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Ben Heaviside explores the pivotal role of clerking, tailored practice management and an inclusive chambers policy in a successful return to practice – keeping talent at the Bar
In the demanding world of the Bar, balancing parenthood with a successful legal practice presents a significant challenge for many barristers. Returning from parental leave can be filled with concerns about rebuilding a practice, maintaining professional visibility and managing childcare responsibilities.
Based on our experience at Mountford Chambers, this article explores how clerks can play a crucial role in facilitating this transition and supporting barristers returning to work, particularly after parental leave.
Clerks play a crucial role in managing barristers’ practices and ensuring a smooth return to work after parental leave. As key intermediaries between clients, courts, and barristers, they ensure that schedules are well-organised, and diaries are effectively managed.
When a barrister returns from parental leave, the role of clerks becomes even more vital. But support needs to begin even before a barrister returns to work. Regular check-ins with barristers during their leave helps to maintain a connection with chambers, and with the transition back to work.
Clerks should take a proactive approach to manage this transition and ensure a smooth re-entry into practice. Support during this initial phase is crucial, not just for the individual barrister, but also the long-term retention of talented barristers.
Understanding that each barrister’s circumstances are different is integral to effective practice management around parental leave. By conducting return-to-work meetings, tailored solutions can be found to address individual needs or concerns. Like all barrister-clerking relationships, there should be a highly personalised approach.
It’s become customary for barristers returning from leave to opt for a part-time return to ease back into their practice. This necessitates working closely with these barristers to gradually reintroduce work by managing their diaries to avoid overwhelming them. As the barrister becomes more comfortable, clerks can adjust their workload, increasing it at a pace that suits their needs.
The ability of clerks to navigate these flexible schedules is key to supporting barristers with young families. Understanding the unpredictable nature of childcare, such as sudden illnesses or changes in care arrangements, allows clerks to quickly rearrange hearings or deadlines. This helps returning barristers manage their personal responsibilities without the added stress of rigid work expectations.
Returning tenants can also work with their clerks to secure secondment opportunities, offering more predictable hours and reduced travel while continuing to develop and expand their practice areas and advocacy skills.
A central part of this support is effective communication. Clerks should notify all relevant parties of the barrister’s return well in advance, allowing for the rescheduling of appointments and gradually filling the barrister’s diary, facilitating a manageable return to work.
Clerks can also encourage returning barristers to re-engage with their professional network by attending industry events, contributing to legal publications, and reconnecting with former clients and colleagues. This helps barristers to re-establish their professional presence and practice.
To further support barristers with children, clerks can arrange inclusive events that take into account their commitments, such as timing them to avoid school holidays and accommodating personal schedules. These events should be varied and considerate of cultural, religious, and personal preferences, ensuring that all barristers can participate fully without added stress.
While returning to work after having children has traditionally been more of a challenge for women, male barristers who choose to take significant periods of parental leave also need to be supported.
Encouraging male barristers to take extended parental leave not only promotes gender equality but also helps to break down the stigma that often surrounds career breaks for women. This approach enables all new parents to better balance their careers with family life and ensures that career interruptions are no longer seen as a challenge faced solely by women.
Despite these efforts, it’s important to recognise that while both men and women benefit from shared parental leave policies, the challenge of returning to work after having children remains disproportionately greater for women.
Female barristers often face increased pressure to prove their commitment to the profession after taking time off. Here, the role of clerks becomes especially crucial in fostering an environment of understanding and support.
To promote the adoption of a flexible approach for supporting barristers returning from parental leave across the profession, these principles should be integrated into the training of junior clerks. From the beginning of their careers, training programmes should emphasise the importance of adaptability, empathy, and effective communication. By instilling these values from the outset, future generations of clerks can be prepared to confidently navigate the unique challenges encountered by returning barristers.
As the Bar evolves, it is increasingly important for chambers and clerks to adopt flexible and proactive policies to support barristers returning from parental leave. Improving retention rates for parents, particularly women returning from maternity leave, requires a concerted effort from both policy-makers and clerks.
The legal sector’s approach to returning to work after parental leave should emphasise ongoing communication, tailored solutions, and an understanding of each barrister’s unique needs. Effective support from clerks is essential to ensure that the Bar remains an accessible and rewarding profession for all parents.
By implementing these flexible practices, chambers can enhance retention and create an environment where barristers can thrive as they transition back to their practice, ultimately fostering a more inclusive and supportive legal profession, and contributing to the overall success of chambers.
