Professional negligence arises where a defendant has breached his or her duty of care to a claimant and harm or loss has resulted. It results from the fact that professional people present themselves as having greater than average abilities. Those who may be involved in professional negligence disputes include solicitors, accountants, financial services providers, surveyors and estate agents. Clinical negligence is a type of professional negligence that involves disputes between patients and healthcare providers (usually doctors), centring on quality of care.

George Spalton is a barrister at 4 New Square. Although he always had a hunch he would become a lawyer, he studied history at the University of Oxford because the subject interested him and he knew he could progress to the conversion course. Prior to and during his degree, George did different types of work experience, from minipupillages to placements in solicitors' firms, so that by the time he graduated he knew he wanted to head to the Bar. He says: "I plumped for the Bar because I enjoyed going to court with barristers during minipupillages; I liked the fact that barristers are self-employed and have the freedom to manage their own diaries; and I thought the work was extremely interesting and varied. In short, I thought the Bar would provide a particularly exciting career."

He was offered pupillage at 4 New Square while he was on the conversion course, but the set gave him the choice between starting pupillage straight after Bar school or having a year off. George took the opportunity to study a master's degree in law at Columbia University in New York. Having already done the GDL and BVC, George wanted to explore law further. "I was aware that courses in America are particularly good," he says, adding that "it was also a great opportunity to live abroad for a year".

Upon his return from the Big Apple, George commenced pupillage at 4 New Square in October 2005. 4 New Square breaks pupillage down into three sections with three different pupil supervisors. George explains: "You spend the first three months with one supervisor, move to the next at Christmas and then spend six months with a third supervisor. In the first six months you shadow your supervisor, doing the work they do and carrying out research for them. One of the fantastic things about being a pupil is having the benefit of one-on-one input from the pupil supervisor - particularly helpful because pupillage is a very steep learning curve. In the second six months you continue to work with your supervisor, as well as going to court in your own right. Chambers also organises moots so you can practise your advocacy. One of those moots is before a High Court judge who is a former member of chambers - a particularly exciting way to start off a career at the Bar!"

While 4 New Square is renowned as the preeminent professional liability set, it is also highly respected in a variety of other areas, including insurance, construction, product liability, financial services, regulatory work and chancery. George works on a range of claims and finds that his professional liability work brings him into contact with a broad array of different professions: "For example, solicitors who have acted in all sorts of underlying claims, whether transactional work or litigation, barristers, insolvency practitioners, financial advisers, bankers and surveyors."

George explains that when you start tenancy, you'll do a mixture of your own work as well as devilling for senior members of chambers and often being led on larger claims. He says: "Our work is always extremely varied and interesting. Whether advising on whether a duty of care is owed in a potential professional liability claim, enforcement of a judgment in a mortgage-related dispute or tactics prior to issuing a claim, there will always be new legal points to consider and commercial issues to address."

George also does some insolvency work and a lot of mortgage-related work for major high-street lenders, cases that take him to court regularly. The working day is also very varied, he observes. "You'll either go off to court or you'll be in chambers catching up with admin and doing paperwork. No two days are the same. I like to get in very early, at 7:30am. That gives me a bit of time to deal with emails before the phone starts ringing at 9:00am. Each day is different, but I usually go home about 7:00pm, though it can be earlier or later."

Ultimately, the most exciting aspect of the job is going to court. "At the junior end, as well as doing our own cases (whether small commercial disputes in the county court or High Court, procedural hearings or applications), we have all worked as juniors to more senior members of chambers, either in the High Court or the Court of Appeal."

George has some words of wisdom for those aiming for the Bar. "I encourage people to carry out research into the career as early as possible," he says, "before committing to a career as a lawyer." He continues: "If you decide to become a barrister, do some minipupillages to see practising barristers and seek advice about whether you'll actually get pupillage, because the last thing you want is to run up significant amounts of debt and then find out that you are unlikely to be offered a tenancy. There's an enormous amount of competition. Furthermore, the research will give you a good idea of what you are letting yourself in for."