Robing Room Bullying Rehna Azim*
This article first appeared in the November 2020 issue of Counsel, the Magazine of the Bar of England and Wales: www.counselmagazine.co.uk Rudeness in the robing room, sledging tactics and the unkindness of strangers when you’re newly called. Rehna Azim on bullying at the Bar and what you can do about it. Actors often admit that a dozen good reviews can fade from memory but one stinker will linger and worm itself deep into the recesses of their psyche, gnawing away at their self-confidence, forever. So, perhaps, does the unkindness of strangers when you’re a newly called barrister. I was sitting in the robing room, sticking multicoloured tabs on my bundle. We still had paper bundles then, so you know this story is from long ago. I felt a shadow fall over me. I looked up to see a tall woman in a too short for court skirt glaring down. "So, what’s your case?" she demanded. No greeting. No introductions. Startled, I obediently laid out my case. It was a strong one. Surely she would recognise that and drop any futile opposition to it?
The solicitor for the children joined us. Short Skirt was suddenly all smiles and charm. "And what does the Children’s Guardian say?" she simpered. They began to discuss the case. I tried to join the conversation. Short Skirt pointedly turned her back on me. Since she was taller than me, she also blocked my view of the solicitor. I had to scramble round her to see him. Each time I tried to speak, she talked over me, like I was an irritating, buzzing fly she had to raise her voice to drown out. I went into the hearing bowed and humiliated, no longer sure of my open and shut case. Or even of my place in it. Perhaps the case was beyond me? How would I withstand the devastating crossexamination Short Skirt would undoubtedly unleash on my witnesses? Was I even in the right career? As it happens, I succeeded in the case. Short Skirt turned out to be something of a damp squib when it came to the crunch. Even so, I didn’t have the courage, at the time, to stand up to her. Now, of course I know of such things as robing room bullying tactics. I know that when advocates demand to know your case, it’s usually because they haven’t read the papers and literally want to know the case against them without troubling themselves to read it.
"Is that it?" she sneered. My confidence in my case began to wobble. Perhaps it wasn’t so solid? ‘What else?’ she barked. I laid out my winning points. She snorted. My wobble toppled over in the face of her derision and lay smashed on the floor.
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I know too that their rudeness is an attempt to
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