Clerking in Chambers

Clerking in Chambers

The Dickensian image of clerking in a barristers’ chambers is being transformed. Emily Martin, Senior Clerk at 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square demonstrably does not meet those traditional expectations from the past. She explains why she choose clerking as a career.

At age 18, I had a place to study at university. My plan was to be a PE teacher in a secondary school. At age 33, I’m the Senior Clerk at 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square. I did go to university but later than planned, I studied English whilst working full time.

18-year-old me had an itch that I was doing the wrong thing. At first, I deferred my place. But having started work at 5 King’s Bench Walk, I decided to stick around the Temple and work as a barrister’s clerk. Clerking at the time was different to what it is now, there was a need to know someone on the inside and there were very few women. My cousin persuaded me to try clerking and I have not looked back.

When I started in clerking it was a little like Downton Abbey.

Starting at the bottom

I pushed trolleys full of papers and made cups of tea. I did the things which junior clerks did then to learn the role. The sense of hierarchy was apparent. I got the lunch orders for the more senior clerks (not only at my own chambers) and the barristers with whom I worked were still called, “sir and miss.”

Starting at the bottom, I had no real perception of a career in practice management or even if such a thing were possible for a woman. I knew that I still wanted to go to university and had chosen English for my degree. This was a little unusual, a number of clerks have gone to university ahead of clerking or once their career has started but the focus has tended to be on degrees relating to law or business. To read English was treated with a little suspicion by some on both the clerking and barrister side of my work.

Once I obtained my degree, I was offered other roles and I also did consider other options that were available outside of the law. Ultimately, I decided to stay in clerking and have now started considering post graduate courses that are more linked directly to my role. On the way, I have done my BTEC Advanced Award in Chambers Administration and a variety of other shorter courses. I simply don’t accept that clerking is all learnt on the job or that the work of a barristers’ chambers is so unique that we cannot learn from other businesses.

There are senior women in clerking across legal London.

Moving from a Downton Abbey atmosphere to a collaborative working environment

When I started in clerking it was a little like Downton Abbey, I was very much downstairs and the barristers upstairs. Now, it’s a collaborative effort. The barristers who achieve the most are those who work in synergy with their clerking team. The clerks who achieve the most are those who coach the barristers with whom they work to meet their potential in a sustainable way.

There are senior women in clerking across legal London. In truth, that has only really grown over the last decade. I have a headstrong two-year-old and chambers is flexible to make sure that I can meet my caring responsibilities which I share with my (barrister) husband. Retention for female barristers and female clerks needs to be a focus for chambers.

Flexible working and parental leave feel like they are relatively new things across lots of different chambers. The good news is that they have arrived and a focus on retaining talented women has prevailed. Again, the ugly truth is that in yesteryear, my pregnancy would have been a concern for some and marrying a barrister, at a different set of chambers, would have verged on scandalous.

The recognition that I am my own person with an established and honed set of skills is the real change in my first decade in the job. That has come with experience and education but also with a change of attitude at the Bar.

Working as a modern senior clerk

I have the most senior staff role in chambers. I answer complaints, identify opportunities and work with barristers and our chambers administrator to make policy decisions which support the operation of the business. And, like it or not, chambers are not clubs or collectives they are businesses designed to provide essential services. That change in mindset is reflected in how senior clerks operate. Relationships with clients are increasingly focused on client care as opposed to who you know. You cannot provide the service those clients want unless you know them and you have the talent to deploy, assist with or solve their legal problem.

If you are contemplating a career in clerking based on what you have seen on television, don’t. That’s not how clerking has worked for the last decade. Do you need a degree to be a clerk? No. But you do have to have the drive to learn about your side of business. Were I to return to university tomorrow, I would probably choose business psychology as my undergraduate course. But, any education that teaches you to build relationships, leadership and promote health or wellbeing is important.

Finally, my biggest achievements haven’t been to manage a merger in chambers, land work here and abroad or to recruit great barristers. Rather, they have been to develop relationships with the people I work with so that they trust me. I am so incredibly grateful to the senior women in practice management who opened the door to this career for me and the barristers who have trusted that change.

4-5 Gray’s Inn Square has been transformed on the mantra of, “tradition with modernity.” If you want to work in clerking, look for chambers with that kind of approach. Don’t limit yourself to the idea that you are there to serve the barristers with whom you work but rather to manage and grow the practice. You are there to harness talent, spot it, nurture it and to deploy it to help others. That’s an incredibly unique role which is open to men and women, graduates and non-graduates. ■

Emily Martin

Senior Clerk, 4-5 Gray's Inn, Square Chambers

Emily Martin | LinkedIn