Amy Jacobs is a barrister at St Ive’s Chambers, a common law set in Birmingham. Amy studied modern and medieval languages at the University of Cambridge but made the choice to be a barrister. She did her CPE and BVC, and won a pupillage at St Ive’s. In September 2006 she was taken on as a tenant.

During Amy’s pupillage, she saw a little family work, “from urgent child protection order applications to care proceedings”. She remembers: “In my second six they threw me in at the deep end. I did quite a lot of preliminary hearings and things like contact and residence, and then non-molestation orders. Gradually I did some care work.” Now she works on more complex cases in the County Court. “It’s a natural progression,” she comments.

Amy has a general common law practice with a particular interest in criminal and family law: “I’m in court every day and the amount of family work I do fluctuates. Last week I had a five-day final hearing.” She talks through the usual procedure for such a hearing: “It normally starts with reading the brief, which can vary in size. Last week it was two and a half lever-arch files. I’ll speak with the solicitor first to make sure that from the client’s perspective I know what’s going on. When you get to court, the first port of call is to have a conference with the client to make sure that I understand their position and that it hasn’t changed, but also to ensure that they understand what’s going on and what’s going to happen. With family law, the clients can be very vulnerable and emotionally tied up in the proceedings, so it’s very important to make them feel that they’re not being lost.”

“Last week,” says Amy, “it turned out that most of the parties were in agreement, or thereabouts, so most of the next day and a half was spent in negotiations to iron out the difficulties in what we wanted to do. A couple of times we had to see the judge to explain where we were in the proceedings. In the end he gave an indication of what his ruling would be if all of the allegations were proved. After that we were able to draw up an order and agree it. So there was a lot of to and fro between the parties.”

Amy also works on many fact-finding hearings. “For example,” she explains, “I had one where the father was my client and there were allegations that he had beaten the mother quite regularly and that he had also been violent towards the children. This was causing the oldest child to self-harm. We had to determine which of the allegations were true.”

Her clients vary from parents to children’s guardians, something which she finds “quite interesting because you’re slightly removed. The guardian acts on behalf of the children. The local authority wants one thing and the parents want another, and it’s the job of the guardian to make sure that the children’s interests are what the court is looking at”.

Although she’s at the very start of her career, Amy is very pleased with one particular case: “I was acting for the husband and father. There were quite serious allegations against him but I believed him when he said he didn’t do it. There was a lot of evidence against him and I didn’t think he would come across very well in court. But in fact the court found that none of the allegations were true. I was pleased about that because often you have clients who you’re not sure you believe when they say they didn’t do it.”

Working in chambers offers a sense of community, says Amy: “St Ive’s has an open-door policy, so we pop in and out of each other’s rooms if we’ve got a problem. It’s almost a collegiate atmosphere with everyone helping each other out.” The long hours can be a bit of a drag, though. Amy explains: “It’s the unpredictability. There will be days when I don’t have to be in court until 2:00pm and if I’ve got something light on the next day I can go home at 5:00pm or 6:00pm. But there are other days when I’m up at 5:00am and working before I go to court, working after court and working when I get home. It’s a necessary part of the job but it’s the thing that grates the most.”

Amy sits on the pupillage interview panel at St Ive’s, so she’s grown to understand what makes a good candidate. She says: “Mini-pupillages are essential but you should also get some life experience. I think having voluntary work experience which exposes you to people who are vulnerable and from a different walk of life will stand you in good stead. You get the legal knowledge when you do your legal training and pupillage, but the ability to deal with people is something that you can gain from voluntary work.”

During her school and university years, Amy herself did plenty of voluntary work. “I sat for hours with little old ladies making tea and dealt with people who are severely physically disabled. It does help to have that experience behind you when you’re dealing with people who have problems. Life experience is a good thing. There are a lot of candidates who come straight through from school and university, and I think having something other than a glowing academic career is ideal.”