Criminal barristers strike in self defence

Rail staff, dockers, rubbish collectors, postal workers and now even criminal barristers are on strike or will be going on strike in Brexit Britain. If higher pay is not forthcoming going on strike in self defence is fully justified.

The Covid pandemic and the war in Europe conspired against Brexit and are all taking their toll. Most people are affected by the cost-of-living hike and are asking how else they are expected to cope other than by increases in pay?

Tax cuts are an increase in pay, but they won’t cut it for the less well off. I hope everyone gets a rise large enough to enable them to ride the difficult days ahead, but I am worried criminal barristers will not get an increase in legal aid rates of more than the offer of 15 per cent. The government’s argument is that 15 per cent is more than everyone else has been offered, which is true but disingenuous since criminal legal aid rates have not increased for years.

The reason why industrial action – the legal name for going on strike – is not as effective for barristers as it is for other workers has nothing to do with the merits of their claim, but with the attitude of barristers to their work, the way their profession is organised, and the privileged lifestyle they lead.

Criminal barristers are self-employed prima donnas who love what they do for a living which is to perform in court room dramas. They are not members of a trade union and have little experience of taking industrial action. They work from chambers, but they are not employed by their set of chambers. They are usually instructed by solicitors on behalf of lay clients charged with criminal offences who are entitled to legal aid as they are of limited means. The rates are set by government that treats criminal legal aid as a Cinderella item of expenditure it can neglect with impunity.

The Bar Council represents barristers, but there are many specialist associations and the Criminal Bar Association takes care of criminal barristers; presumably it took a vote over the recent decision to take industrial action and judging by the numbers and seniority of those seen on the picket line, it has wide support.

The reality, however, is that the nature of the profession and the enchanted life barristers enjoy do not lend themselves to industrial action. Life at the bar evolves around chambers, an eccentric system of work peculiar to barristers.

When asked to explain to French lawyers the way barristers’ chambers works, an English QC, who as head of chambers was on a goodwill visit to Paris, thought it would amuse his audience to compare chambers in the Temple with the bordellos of Pigalle in Paris. Chambers he explained is more bordello than boudoir; barristers, each with different skills, offer their services as self-employed professionals sharing administrative expenses managed by a clerk whose role he likened to that of the madam in a bordello managing prostitutes.

Apparently, the analogy did not go down well with his French audience. They were not amused for unlike the humour for which English criminal barristers are world renowned, French lawyers take themselves more seriously and would never dream of comparing their profession with that of prostitutes.

The point, however, is that barristers are independent professionals who in their formative years rely on their clerk to send them off to court every working day if possible to gain as much experience as possible – the way to become a good barrister is to watch others perform and perform oneself as often as possible.

Criminal barristers in particular are court room junkies who have a good case for a bigger slice of the legal aid cake but who cannot sustain industrial action for very long, because they love what they do for a living and the lifestyle that comes with it.

Court in the morning, and drinks and gossip in the bars and wine bars around the Temple in the evenings and working into the wee hours to prepare the next day’s brief. Mastery of one’s brief is essential for all successful barristers, and they love mastering it. Armed with hi-lighters, post-it slips and blue notebooks they plough through the evidence and mug up the law for court the next day.

After robing in smelly untidy robing rooms, suitably attired in wig and gown, they rush down to the cells to see their lay client and then to the courtroom for proceedings to begin in front of judges many of whom these days are well-trained and extremely well prepared. Back in chambers barristers can have an agreeable lunch in hall in one of the Inns of Court where the cuisine has improved enormously since the days of sausages and mash last century.

In the summer there are garden parties when champagne flows and everyone, bench and bar, gets pleasantly inebriated on memorable balmy nights in the rarified surroundings of the Inns of Court. There are music and opera nights, and Shakespeare plays and choral music in Temple Church and conferences in one or other of the Oxbridge colleges always followed by dinner and witty speeches.

This goes on year, in year out until some barristers are appointed Queen’s Counsel announced on Maundy Thursday before Easter, when there are parties galore to celebrate the appointments and when El Vinos of Fleet Street makes a killing from the inordinate consumption of champagne.

In my formative years you lived on overdrafts from understanding bank managers until you got paid for cases you did years before. Often you would forget them completely until a welcome cheque would arrive in chambers and you felt as though you won the lottery.

Perhaps bank managers are not as generous as they used to be, and barristers have had enough of being broke and taken advantage of by government for the alleged sins of their clients.

Performing in front of judges and juries, examining and cross-examining witnesses, arguing points of law and making speeches and waiting for verdicts is very addictive, and while it is not easy to go on strike on one’s addiction, sometimes needs must.

Alper Ali Riza is a queen’s counsel in the UK and a retired part time judge