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Philip Hinks and Laura Newton report from a seminar discussing life at the commercial Bar as a working parent of young children. A number of common themes emerged relevant to all barrister parents
On 10 July 2024, COMBAR Wellbeing Committee hosted Parenting in Practice, a seminar discussing (under the Chatham House rule) the practicalities of juggling parenthood and practice. The panel comprised Philippa Hopkins KC (Essex Court Chambers), Jemma Tagg (the CEO of Twenty Essex), Philip Hinks (3VB) and Laura Newton (Brick Court Chambers). The event was well attended in person and online, with particular attendance from a number of young parents keen to share their experiences and seek advice from peers. In this article we set out some of the advice shared at the event, as well as some concerns raised by COMBAR members about issues arising in relation to family commitments in practice.
When planning to take a period of childbirth leave, it can be sensible to preserve some flexibility rather than committing to return on or by a certain date. You may not know how you’ll feel about being on leave or returning to work after having a baby, and it can be preferable to allow yourself the freedom to alter your intended return date without having to inform clients or renege on previous commitments. Whenever you return, it may well be emotionally complex – no matter how much you may be looking forward to returning to work and regaining your professional identity, it can also be a complex transition as you leave your child and settle into new childcare routines. Some participants found it easiest not to make too many plans immediately on their return (both in terms of taking on work, and social engagements) and gave themselves a ‘soft landing’ back into working life.
Whatever your approach, it’s vital to communicate clearly with your clerks: before you go on leave, while you are on leave and before coming back to work. It can be very helpful to schedule a ‘return to work’ practice meeting either before or on your return, so that you can discuss with your clerks your intentions for working life and make them aware of any hard boundaries or preferred working times that your work will now need to accommodate. This ensures that clerks are well-informed and will not have to make assumptions about your availability or appetite for work. A good chambers parental leave policy should make provision for a ‘return to work’ briefing.
In our discussion about life at the commercial Bar as a working parent of young children, there were a number of common themes. Most of us have found most colleagues (leaders, juniors, clerks and solicitors alike) to be supportive of the demands of family life, and that this was something that we could bond with colleagues over. It has been positive to be able to share experiences and be open about family commitments which are, for the most part, normalised as part of working life. We have also found the flexibility of the commercial Bar to be, in general, very conducive to juggling young family life – very few other careers would afford so much freedom to determine when, how and how much one works.
One of the other major benefits of our field is a degree of financial stability that enables us to put in place reliable childcare. That said, many of us turn down long work overseas, and would have to think carefully before taking on urgent work that requires extensive work outside of normal working/childcare hours. These things can of course be accommodated, but may require more planning and support than in one’s pre-child working life.
Long trials can be a challenge, particularly for very small children who have no real concept of time. It can be helpful to identify what your child/ren find particularly distressing and then try to work around that – notwithstanding court commitments – wherever possible. For example, can you still join them at bathtime, bedtime or a mealtime in order to provide some consistency? Can you leave them notes to find for times when you aren’t there?
‘Accept the juggle’ was a frequent refrain at the talk – an event like a long trial will inevitably take its toll on family life, so this is the time to draw on your support networks as much as possible and to take advantage of as much outside help, such as with domestic chores, as you can in order to use your limited free time as fruitfully as possible. Finally, make sure you reap the rewards of your hard work when the trial comes to an end, by taking time off with (or perhaps, also, without!) your family. As well as holidays, it can be sensible to take some time working from home and allowing for a bit of leeway in the diary, rather than stacking back-to-back heavy commitments such as long trials.
In our discussion about fatherhood at the commercial Bar, participants spoke of the changes they had made to their practice since the arrival of their children. Instead of working late into the night in chambers, some participants routinely leave chambers in time to be home for bath and bedtime. That often requires work to continue at home after children have gone down, but it allows fathers to be more present on a daily basis and to share the parenting load. Other participants spoke of starting work at a later time than they had before they became fathers to allow them to have breakfast with their children and to drop them off at school. For others, they were no longer able – or willing – to work on weekends to the extent they had before their children came along.
The natural corollary of changes like these is that less work will probably be taken on, because one simply has less time available to work. In addition, certain engagements – in particular urgent injunctions and overseas hearings – are harder to manage and may need to be turned down.
Fathers who spoke at the seminar often found leaders and solicitors to be supportive of childcare commitments. Provided the work gets done, it often doesn’t matter if you can’t join a call or respond to an email that afternoon because it coincides with sports day or a school play, or because you’re at home with a sick child. Fathers attending the seminar generally found positives in discussing and sharing their experiences of juggling parenting and practice with colleagues. One can learn a lot about how to manage work with being a present parent by finding out how colleagues are managing to do so. Having such discussions also helps to normalise the idea of fathers at the commercial Bar who make time to be with their children and who share the parenting load.
Some participants had experience of leaders and solicitors who were less accommodating. There is no easy solution when one finds oneself involved in such a case. In some instances, it might be acceptable simply to say that you are unavailable or have other commitments, without specifying what those commitments are.
Specific concerns were raised by certain participants as to the practice of draft judgments being circulated without prior indication and with hand down and consequentials hearings being fixed shortly thereafter. We all have experience of the panic stations event of an unexpected and unhelpful judgment, and the extra and unexpected urgent work that this can generate. Similar concerns were raised in respect of the practice of fixing follow-on hearings at short notice or on dates when one has parenting commitments. These concerns raise both practical and ethical concerns. Such events aside, our experience is that the normalisation of flexible working since COVID-19 has made it far easier to combine practice at the commercial Bar with family life.
Philip Hinks is a barrister practising from 3 Verulam Buildings. He specialises in commercial law, including civil fraud, financial services and insolvency. Philip is a father of three children aged 9, 6 and 4.
