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Cath Brown is a former barrister with a hard-earned understanding of the challenges and demands of the legal profession. After 15 years at Kings Chambers in Manchester, she transitioned into coaching and training, founding Skilful Conversation in 2018. She works with barristers on a range of career-related issues, from confidence and work/life balance to communication skills and applications (KC/judiciary) or even career change.
Passionate about empowering barristers to find and implement their own solutions, she also offers mentorship for junior barristers who may need more structured guidance.
In her latest blog, you can get some pointers on a topic that is not discussed frequently enough but that can give you an edge in your career...
Practice Management for Barristers
When most barristers think about practice management, they picture clerks, diaries, bundles, billing, emails, and paperwork. All undoubtedly “important stuff” but perhaps better seem as maintenance work as opposed to practice management or, indeed, practice building.
As Westgate Wealth recently reminded us is that every self-employed barrister is also a business owner.
So it might be helpful to think about what a small or medium enterprise would have that you might be missing:
Perhaps even a board or specialist advisors?
At the bar you have the benefit of keeping much of this simpler and more relevant but it can help to use the parallel with other business owners as a starting point to be more business-like and prevent drift.
As a coach, I will often ask my barrister coachees to think about the resources they have available, to think about what they want in their future and to work out a plan to design both the future and the working life they want week to week.
This is much more effective than the reactive approach of accepting whatever instructions arrive, hoping for repeat work and relying on blind faith that things will grow organically.
If you were advising a small business client, you would never suggest they simply “wait and see”, instead you would be advising an intentional approach, taking time out to work “on” the business not just “in” the business.
Sadly, bar schools and even chambers are not yet passing these lessons on in a clear, consistent way (or, in many cases, not at all).
So here are some tips to allow you to bring the same strategic mindset you apply in litigation to the way you run your practice.
Three Pillars of Intentional Practice Management
Strategic career planning
As an advocate, you might have been taught to write your closing speech first. Similarly, every good strategy starts with a destination.
Ask yourself:
Once you know the target, planning becomes much easier. If you haven’t taken the time to do this for your practice recently, why not take a few minutes now to ask yourself these questions and write down your answers.
Productivity that allows you to work towards your goals
Productivity isn’t about doing more — it’s about doing what matters consistently.
Simple shifts can have a big impact:
A reminder: if the most strategic tasks always fall to the bottom of your to-do list, your practice will stay reactive rather than proactive and that vague feeling of unease or dissatisfaction will remain.
Making your value visible (Branding and Relationships)
Barristers rarely think of themselves as having a “brand”, but you already do, whether you like it or not. It's your reputation which, of course, goes before you. It can be useful to think about your brand as being “what people say about you when you’re not in the room”.
Here are some more questions for you to consider, whether on a walk or otherwise:
What small business owners will be told time and time again by their trusted advisors is that people do business with people and, more than that, they do business with people they know, like and trust.
Of course, the benefit then flows both ways, you are likely to enjoy your work more if you too are working with people you know, like and trust and whose values and working styles align with your own. This is much more likely to happen if you devote deliberate attention to your brand and your relationships.
Take a practical first step (or two)
This week, try setting aside perhaps just one hour for “business owner time.”
Use it to reflect, plan, or intentionally choose one action that supports the practice you want as opposed to the practice you have ended up with.
You don’t have to do this alone
Like advocacy, strategic practice management is a skill — one that improves with guidance, structure, and support (as well as time).
I hope that the thoughts and questions outlined above will set you on your way.
But, if you would like coaching support in building an intentional, future-proof practice at the bar, I offer 1:1 coaching tailored specifically to barristers. This can be tailored to meet your needs. Sometimes I work with people online with fortnightly or monthly sessions. Others prefer an intense in-person half-day or day with preparation beforehand and accountability support afterwards. I can create a proposal that works for your budget and your timetable.
You are invited to book a free introductory call to explore how I can support you or find out more at my website.
It is probably obvious from the above that I am passionate about these topics and would love training about practice management, self-leadership and wellbeing to be commonplace in Chambers. I am proud to be working on this with Max Wilson (another former barrister) and Coaching Advocates to bring practical and interactive workshops to Chambers and you can find out more here.
