January Blues

January has been a tough month. BVC wise, all seems to be ok, Legal Research has consumed me and I shall spend the next five days in a frenzied panic trying to catch up with the rest of the studying I need to do for next weekend, but in comparison to everything else, it's absolutely fine.

January has been tough because I'm so far away from where I need to be. My current job is only temporary and is due to end at the end of the financial year, and despite newsreaders announcing that the recession is "over" I'm adopting a "I'll believe it when I see it" attitude, especially towards the jobs market. Today is the 4th anniversary of my relationship with Lovely Boy, but here I am stuck in Brummie land with a ton of work to do and he's down in London sad and lonely (also with a ton of work). Its pretty miserable really. Especially as he seems to be suffering a great deal at the moment with low self esteem and needs to not be on his own. Emotionally I'm so worried about him that I don't seem to be able to concentrate fully on my studies or job or anything else. I feel so guilty because if only I had managed to find a job in London I would be with him and able to help him to feel better. Instead I rely on the telephone to try and perk him up, which works for all of 1o minutes and then he feels down again. I have decided that cloning myself is the only way forward and will try and figure out how to do so as soon as my Legal Research is complete.

In other news, I dined at Middle Temple for the first time this month, and was very impressed with the food. The thing I didn't like though, was that the Benchers were completely separate from the students. I think it was because it was a private guest night and I'm hoping that there is a bit more mixing generally, but if not I'm not sure I see the point. I thought the whole point of qualifying sessions was to get to know other people, network and become a part of the community. I'm hoping the next one I go to is a bit more inclusive.

I also mooted again and am now through to the Quarter Final of the competition I'm in. Not bad for a first attempt. Of course it does mean I have another moot that I have to fit in preparation for around full time work and part time study. I'm not sure that the other part time students in the moot weren't relieved to have been knocked out! The fourth mooter in our round was a full timer and she was streets ahead of us. She used some brilliant expressions (which I fully intend to steal for the next round) and I was slightly in awe.

Christmas Catch up

Merry Christmas Everyone!

It has been such a long time since I've posted and the reason for that is I had no idea how difficult juggling studying and full time work can be when a depressing labour market forces you to take a Brummie based job and move back in with your family who have no understanding of why you might possibly appreciate some alone time in which to squeeze in a few hours of studying so as to pursue a life long dream of a career that you've already invested most of your life in rather than once again watching a Hollyoaks-Emmerdale-Coronation Street-Eastenders marathon "as a family". It's a right blog blocker. Although for anyone out there that cares, I think Janine did it. Oh and I'm also "Team Andre" in the Jordan v Peter saga, wanted Joe to win X-factor and "Team Jacob/Werewolf" in the Edward v Jacob debate. Just so you know... (*shoot me! PLEASE!*)

It's not all been mindless distraction though. Since my last post I've been marshalling, mooting, studying, had 2 teaching weekends, arranged 2 mini-pupillages, started a new job in London, started an accompanying part time job in London, then started a newer job in Birmingham instead. Oh, and I got my loan!!! So I can now actually pay my course fees and get to sleep at night :)

BVC-wise, things are going pretty well I think. I'm noticing that despite my interest in Criminal Law and my lack of enthusiasm for Civil, I'm finding Civil pretty easy but Crime more of a struggle. In Advocacy, I'm getting good feedback but in all honesty I just don't feel that satisfied with myself, whereas in Conference I think I'm doing well but then the feedback doesn't live up to how I felt at the time. I was pretty nervous about Conference to begin with, but actually, my tutor is brilliant and I think if anyone is going to help me figure out how not to be too slow talking about the irrelevant things it will be him.

Opinion Writing is still the best taught subject, and so clear and, at the moment at least, no trouble at all, which is good because I have an assessed Opinion to hand in next session. Legal Research becomes more of a nightmare as time goes by. I thought, foolishly, that it would be fine, instead I handed in an 80 page UNFINISHED mess as my Mock Assessment and genuinely can't wait till the next session to be put out of my misery and find out where on earth I went wrong. Generally I'm pretty pleased with how things are going, it isn't all smooth sailing obviously, but all the same, I am finding it much much easier than university. Which is strange considering the amount of work there is, but doesn't surprise me because I'm much more dedicated to this than I was to my degree.

Oh, and my classmates are still fantastic people, and nothing like the idiots I went to university with. I feel really lucky. The only thing is that there is one absolutely crazy cat lady who is a shakespearean tragedy all to herself. She doesn't do the work, and then disrupts the class and interrupts to ask the tutor why she doesn't understand what he is talking about, or whether or not she read about such and such a case that was in the newspaper last year. I noticed that she had become a bit of a pariah (it's not hard to imagine why) and attempted to make nice and got my head bitten off and last session, she stormed out of a classroom mid lesson. It kills me to think that she might somehow land a pupillage. The pupillage system seems so random, it could actually happen, and if she did, I think I might have to stick pins in my eyes to block out the pain.

