbeing, and what this means in terms of how the legal profession needs to modernize the way they interact. The survey revealed that a higher proportion of the young Bar than of the overall population have a disability, and that only just over half the Young Bar are from a state school background.
One barrister who insisted on anonymity told The Eye Of Media.Com that ‘there appears to be an encouragement of disabled entrants into the profession than in previous years as there were very few barristers of over 7 years who claimed to be disabled. It could also be that not many experienced barristers were willing to disclose their disability, given that the information contained in the forms were voluntary’.
Speaking about the workload associated with the job, he said: ” many barristers find a lack of balance between working hours and having a normal life. Barristers need time to relax and socialize too, but often find themselves working too many hours. The pay rates for barristers also vary widely in the profession, and you sometimes find junior barristers who are not paid very well”.
The report said it concedes a distance to travel to satisfy aspirations for a more balanced range of socioeconomic backgrounds. It is also noteworthy that a third of those described as the Young Bar are over 35 years old, and a significant proportion of mature entrants to the profession.
Significant differences were also apparent in terms of the demographic profile of different areas of practice, with men proportionally outnumbering women in commercial law by about two to one, whereas the converse was the case for family law.
In criminal law, the proportion of young female barristers is particularly high, compared with the whole Bar. Young barristers of ethnic minority background are slightly over-represented in civil law
(compared with their proportion overall) but somewhat under-represented in commercial practice and certain groups also in family law, with the most common income band just £30-60k per year.
Area of practice appears to drive income more than gender, but there is also some evidence for earnings differences with ethnic background (across the whole Bar, because sample sizes are too small to
analyze this for the Young Bar specifically).
Amongst the Young Bar, a roughly similar proportion to the Bar as a whole (almost 60%)
do some publicly-funded work. For over a third of the young barristers, it generated over
half their income, although this clearly varies strongly by area of practice. Young barristers
tend to do slightly more pro bono work than those at subsequent career stages,
Michael Polak, chair of the Bar Council’s young barristers’ committee, said the findings ‘should act as a wake-up call for those interested in the future of the profession’.
The report also found that only half of barristers feel work is allocated fairly, with many juniors finding it difficult to turn down work for fear of the potential consequences in relation to future income and career progression.
The financial impact of the pandemic was also said to have had an impact for young barristers than for the bar as a whole, the report added, with nearly a third of respondents saying they experienced ‘financial hardship’ as a result, particularly those working in crime.
While there has recently been an increase in earnings for many who suffered during the pandemic, some barristers ‘now struggle to cope as courts attempt to clear the backlog’, the report found.
Bar Council chair Mark Fenhalls QC said: ‘Our profession has been ageing rapidly and we can ill-afford to lose the next generation for any reason.