Family law barristers deal with all legal matters relating to marriage, separation, divorce, cohabitation and all issues relating to children (eg, maintenance and contact arrangements, and adoption both in England and Wales and internationally). Family law also encompasses financial negotiations upon divorce, inheritance issues, pre-nuptial contracts and disputes between cohabitants. Some cases involve substantial assets and complex financial arrangements, or high-profile disputes involving well-known personalities.

Peter came to the Bar reasonably late after dabbling in theatre production for a year when he first moved to London. Although a "fun" industry to be in, Peter soon realised that it wasn't where he wanted to be long term and began looking towards the law. Predictably for someone with a theatre background, law firms were no competition for the drama and excitement to be found at the Bar. "As far as I am concerned, the Bar is the sharp end of law," he explains. "I think it's the most interesting side academically and also the most challenging. There's also the personal freedom; no one does anything for you and you are completely responsible for finding your own work and choosing your own working pattern."

Now a barrister of six years' call, Peter is comfortable that he made the right career choice. The autonomy, for one, is something he couldn't do without: "I have complete control over my own working pattern. That can sometimes be a challenge - and you do have to manage it - but there is no better feeling than being your own boss and dictating when and how you work." He also relishes the lively, convivial atmosphere of chambers: "It's like a social club in many ways - my friends are here, everyone is friendly and intelligent, and it's generally a very nice place to spend my time."

Family law breaks down into two parts - money and children - with the bulk of Peter's work flowing from the former, matrimonial finance. A head for figures is vital because lawyers working in this area will be tracing money, examining company accounts and bank statements, and investigating offshore accounts and complicated trust structures. But it's not all number-crunching. "I am often a cross between a forensic accountant, business adviser and life coach," Peter explains. "I have to balance the wellbeing of my client's family with their financial concerns; this requires emotional sensitivity, but also a tough mathematical approach. It's incredibly interesting, emotional and often very technical." Matrimonial finance work often has an international flavour too - for example, when parties have money held offshore in complicated trust structures or if couples fight over the jurisdiction in which their divorce should be heard."

One of the most memorable cases Peter worked on was a "really juicy" matrimonial finance dispute that combined everything he loves about the area. "It had an international element, lots of human emotion and really rigorous intellectual arguments," he remembers. "The husband and wife were fighting over whether their divorce proceedings should be heard in London or New York - the couple were New Yorkers, but had lived the whole of their 12- year marriage in London. Our side relied on European Court of Justice (ECJ) jurisprudence which had been applied in the Queen's Bench Division in personal injury, commercial and civil cases relating to forum non conveniens (the rule that cases be heard in the most convenient court). The ECJ ruling said, effectively, that in certain circumstances this rule no longer exists, so we tried to apply it to divorce proceedings. Legally, it was a very technical argument and, on top of that, we had five days in the High Court of cross-examination and expert evidence from New York divorce lawyers via video link."

The other side of family work is made up of private and public children law and child abduction. Although children work and matrimonial finance sometimes overlap, the two areas are very different and generally require two distinct skill sets. Private children law (ie, custody battles) is the side with which Peter is involved most often, when a parent who he is representing in a divorce asks him to act in the custody fight. Fraught and emotional, these cases very rarely settle: "Parents are fighting over the most important things in their life, so they fight with passion, usually to the bitter end." Public law children work - when local authorities apply to take children into care - is just as heavy on the advocacy, as cases usually go to trial. This is the same for child abduction law, but because it is governed by a set of international laws and treaties, it is very specialised and based almost exclusively in the High Court in London.

Whether you practise children work or matrimonial finance, one guarantee of a career at the family Bar is a high volume of advocacy: "Sometimes I'm in court on a different case every day. As you get more senior, cases take longer, but a large amount of my time at work is still spent on my feet." Along with first-rate advocacy skills, the ability to detach is important: "You have to be able to do that. Clients are going through very emotional times and are making decisions that will affect them, and their children, for the rest of their lives; as their barrister, they are looking to you as their rock of confidence. They don't need someone to tell them it's going to be alright when it isn't; what they need is someone who understands their problems and who will give them clear advice about what to do." Peter's parting advice for budding advocates comes almost as a word of warning. "Life at the Bar is not a job - it's a lifestyle," he says. "It is seven days a week, 24 hours a day. You don't have a life separate from it; you are at the Bar at all times. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but you need to be prepared for it and to enjoy what you do."