Will try to post again soon, but not only do i have the family time/soap opera gauntlet to run daily, I also got Rumpole and Kavannagh QC DVD box sets for Christmas. Which is for Advocacy studying purposes of course...

October teaching weekend.

I had my first proper teaching weekend this weekend, and I have to say I'm feeling positive. There are a lot of things to complain about I guess, but on the whole I'm pretty happy. My classmates and I have bonded really well, I was expecting cut-throat competition and point scoring all the time, but so far none of that. We're all pretty supportive of each other and generally just enjoy each other's company.

Legal Research takes up so much time it is untrue! Already I loathe MS Word and its' inability to consistently help me with the formatting of my research record. Sometimes it plays along and that "auto format" thingy works brilliantly, and then it will just stop doing it and I have to try and figure out what it was that it was doing automatically. I'm useless with computers at the best of times, and when you've been working on something for hours and it suddenly decides to change your font, the temptation to throw the damn thing out of the window nearly gets the better of me. The actual process of researching the problems and writing it up is not so bad though, I quite like it, although I wish there was a way of fast-forwarding the slow bits.

Advocacy went really well. I was quite nervous about getting up for the first time, but actually it was pretty fun. I think the key at this stage is probably confidence. Especially getting up in front of my classmates, instead of imagining them being critical of the negatives, I tried to imagine them being impressed by the bits I did well, and it really helped. It meant that I didn't care about them watching, I was just focusing on the job in hand. I really liked the way that the class was structured, and the advice the tutor gave was individual to the person, and dealt with their biggest issue, whatever that was. The best bit though in terms of a confidence boost, was that I got a "Very Competent" for my first go :) very competent and very proud.

Civil remains dull as dishwater in my eyes. The class prep took so long I could feel myself ageing as I worked my through the CPR. I want to get over my dislike of the subject, I want to keep an open mind about which area of law I want to practice in, but the reality is that it just seems so boring in comparison to crime!

Criminal obviously, was better. There was loads of reading for that as well though. I made the mistake of preparing for Civ and Crim last of all, which was not a good idea. This time around I'm going to do them first, because you just cannot rush it if you want to remember any of it. The questions we had to prepare for the class helped though because I was able to focus my reading, but there is very little guidance on whether for the exam we need to know EVERYTHING or just the topics we discuss in the class. Oh and does anyone know if the MCT questions handed out in the SGS are reflective of the questions in the exam in the sense of the level of difficulty that is?? Because they seemed quite straightforward, but I keep hearing horror stories about the exam... and of course, there are no "past papers" we can look at until the mock exam.

Written Skills was taught really well. It was the first time that we didn't seem to rush through the content at break neck speed, instead we were actually being taught an approach to opinion writing and good methods to prepare and plan.

We haven't had Conference yet, which is one that I'm a bit uncertain about. It will hopefully go well, but unlike advocacy, I've never seen a Barrister actually doing the skill, so I find it difficult to visualise myself doing it. But hey ho, for now I've got looking for a job to continue worrying about!

Summer round up

In the interests of anonymity I've been trying where possible to not blog about mini pupillages etc at the time that I've actually been doing them. However it is probably now safe to blog away about some of the more positive experiences I've had over the summer (You'll be aware that employment wise, things didn't go so well).


Marshalling was brilliant, particularly as I'd been out of legal thinking mode for a while, it was refreshing to be applying my brain to the facts of the case, and discussing them with the judge when we were in chambers. The best point really was that there were some interesting points of law raised during the trail, whether Prosecution counsel had to tender a witness whose evidence wasn't entirely favourable to his case, bad character applications, and ultimately whether the crown had presented sufficient evidence on which a jury could convict at half time. The judge really involved me in his thought process, asking me my opinion, directing me to relevant sections in Archbold etc so I could read what he had read and see what conclusion I reached and discussing it.

Plus, sitting on the bench next to him was something else entirely! Obviously there's the fact that it gave me a different perspective on the court, a different angle from which to observe counsel etc. but ultimately it was FUN. At one point a witness accidentally called me "Your Honour" which made me blush, and internally giggle like a school girl. HA!

All in all, I quite enjoyed it :)

I also did another Criminal mini pupillage for 2 days. This time I was shadowing the prosecution and it gave me a completely different perspective again on the workings of a trial. Not only did I get to talk with counsel, I also got a chance to chat with the Officer of the Case, and got a real appreciation for the amount of work that can go into bringing a case to trial. The case in particular was a pretty big deal, and a LOT of work had gone into preparing it. Its one of those things that is obvious and you more or less know but until I actually spoke to the team behind the scenes I had no real appreciation of the work being put in to secure a conviction.

