In recent years, we’ve seen an increase in enquiries from the wider legal and professional services market. These include expert witness providers, litigation support specialists, membership organisations, and other professional services businesses that work alongside the Bar. Having gained significant exposure to chambers, they understand the environment, and they’re coming to us with a specific request; they want to hire barristers’ clerks.
This isn’t a coincidence. It speaks to something important about the skill set that the clerking profession has developed, and how widely that skill set is now being recognised.
Why these businesses are looking to the clerking profession
More legal services firms are coming to us, directly and through recommendations, to hire clerks. They want a particular type of person; someone who can manage high-value client relationships with confidence, drive business development in a sophisticated professional environment, and hold their own under pressure without losing the personal touch that keeps clients coming back. Someone who can sit comfortably alongside barristers and expert witnesses, and who brings their own significant network of contacts.
That description fits almost exactly with the modern day Barristers’ Clerk
The clerking profession has, over many years, produced people who are genuinely exceptional at navigating demanding clients, building long-term referrer relationships, and balancing the commercial and personal dimensions of a senior business development role. These are skills that take time to develop and aren’t easily taught, and businesses outside of the Bar are beginning to recognise this in a way they perhaps didn’t before.
A reflection of how the profession has evolved
It’s also worth acknowledging what this trend says about how clerking itself has changed. Chambers have grown significantly in size across the board. A mid-sized set now typically has 60 to 80 members, and the support teams behind them have evolved to match. Senior clerks and practice managers are now operating at the heart of commercially sophisticated businesses, with responsibility for revenue, client strategy, and the development of their chambers’ profile in the market.
This opens up an interesting conversation about career pathways for clerks themselves. The traditional route of moving between sets and progressing through the clerks’ room remains the most common one, and rightly so, but for those who are curious about where their skills might take them more broadly, the interest from outside chambers is real and growing significantly.
A genuine compliment to the profession
More than anything, what strikes us about this trend is what it says about clerking as a profession. The unique, transferable skill set of a modern-day barristers’ clerk has recently become highly desired well beyond the Bar.
That’s something the profession should feel good about. And it’s something we’re proud to help connect, wherever the right match might lead.
