People working in the legal profession part 3 - Barristers' Clerks
A barrister in practice will have a clerk. Clerks are not qualified lawyers and normally have no legal training at all. Traditionally the clerk might have acted on behalf of one or more barristers. Nowadays within Chambers (see the legal profession part 2 - barristers, for how Chambers operates) the clerks form a team.
^ TOPForms of address
Traditionally even the senior clerk would call even the most junior barrister "Mr" or "Miss" followed by their surname, whilst that barrister would address the clerk by his first name. In many Chambers this has now changed so that barristers and clerks address each other by their first names. In some traditional sets the older procedure is still followed.
^ TOPPercentages
Clerks used to be on a percentage of the money made by the barristers. This meant that the clerk might be one of the biggest earners in Chambers. A senior clerk making 5% of each barrister's earnings would on simple mathematics be making more than the typical barrister if there will more than 20 barristers in Chambers. Moreover clerks do not pay money towards chambers expenses and barristers do. (Barristers will typically pay somewhere between 15 and 25% of their income into Chambers to cover Chambers rent and other expenses). Thus any impression of the clerk as not occupying a significant role (or in the case of a senior clerk, a well-paid one) would be wrong.
Nowadays if clerks are on a percentage it is usually a very small one as a bonus, or they may be on a bonus set to achieving particular income targets for Chambers. Either way clerk has an incentive to try and see that the barristers earn as much money as possible.
^ TOPSkills
A successful clerk will have a number of important skills. He has to understand about listing cases. (Trying to make sure that cases come on at a time convenient to the barrister - so as to mean that he does not lose other work - and making sure that the workload of the particular barrister is heavy but not crippling). He has to have a sufficient grasp of the types of cases (as well of the barristers he clerks) to know who is the right person for the particular case. Likewise he has to know what is an appropriate fee for particular work. Most of all he has to acquire the confidence of solicitors. Solicitors are the persons he negotiates with and organises work for. If solicitors do not have confidence in the barrister's clerk will affect the relationship with Chambers.
^ TOPAll about relationships
One great myth is that clerks give the work to the barristers they like and starve work from the barristers that they don't like. The reality is that clerks will seek to promote barristers to solicitors but they can only succeed if the solicitors are going to be happy with the outcome. If the clerk is not putting forward a barrister for a particular type of work, it might be because the barrister is not senior enough, it might be because he lacks the experience to do a case at that level, it might be because the clerk senses that there might be a personality clash with particular solicitor, or it might be because the solicitor has been unhappy with that barrister in the past. What the clerk will be trying to do is to get the best work possible for the individual barrister. Although I will not name them, I could give instances across various Chambers of successful barristers who were positively loathed by their clerks. It never stopped the clerks giving a professional service. It is obviously better to have a good relationship with your clerk rather than a bad one. What every aspiring barrister should realise is that the most important thing in your relationship with your clerk, is that your clerk can feel confident about your ability to do the types of cases you want to do. That is much more important than that the two of you are friends.