Ben Heaviside is a senior clerk at Mountford Chambers and highly knowledgeable on all chambers’ practice areas, including crime (both serious; organised; and white-collar crime), professional discipline, health and safety, environmental, and trading standards prosecutions.
In the demanding world of the Bar, balancing parenthood with a successful legal practice presents a significant challenge for many barristers. Returning from parental leave can be filled with concerns about rebuilding a practice, maintaining professional visibility and managing childcare responsibilities.
Based on our experience at Mountford Chambers, this article explores how clerks can play a crucial role in facilitating this transition and supporting barristers returning to work, particularly after parental leave.
Clerks play a crucial role in managing barristers’ practices and ensuring a smooth return to work after parental leave. As key intermediaries between clients, courts, and barristers, they ensure that schedules are well-organised, and diaries are effectively managed.
When a barrister returns from parental leave, the role of clerks becomes even more vital. But support needs to begin even before a barrister returns to work. Regular check-ins with barristers during their leave helps to maintain a connection with chambers, and with the transition back to work.
Clerks should take a proactive approach to manage this transition and ensure a smooth re-entry into practice. Support during this initial phase is crucial, not just for the individual barrister, but also the long-term retention of talented barristers.
Understanding that each barrister’s circumstances are different is integral to effective practice management around parental leave. By conducting return-to-work meetings, tailored solutions can be found to address individual needs or concerns. Like all barrister-clerking relationships, there should be a highly personalised approach.
It’s become customary for barristers returning from leave to opt for a part-time return to ease back into their practice. This necessitates working closely with these barristers to gradually reintroduce work by managing their diaries to avoid overwhelming them. As the barrister becomes more comfortable, clerks can adjust their workload, increasing it at a pace that suits their needs.
The ability of clerks to navigate these flexible schedules is key to supporting barristers with young families. Understanding the unpredictable nature of childcare, such as sudden illnesses or changes in care arrangements, allows clerks to quickly rearrange hearings or deadlines. This helps returning barristers manage their personal responsibilities without the added stress of rigid work expectations.
Returning tenants can also work with their clerks to secure secondment opportunities, offering more predictable hours and reduced travel while continuing to develop and expand their practice areas and advocacy skills.
A central part of this support is effective communication. Clerks should notify all relevant parties of the barrister’s return well in advance, allowing for the rescheduling of appointments and gradually filling the barrister’s diary, facilitating a manageable return to work.
Clerks can also encourage returning barristers to re-engage with their professional network by attending industry events, contributing to legal publications, and reconnecting with former clients and colleagues. This helps barristers to re-establish their professional presence and practice.
To further support barristers with children, clerks can arrange inclusive events that take into account their commitments, such as timing them to avoid school holidays and accommodating personal schedules. These events should be varied and considerate of cultural, religious, and personal preferences, ensuring that all barristers can participate fully without added stress.
While returning to work after having children has traditionally been more of a challenge for women, male barristers who choose to take significant periods of parental leave also need to be supported.
Encouraging male barristers to take extended parental leave not only promotes gender equality but also helps to break down the stigma that often surrounds career breaks for women. This approach enables all new parents to better balance their careers with family life and ensures that career interruptions are no longer seen as a challenge faced solely by women.
Despite these efforts, it’s important to recognise that while both men and women benefit from shared parental leave policies, the challenge of returning to work after having children remains disproportionately greater for women.
Female barristers often face increased pressure to prove their commitment to the profession after taking time off. Here, the role of clerks becomes especially crucial in fostering an environment of understanding and support.
To promote the adoption of a flexible approach for supporting barristers returning from parental leave across the profession, these principles should be integrated into the training of junior clerks. From the beginning of their careers, training programmes should emphasise the importance of adaptability, empathy, and effective communication. By instilling these values from the outset, future generations of clerks can be prepared to confidently navigate the unique challenges encountered by returning barristers.
As the Bar evolves, it is increasingly important for chambers and clerks to adopt flexible and proactive policies to support barristers returning from parental leave. Improving retention rates for parents, particularly women returning from maternity leave, requires a concerted effort from both policy-makers and clerks.
The legal sector’s approach to returning to work after parental leave should emphasise ongoing communication, tailored solutions, and an understanding of each barrister’s unique needs. Effective support from clerks is essential to ensure that the Bar remains an accessible and rewarding profession for all parents.
By implementing these flexible practices, chambers can enhance retention and create an environment where barristers can thrive as they transition back to their practice, ultimately fostering a more inclusive and supportive legal profession, and contributing to the overall success of chambers.
Ben Heaviside explores the pivotal role of clerking, tailored practice management and an inclusive chambers policy in a successful return to practice – keeping talent at the Bar
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