Laura Newton (Brick Court Chambers) specialises in commercial work, often with a fraud aspect. Her clients include banks, tech companies, nation states and private individuals. Laura is a mother of two children aged 2 and 4.
On 10 July 2024, COMBAR Wellbeing Committee hosted Parenting in Practice, a seminar discussing (under the Chatham House rule) the practicalities of juggling parenthood and practice. The panel comprised Philippa Hopkins KC (Essex Court Chambers), Jemma Tagg (the CEO of Twenty Essex), Philip Hinks (3VB) and Laura Newton (Brick Court Chambers). The event was well attended in person and online, with particular attendance from a number of young parents keen to share their experiences and seek advice from peers. In this article we set out some of the advice shared at the event, as well as some concerns raised by COMBAR members about issues arising in relation to family commitments in practice.
When planning to take a period of childbirth leave, it can be sensible to preserve some flexibility rather than committing to return on or by a certain date. You may not know how you’ll feel about being on leave or returning to work after having a baby, and it can be preferable to allow yourself the freedom to alter your intended return date without having to inform clients or renege on previous commitments. Whenever you return, it may well be emotionally complex – no matter how much you may be looking forward to returning to work and regaining your professional identity, it can also be a complex transition as you leave your child and settle into new childcare routines. Some participants found it easiest not to make too many plans immediately on their return (both in terms of taking on work, and social engagements) and gave themselves a ‘soft landing’ back into working life.
Whatever your approach, it’s vital to communicate clearly with your clerks: before you go on leave, while you are on leave and before coming back to work. It can be very helpful to schedule a ‘return to work’ practice meeting either before or on your return, so that you can discuss with your clerks your intentions for working life and make them aware of any hard boundaries or preferred working times that your work will now need to accommodate. This ensures that clerks are well-informed and will not have to make assumptions about your availability or appetite for work. A good chambers parental leave policy should make provision for a ‘return to work’ briefing.
In our discussion about life at the commercial Bar as a working parent of young children, there were a number of common themes. Most of us have found most colleagues (leaders, juniors, clerks and solicitors alike) to be supportive of the demands of family life, and that this was something that we could bond with colleagues over. It has been positive to be able to share experiences and be open about family commitments which are, for the most part, normalised as part of working life. We have also found the flexibility of the commercial Bar to be, in general, very conducive to juggling young family life – very few other careers would afford so much freedom to determine when, how and how much one works.
One of the other major benefits of our field is a degree of financial stability that enables us to put in place reliable childcare. That said, many of us turn down long work overseas, and would have to think carefully before taking on urgent work that requires extensive work outside of normal working/childcare hours. These things can of course be accommodated, but may require more planning and support than in one’s pre-child working life.
Long trials can be a challenge, particularly for very small children who have no real concept of time. It can be helpful to identify what your child/ren find particularly distressing and then try to work around that – notwithstanding court commitments – wherever possible. For example, can you still join them at bathtime, bedtime or a mealtime in order to provide some consistency? Can you leave them notes to find for times when you aren’t there?
‘Accept the juggle’ was a frequent refrain at the talk – an event like a long trial will inevitably take its toll on family life, so this is the time to draw on your support networks as much as possible and to take advantage of as much outside help, such as with domestic chores, as you can in order to use your limited free time as fruitfully as possible. Finally, make sure you reap the rewards of your hard work when the trial comes to an end, by taking time off with (or perhaps, also, without!) your family. As well as holidays, it can be sensible to take some time working from home and allowing for a bit of leeway in the diary, rather than stacking back-to-back heavy commitments such as long trials.
In our discussion about fatherhood at the commercial Bar, participants spoke of the changes they had made to their practice since the arrival of their children. Instead of working late into the night in chambers, some participants routinely leave chambers in time to be home for bath and bedtime. That often requires work to continue at home after children have gone down, but it allows fathers to be more present on a daily basis and to share the parenting load. Other participants spoke of starting work at a later time than they had before they became fathers to allow them to have breakfast with their children and to drop them off at school. For others, they were no longer able – or willing – to work on weekends to the extent they had before their children came along.
The natural corollary of changes like these is that less work will probably be taken on, because one simply has less time available to work. In addition, certain engagements – in particular urgent injunctions and overseas hearings – are harder to manage and may need to be turned down.
Fathers who spoke at the seminar often found leaders and solicitors to be supportive of childcare commitments. Provided the work gets done, it often doesn’t matter if you can’t join a call or respond to an email that afternoon because it coincides with sports day or a school play, or because you’re at home with a sick child. Fathers attending the seminar generally found positives in discussing and sharing their experiences of juggling parenting and practice with colleagues. One can learn a lot about how to manage work with being a present parent by finding out how colleagues are managing to do so. Having such discussions also helps to normalise the idea of fathers at the commercial Bar who make time to be with their children and who share the parenting load.
Some participants had experience of leaders and solicitors who were less accommodating. There is no easy solution when one finds oneself involved in such a case. In some instances, it might be acceptable simply to say that you are unavailable or have other commitments, without specifying what those commitments are.
Specific concerns were raised by certain participants as to the practice of draft judgments being circulated without prior indication and with hand down and consequentials hearings being fixed shortly thereafter. We all have experience of the panic stations event of an unexpected and unhelpful judgment, and the extra and unexpected urgent work that this can generate. Similar concerns were raised in respect of the practice of fixing follow-on hearings at short notice or on dates when one has parenting commitments. These concerns raise both practical and ethical concerns. Such events aside, our experience is that the normalisation of flexible working since COVID-19 has made it far easier to combine practice at the commercial Bar with family life.
Philip Hinks and Laura Newton report from a seminar discussing life at the commercial Bar as a working parent of young children. A number of common themes emerged relevant to all barrister parents
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