Dealing with Judges: part 2
One golden rule about judges is that what they are like as people and as fellow barristers will not necessarily be reflected in what they are like as judges. A person who seemed really confident at the Bar may seem hesitant as a judge. A judge was once described by a leading barrister as so indecisive that if his wife put out two different breakfast cereals in the morning the judge would never get to work because he wouldn't be able to decide which one to have. No doubt everyone was expecting the judge to be the confident assertive person that he appeared to be (and no doubt was) when acting as a barrister. By contrast you can have someone who is relatively timid as a barrister but seems to grow in confidence once becoming a judge.
What is also true is that relations between two people whilst they are barristers will not necessarily become reflected in relations between barrister and judge once one or other goes on the bench. Some barristers loathe one another. That does not stop them acting professionally, does not mean that they fail to show a lack of courtesy to one another, but obviously the dynamics of any personal relationship will always impact upon human affairs whether business deals, court cases or whatever. If two people cannot stand one another that will add something of an edge to all their dealings. Sometimes though elevation to the bench changes the relationship completely. Sometimes a barrister will find that a judge who appeared to hate him or her whilst a fellow barrister has been transformed into a very pleasant tribunal.
That of course is a pleasant surprise when it happens. Rather less pleasant is finding out that someone you had a good relationship with as a barrister becomes someone who appears to detest you when sitting as a judge. This can be caused by a number of factors. The most basic is the personality clash. You may wonder why such a personality clash would not manifest itself either socially or where appearing as barristers against one another, but different personalities can either fit or fail to fit depending on the circumstances. I can think of two different barristers who I have very good friendships with, one male, one female, where the first meeting in a professional context was (whilst polite) sufficiently unfriendly that it was clear that we could not stand one another. Notwithstanding that in each case when I met up with them subsequently on a social occasion (the lady barrister and I confessed to each other subsequently that we both inwardly groaned when seeing that we were next to one another on the seating plan) we got on brilliantly . A judge might regard an aggressive court style as part of the game when he is a barrister, but might not take to it as a judge. Sometimes the first case you do in front of a judge could be a sufficiently difficult one that he identifies you with that case and subsequently views you through that initial prism. (The same factor can make a judge before whom you get off to a flying start on your first case a continuing fan despite some rocky moments later on).