Previously I've not been able to picture myself prosecuting, there seemed to me to be something a bit sinister to be working for a conviction, given the impact that can have on a defendant's life, particularly having done a lot of research into the difficulty of resettlement and reintegration when a prisoner is released from custody. However, now I can appreciate that both sides are just as important as each other for the law to be upheld, and its probably a good thing I've finally realised that because its not like I'll get a choice in practice!


So despite being screwed over in two jobs this summer, its not all been bad. Yes, I am unemployed again, yes I am back in Brummie land with my parents, no, I have no idea how I'm going to pay my BVC fees without a job and yes, I am laying awake all night worrying. BUT at least I'm finally studying the BVC and I've had some good experiences over the summer that make my CV sparkle a little brighter than it did in the Spring.

Day 1 of BVC

... was brilliant :)

All of the other PT students that I got chatting to seemed down to earth, nice friendly decent people. All of them are working as well and all of them had personalities. Not a Law Zombie in sight. Given that my experience of other law students at university was quite a negative one, this was such a relief and I'm over the moon about how nice everybody was. A few people seemed absolutely insane, commuting in for the course from the far reaches of the globe (!), and given that so many of them have families and children as well as a full time job to juggle, I don't feel nearly so hard done by with my unclear employment situation.

The course itself is exciting me no end. The only bit today that seemed a bit dreary was Civil Lit which doesn't surprise me, I'm a Crime girl at the end of the day. But even that was exciting in the sense that everything is relevant, it is all about how you actually go about being a Barrister rather than the academic studying of the law itself. It almost made me giggle a bit at one point from sheer excitement. It just seems so surreal that all of a sudden, I've started the BVC. At one point at uni I never thought I'd make it, and with all of the bad luck I've been having with work and housing, I haven't had time to worry and be nervous about it beginning, I just kind of turned up to register and there I was, in the lecture theatre starting the course!

Adults Only

I have a vague memory of being a child, possibly in some sort of tacky tourist shop whilst on holiday, and at the back of the store there was an "Adults Only" section, partitioned off from the rest of the store, that naturally made me and every other child that ever saw it desperately curious. What I have recently discovered is that within that Adults Only section of life lies misery, stress, and exploitation. I wish I'd never crossed over.

My job has, to some extent fallen through. I can still work for them, provided I'm willing to be exploited at a wage that is £10K p.a. less than I was originally offered and realistically not enough to live on (let alone pay extortionate BVC fees from). Unhelpfully, people keep pointing out to me that there is a recession, high levels of unemployment, blah blah blah. They shut up when I mention that none of the men that do the same job that I do have had their pay cut. Oh, and I'm still homeless as the wage they have offered me is too low for me to commit to the rent that I had initially been lined up to pay. And what do my parents say? "Welcome to the Adult World".

BVC starts on Thursday, completely and utterly not ready for this stage of my life to begin, and yet it is happening anyway. I don't like this Adult thing... is there a reverse gear?

Back on Track

Things appear to have worked themselves out. I had a momentary lapse of discipline and direction following my redundancy, but managed to snap out of it long enough to bag myself a new job :)

A better paid job :)

A more Pupillage-Friendly job :) :)

Best of all, I am genuinely helping people. I am working with customers who have been made redundant and have been unemployed for at least 6 months, giving them advice and guidance to help with their search for work and signing them up for free training to make them more employable. The most amazing thing is the feeling I get when I see I've genuinely helped them, and the advice that I've given them will make it easier for them to find work.

It is absolutely brilliant experience working so closely with members of the public, and every time I have a difficult customer I feel like thanking the stars for the chance to learn how to cope and provide them with meaningful support, because no matter how difficult it might be sometimes, advising a client about entering a guilty plea or whether or not to pursue custody of children during a Divorce Settlement is going to be much harder.

Waiting to hear if I've managed to secure some funding for the BVC from my provider, I'm not holding my breath but still, all my fingers and toes are crossed.

The only issue that I have now (and its actually quite a big one) is that technically I am homeless. I had to leave London after I lost my job and go back to Brum to be with the family. I had only been there a few days when I was offered my job, and in the haste to get back down here and start as soon as possible I've had to come back before finding anywhere to live. I've also lost confidence slightly in the security of a job having experienced the difficulty of losing one, and am reluctant to actually take out a tenancy on a flat until I have at least some idea of whether the job is secure. At the moment I'm completely rushed off my feet, so it seems to be fine, but I'm still being cautious for a few more weeks. So I am "sofa-surfing", moving from friend to friend and extremely appreciative of the fact that I have friends willing to put me up. Its only in a situation like this that you realise how many people there are that will support you when you need them.