The legal profession in England and Wales is still divided between solicitors and barristers. The former are regulated by the Law Society, the latter by the Incorporated Council of the Bar and the individual Inns of Court. There are four Inns, all situated in the area of London close to the Law Courts in the Strand. Gray's Inn is off Holborn, Lincoln's Inn off Chancery Lane, the Middle and Inner Temples, situated between Fleet Street and the Embankment.
Intending barristers must first complete the academic stage of their legal education by obtaining a qualifying law degree (a LLB — a first degree in the United Kingdom unlike the United States — at a recognised university will normally satisfy this requirement) but some undertake a one year conversion course having initially graduated in a non-law subject. This conversion course is known as a CPE (Common Professional Examination) or Diploma in Law. The student then joins one of the Inns of Court and takes the Bar Vocational Course (BVC) at one of the accredited providers. It is still mandatory to 'keep terms' before the student can be called to the bar. This involves 'eating one's dinners', a quaint custom whereby all students must eat dinner at their Inn for a requisite number of times. It used to be a pre-requisite that twenty-four dinners were eaten before call but the number has since been reduced.
The origins of this date from the time when not merely students but practitioners dined together and students picked up the elements of their education from their fellow diners and from readings given by a senior member of the Inn (Master Reader) after the meal. Even today, at least at Middle Temple, the students are required to be present both at the commencement of the formal meal and at the grace that completes it. Often moots (legal debates arguing for or against a point before a theoretical appellate court) are held in hall afterwards. At the successful completion of their BVC (where continuous assessment as well as examinations are now the rule) and the survival of the requisite number of dining nights, students are entitled to be 'called to the Bar' at a ceremony in their Inn. This is conducted by the Masters of the Bench, or 'Benchers' who are generally senior practising barristers or judges.
All the new barrister must now do is to undertake a period of twelve months as a 'pupil', where he or she serves an apprenticeship to a barrister of at least five years experience. This is usually served in two six month periods under different pupil-masters, although they may be in the same chambers. Traditionally, the pupil was paid nothing and could earn no fees until he second six month period, when he or she was entitled to undertake work independently. Many 'sets' or chambers now provide scholarships, sometimes put against fee income, to cover the first year. Nonetheless, the Bar remains a career where supportive bank managers or rich parents are the only secure way of avoiding crippling early debts. As such it is an elite profession, at least in the social sense and also academically as many barristers are educated in the forcing-house educational systems of the older universities where competition is encouraged. This will, to some extent, change as a minimum wage must soon be paid to pupil-barristers, although in the near future the qualification of barristers will only be conferred after the successful completion of pupillage rather than before it.
After pupillage the new barrister must find a seat or 'tenancy' in chambers, as all barristers work in sets of twenty or so practitioners. They share the rent and facilities such as the service of clerks and secretaries but, while this is related to earnings, the individual barristers only earn fees for the work they undertake. There is no profit-sharing as in a partnership. The Bar remains a highly individualistic profession. Nonetheless, earnings can be high, with the top Queen's Counsel (QCs or 'silks' as they are known, from their silk gowns) making £2 million a year. The chambers system has been weakened of late and not all barristers practise from the Inns themselves, as was formerly the custom. Still, however, one can see the names of tenants placed at the entrances of many of the staircases of the buildings within the Inns. The Inns are a little like Oxford and Cambridge colleges, with common dining halls and libraries as well as living and working rooms: this facilitates the transition from public school to Oxbridge college to Inn. All the institutions look remarkably the same.
Barristers are highly traditional in that they are required to wear a horsehair wig when they appear as advocates in court, with a black gown and a dark suit and a white shirt with strips of white cotton called 'bands' hanging before a wing collar. This makes them very easy to distinguish although individuals can be disguised and anonymous while it emphasises the dramatic nature of their calling. Attempts by some members of the senior English judiciary to abolish their eighteenth century garb have been resisted by the young fogeys who comprise much of the Bar.
Barristers act primarily as advocates with rights of audience in all courts within the jurisdiction. Some solicitors now have extensive rights as advocates (the lower courts and tribunals as well as preliminary hearings have log been open to them) but the Bar is uniquely linked with court work and the presentation of the lay client's case before it. Many barristers, however, hardly ever appear in court as they undertake specialist advice, given to clients in 'cons' or conferences and they prefer to avoid the uncertainties of litigation. They may also give extensive written advice or draft legal documents. Most barristers are, however probably properly equated with US trial lawyers in that they do not deal with the public (or lay clients) directly but through the intermediary of a solicitor.
There are currently about 10,000 barristers in practice in the UK, of whom about ten percent are QCs. Many barristers are also employed in companies as 'in-house' counsel, or by local or national government. Perhaps the cleverest work in academic institutions. In Scotland members of the equivalent profession are known as 'Advocates' and they are regulated by the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh.
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