1990s

Nancy Rice – Joint First Junior Clerk, Temple Garden Chambers

After finishing my A levels I was offered work experience with a family friend who was a barrister at Francis Taylor Buildings.  Clerking was not a profession I had heard of previously so went to Chambers with an open mind. I thoroughly enjoyed the week and was recommended to join the IBC for job advertisements.  This led me to apply for a clerking role at 1Temple Gardens (as TGC was known back in 1991). I was interviewed by an all male panel but was warmly welcomed and came away feeling positive. Sadly, I failed to get that role as they were looking for someone who had had some work experience. Three months later 1 Temple Gardens made contact with another clerking position which they thought I would be suitable for, and I happily accepted.

I was the most junior of four clerks (all others were male)and the Senior Clerk had his own room. Chambers was 24 strong with 3 female members. All members were very friendly and I never perceived there to be any sexism towards me by members or staff.

Being a junior clerk in a busy common law set was very demanding and fast paced which I thrived on. The DX was collected and taken by sports bag/trolley twice a day.  Court runs consisted of a trolley full of books and papers.  More senior members of chambers some times struggled with allowing a slip of a girl pushing a trolley and heaving it up the steps and tried to assist, sadly this only made matters worse. I also recall entering the male robbing room to drop off some collars to be cleaned and met with some hostile stares; I held my head high and smiled warmly.

Conferences were held in barristers’ rooms and you hastily had to make space on one of the desks to set down a tea tray and serve clients then back out quietly.

Papers were entered onto a computer but a paper diary was still run and I very much enjoyed penning it in at the end of the day and noting the briefs with the fee for the following day. No monitoring of allocation of work was undertaken.

Through the court/DX runs and attending fixing appointments over at the RCJ you forged great relationship with fellow clerks (male and female) which was of great assistance whenever you needed a favour or simply a shoulder to lean on.  Female clerks were still very much in the minority and although the large majority were friendly there was a quota who sought to be very bullish as if to prove themselves.

There were several solicitors and other male clerks who often called asking to “speak to one of the boys”.  I had to persistently push myself forward to prove that I could actually help them. Over time I broke down their barriers and they would no longer ask to speak to others and eventually would in fact ask for me by name.

I did witness incidents of sexist or inappropriate comments but at no point felt intimidated or deeply offended.  At points the pressure from barristers and other clerks could feel immense and overwhelming and trying to juggle too many tasks at once reached a peak, but thankfully these times were kept to a minimum by good organisational skills and very thick skin.  

At any social events/marketing I was very often the lone female, if not certainly in the minority.

Unfortunately, the females we had in chambers in the early90s did not remain in the profession or chambers and largely left the bar to concentrate on their family or take up other legal roles that did not require the hours, travelling and unpredictability that came hand in hand with life as a barrister. There were no policies in place to assist working parents remain in the profession.

It was several years before another female clerk joined 1TG(not through the want of trying to recruit). At one point the senior clerk was the only male in a room of five. It is with regret that all of the other female clerks from that era left for other careers or to start a family.  

Over the years I have seen many more women entering clerking and female pupils/tenants; a higher percentage also stay for longer.  However, towards the upper levels of clerking the percentage does not match that at junior levels and the same can be said for members of chambers.  A lot of those starting off as clerks diversify into other roles in chambers which is more aligned with family commitments.  I was fortunate enough for Chambers to see something in me (and me in them) that saw me promoted to First Junior Clerk after three years and to hold onto that role throughout motherhood when I worked part-time.

Clerking from a female perspective has come on leaps and bounds; stronger recruitment and marketing of the role has resulted in more females entering the profession. Greater flexibility within the role, WFH and flexible hours further enable retention.  What I do feel has been lost is the personal feel at points. The lack of in person attendances at court, DX etc does not enable as much interaction between clerks. Majority of communications are dealt with electronically rather than by telephone which does not build as strong a relationships as those by talking.  Along with a larger amount of members WFH the relationships between Clerk and Barrister are not as familiar as they were previously…this may be a good thing!

In the next edition Katie Szewczyk of Fountain Court will share her experiences of becoming a clerk in the 2000s.    

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