Planning law regulates the way in which property owners use and develop their property in the interests of the wider community. Local planning authorities are required to follow the national legal framework in their decision making. Planning law is often interwoven with other branches of the law, such as environment, local government and judicial review. Clients might include landowners, developers, local authorities, public and private utilities, government departments, amenity groups and individuals.

Environment law seeks to protect both humans and the physical environment against pollution and the impact of human activity on the natural world. Environment lawyers find themselves involved in a wide range of matters, including health and safety risk management, contaminated land, waste, renewable energy, environmental finance, commercial and property transactions, and nuclear law.

James Pereira didn't really enjoy studying law at university; he found it pretty dry and thought the abstraction of legal concepts was quite dull. So when he graduated, he was determined to find an area of law that would excite him. A longstanding affinity for natural sciences, and a scientific bent in general, suggested that he might be suited to environment law, so after a master's at King's College, London he applied for pupillage at specialist sets in London. James was then taken on at Francis Taylor Building.

He soon discovered that the practice of law is far removed from its study. "The move to pupillage was quite refreshing," he says. "You realise that in practice, the law itself is just a part of it. There are all sorts of other things to get to grips with, such as understanding your clients' commercial perspective, getting on with people, managing teams and people's expectations, and being able to identify and resolve the practical issues that concern your clients. Rather than being to do with the law, often this is all to do with understanding the other side's concerns and trying to present your client's case in a way that deals with those concerns, while promoting the client's position."

James admits that some cases involve a lot of law and research, but in other cases, he believes, it's all about negotiation and the way in which you present your argument - this is particularly true on the planning side, where multiple factions are often involved. "A lot of what we do is about getting consent for proposals and planning is not really a bipartite transaction," he explains. "You have the developer, the local authority which is the regulator, and then all the public interest groups and consultees. So you have to try to navigate a way through all the competing interests and arguments - this often involves not simply law, but what you might call a management of the process."

At any one time, James can find himself juggling a number of different areas of law and handling a wide variety of situations. "Recently, in a single week I found myself advising on a multimillion-pound compensation claim, consulting on a new pipeline for a power station and drafting a skeleton argument on behalf of a local resident who wanted to challenge planning permission for a waste disposal facility in the countryside. So in the space of a few days you can find yourself carrying out a wide range of tasks for very different kinds of person and organisation."

The nature of the projects involved also means that barristers in this area are likely to come into contact with other members of the Bar and other solicitors in the instructing firm, as well as other professionals such as architects, ecologists and noise and traffic consultants. While this can make the work more interesting, it also demands an ability to interact with these disparate specialities in a meaningful manner and sometimes steer the group as a whole. "You've got to have that ability to manage people and to manage teams in particular," says James. "Ultimately, when people come to a barrister to help promote a particular project, they really look to us for leadership: how the matter should go forward, who's got to do what, when it's got to be done by - those sorts of things."

A pupillage in planning/environment at Francis Taylor Building involves three distinct aspects. First, some experience of advocacy is encouraged by asking pupils to look after small matters that aren't part of the chambers' core practice, such as smaller county court cases and possessions hearings. Second, pupils assist more senior members of chambers with their work. Finally, James suggests, an increasing amount of small-scale work for local authorities is passed to very junior members because of the squeeze being put on finances.

As you become more senior, the amount of responsibility increases - as do the complexity and value of cases. But as James points out, the legal education never ends. "One thing that struck me when I started out was the huge extent to which you learn by doing things and by seeing other people do things," he says. "I think there is a tendency among pupils or graduates to think that it's enough to have a good degree and understand the law. But actually, the skills that really help you are the practical ones. In particular, each time you do advocacy, you learn something, and you keep getting better at as a result."

For lawyers with an eye to a future in planning or environment, it helps to be able to take on information and advice from a number of different sources, comments James. Also of increasing importance is understanding the growing influence of Europe. "European law forms quite a large part of both the planning and, in particular, the environmental side," he says. "You don't need to be clued up on competition law or free movement; you just need to understand the general principles of directives and how the system works, because most of the UK environmental regulations come from Europe."

If you're looking towards a career at the planning and environment Bar, then to improve your chances when applying for pupillage, so you need to show an understanding of the subject matter. "I suppose as far as preparation for interview is concerned, because our area is quite a specialised area, we would expect prospective pupils to have some appreciation of the specialisation and what it involves," suggests James. "So it would be good if they had seen a planning inquiry, for example, or had been to the High Court to see a judicial review."

He concludes: "At the moment there is a lot of interest in nationally significant infrastructure projects, such as power stations and airports, and how they are to be dealt with. So I think it would be impressive to have some kind of feel for that. The good thing is that because it is all government based, there are various websites - like those of the Department of the Environment and the Department for Communities and Local Government - that you can look at to get a flavour for the hot topics at any particular time."