New Tenant
a personal profile
Jehad Mustafa

Before starting pupillage I’d spent a good few years studying the theory of our legal system. But your first-six is the time when you really learn what the job is about. Or perhaps more accurately, Chambers makes sure you learn what it’s about.

From the outset I attended court with my pupil supervisor and other members of Chambers on an almost daily basis, and it proved to be a process that I was very grateful for. Six months effectively shadowing barristers may sound like a long time but I was glad for every day of it the first time that a Crown Court judge decided to enter into lively debate with me in a full court room.

The written work that I did was assigned by my supervisor with a view to familiarising me with the kind of things that one day I hoped to be doing. It’s work done on real cases and as such this give you your first opportunity to genuinely influence proceedings – even as a pupil. For instance I spent some time preparing a skeleton argument for a hearing at the Court of Appeal. I then watched in the Royal Courts of Justice as my work (approved by counsel of course) was read by three high court judges in an appeal against an indeterminate sentence for public protection. We were successful and despite the considerable evidence to the contrary, I'd like to think that this was down to me.

It’s those kind of experiences that first-six is really about. You see for yourself how to talk to a client who has just been sentenced to a life imprisonment or what it’s like to advise a family who have just lost a loved one in an accident caused by a drunk driver. You experience the wait for a verdict in a murder case that you’ve spent two weeks following every second of, which you saw turn upon the discreet answer in cross-examination that couldn’t really have been true. And you realise that there’s really no other job like it.

But it’s not all hard work. Throughout pupillage I always felt very much looked after by chambers. Members strictly enforce the ‘pupils don’t pay policy’ (which means a lot of decent lunches). And then there are some time consuming and pricey courses that chambers both financed and gave me time to attend. They are good things to do early and I was glad to say that by the end of the first-six I had completed all of the professional development courses required of juniors by the bar council in the first two years of practice.

However the main resource you have access to in pupillage are the members of chambers. Amongst its forty odd members there are many hundreds of years, thousands maybe, of experience at the criminal bar. In Chambers we have at least a number of recorders, 4 silks, an editor of Archbold, some top-class advocates, a former solicitor and possibly a couple of ex-clients! It's an incredible pool of knowledge that approaches our discipline from many angles and as a pupil you find that people really want to help you get along. They want to tell you the little secrets that they they've learnt that changed cases and that could make a big difference to your practice one day.

But ultimately my first-six was about hammering me into shape so that I could take on my own cases in the second six. Chambers takes this process very seriously, there are advocacy exercises to be done and you have to demonstrate that you’re up to scratch with the law. Do this and you’re ready to go.

All in all my second-six was a great experience. Representing someone in court where so much is at stake for them is quite an honour. It’s also high pressure and it’s right to say that the members of One Paper Buildings were always there to offer me support. On countless occasions I would phone members of Chambers whilst at court to seek advice on problems that predominantly arose from my inexperience. But no matter how small the point I was always guided home thoroughly and patiently.

It’s only looking back now as a tenant, I realise how much time and resource Chambers invested in me and how fortunate I was to receive this. I had a great time during pupillage and I learnt a lot. But I suppose the real benefit is when you realise that as the months go by and without really noticing it, the bail applications that you cut your teeth on became magistrates trials and those give way to hearings and sentences in the Crown Court. And soon enough it’s time to appear in front of a jury in a Crown Court trial. But that, I’m afraid, is another story .

Jehad Mustafa

Tenant in 2008

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