MIDDLE TEMPLE YOUNG BARRISTERS’ ASSOCIATION
MICHAEL POLAK
Middle Temple Young Barristers’ Association Michael Polak is President of Middle Temple Young Barristers’ Association. He practises in criminal, international, and human rights law at Church Court Chambers. He is also a Director of Justice Abroad. Michael is committed to helping the junior Bar reach their potential as well as promoting the rule of law.
Looking back to what now seems distant history, at the start of my Middle Temple Young Barristers’ Association (MTYBA) presidency in January 2020, I decided to do something which has not be done before and set out my aims for our vibrant and hardworking organisation in a plan of action. Although I was slightly worried that this would either come across as pretentious management speak, or like a small-time dictator’s missive, I decided to press ahead anyway. I was very pleased when I came up with the name for this plan of action: ‘I will call it “2020 Vision”’. I chuckled to myself. But it seems that the joke is now on me as I definitely did not see the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown coming. That plan of action contained three main themes for MTYBA’s activities this year, to run alongside MTYBA’s usual broad range of activities to support those seeking pupillage, barristers during pupillage, and those at the start of their careers. Those themes were: 1. Inspiration, Self-Improvement, and Career Development; 2. Giving back and increasing access; 3. Supporting the Rule of Law and Lawyers Under Pressure.
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Inspiration, Self-Improvement, and Career Development The ‘Inspiration, Self-Improvement, and Career Development’ theme was broken down into four areas. The first part is the Inspirational Speaker Series, for which we currently have events lined up and ready to go for later in the year when this lockdown is over. The first event will be ‘Building a Brand and Standing out from the Crowd’ with Myles Jackman, ‘The Obscenity Lawyer’. The second area of this theme is a Practical Skills Series, teaching essential skills, such as useful computer programmes for barristers. The third part is our Ancillary Legal Areas Series. The aim of this is to enable junior practitioners to develop their practices by learning the legal and procedural structures for areas of law that are ancillary to their main practice areas. In this series we have already had Middle Templar and POCA expert, Colin Witcher, deliver ‘An Idiot’s Guide to POCA’ to a full house in Tasker’s, an event which was very well received. We have also been lucky enough to secure Richard Harry, Chief Executive at Sport Resolutions and former Chief Executive of the Welsh Rugby Players’ Association, to present a two-part series on the
2020 Middle Templar
basics of sports law and a practical session on sports law arbitration. We also hope to run events on the Court of Protection and Inquest law. The fourth area is focusing on increasing the professional networks of our members and involves networking events with a number of different organisations. One such opportunity that we were particularly excited about was an invitation for our Committee and members to attend the Associazione Italiana Giovani Avvocati (AIGA) Annual Conference in Naples in April 2020, with the European Young Bar Association Committee, to maintain European links post-Brexit. Unfortunately, this event had to be cancelled because of Covid-19. We hope to be part of something similar before the end of this year.
Giving Back and Increasing Access This is an area which is very close to my heart and something which I believe would benefit our members and young people who need
