Getting to know you
There was recently a Ipsos MORI poll carried out on behalf of the Bar Standards Board (the new regulatory body). This poll on the views of solicitors about the Bar was the subject of a recent article by the legal editor of The Times, Frances Gibb. As well as commenting on the findings of the views of solicitors, she also quoted from solicitors. Two points stand out: firstly the suggestion that barristers lacked people skills, and secondly the comment that you could not have a conversation with them.
I have heard similar comments from people I know who have dealt with barristers. It is thus not a problem that has been simply dreamed up by an opinion poll and idiosyncratic solicitor comments.
What is somewhat bizarre is how much this differs from my own perception of other barristers. That is not to say that the persons making comments are wrong. Merely that they are seeing a different side to barristers than that which I frequently see. Whether at dinners at Lincoln's Inn, or away on Inn event weekends such as that at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park, or circuit dinners whether on the Northern or North Eastern Circuits (both of which I am a member of), or an evening at the pub, my experience is that barristers as a whole are a lot of fun and great conversationalists. Whilst one can never totally generalize, and there are always spectacular exceptions, these are people who love to talk and know how to talk.
Yet the comments from solicitors and the public about barristers being distant and lacking conversational skills are too frequent to stem just from isolated instances. How can it be then that so many barristers are showing too many clients (professional and lay) such a misleading view of what they are like?
I think one can immediately separate the general mass of clients from those particular solicitors with whom barristers work very frequently and with whom they are probably very much at ease. Even if those solicitors regard many barristers in the way described above, they would probably make exceptions of barristers they know well. That means that once the solicitors actually really get to know the barrister, they have a very different view. Therefore the aim would seem to be to make sure that the solicitors and the lay clients to get to know what barrister is really like.
Whilst many would be willing to ascribe the apparent standoffishness of barristers to pompousness and self-importance I think it is something rather different. Firstly all barristers know the danger of getting too personally involved with the client. Whilst it is important never to forget that your cases are real problems which can dramatically affect real people, if you become personally involved it makes it harder to make the tough decisions that are needed in the course of the case. It is also easy to forget the amount of work required to prepare for either a conference or a court case. It is rather like cramming for an exam. That does not tend to bring out the conversational side in people. Therefore I do not think it is an inherent problem in the type of people who are barristers, it is a problem arising from the circumstances in which they find themselves.
Nonetheless, with the professional changes afoot, and the market for legal and advocacy services that is likely to become increasingly brutal, it is important for the Bar to alter this perception. Whilst not becoming too involved, and making sure the same amount of effort goes into preparation, it will be increasingly important for barristers to ensure they are seen as real people. In the new market if at some level solicitors and clients do not get to know you, then they will be going elsewhere.