Starter's orders part 2

However hard the pupil tries to impress, there will always be a risk that it will all go horribly wrong. Sometimes it goes catastrophically wrong and is terminal to the pupil's prospects. On other occasions it doesn't seem to make any difference.

The perspective of the pupil can also be entirely wrong. I know of one pupil who really felt that their pupil master was being very hard on them. Demanding as regards work, challenging the pupil all the time to justify various propositions whenever commenting on the case. Their relationship became pretty strained. It was only after the pupil had been taken on as a tenant, in a conversation with another tenant a couple of years later, that the pupil found out the truth. Various other members of Chambers had had severe doubts about the pupil and whether to keep the pupil on as a tenant. Whilst assiduously defending the pupil to his colleagues, the pupil master was trying to make sure that the pupil came up to scratch so that the same complaints could not be made again. This was a classic illustration of being cruel to be kind.

As a pupil I once went along to watch a High Court case, in which a member of the chambers that I was a pupil was involved. The case ran on a little longer than expected, and so literally finished at the very end of the court day. That meant the judgment would have to be the following day. The case had only been listed for one day, and both counsel involved were going to be elsewhere the next day. Because I was in my second six pupillage, and had seen what the case was about, I was dragged in by the solicitor and barrister for one side (not the side where a member of Chambers was acting) and instructed to attend to take judgment the next day. It was fairly clear from the way the submissions had gone that this side was going to lose and so I needed to ask for leave to appeal (what would now be permission to appeal). They talked through with me exactly what I would ask for, and suggested various lines of argument to deploy. I spent the evening sketching out various grounds of appeal, and sought to master the case as if I was doing it entirely on my own as opposed to merely asking for permission to appeal the judgment. When I arrived the next day I found that the replacement counsel for the other side was in fact my pupil master. I wanted to make a good impression. The High Court Judge had started his judgment by saying that "The Plaintiffs' sense of outrage at these applications by the Defendant is entirely understandable". (I was appearing for the Defendant). I anticipated a tough time asking for leave to appeal, but I had all of my arguments thoroughly prepared and was ready to give it a real go. When the judgment had been given the other side understandably asked for their costs of the applications, which since they had won was inevitably going to be granted. I was asked by the High Court Judge if I had any comment (even if there is not a snowball's chance in hell of anything you say making any difference, the Judge has still got to give you the opportunity) and I said given the judgment I couldn't oppose costs, but sought leave to appeal. I was just about to get out the first sentence regarding the grounds when the Judge shouted "That is refused!". I am not sure that there was anything I could have done about it, but on my first High Court appearance with my pupil master watching I had planned on getting more than one sentence out.