Steven Kovats is a barrister at 39 Essex Street, a long-established civil set. Having ruled out being a doctor due to “not being able to stand the sight of blood”, Steven read law at the University of Cambridge and did pupillage at 2 Garden Court (which became 39 Essex Street when the set moved). He discusses his experiences as a pupil: “I was very fortunate to be pupil to the then Treasury devil, so had 12 months of seeing very interesting cases, meeting very interesting people and doing very little work.”

Now, Steven’s practice is entirely public law focused, with the government as his main client. He explains: “Most of my work is for the Home Office, which is involved in more litigation than other departments because of asylum, criminal justice and prison system issues. I also do a fair amount of work that relates to the health system. European law comes up a lot, particularly in relation to immigration or the Department for Education and Skills [now the Department for Children, Schools and Families]. I have also been involved with some immigration cases in Luxembourg, although they don’t come up that often.”

With the government as a client, it makes it hard for Steven to talk with candour about the specifics of particular cases (although he mentions Zimbabwe and Iraq in passing!). However, he takes us through a couple of House of Lords criminal justice cases from 2006: “One was Longworth, which was all about whether someone on a conditional discharge was convicted for the purpose of being put on the sex offenders register. Another was Clift, which was concerned with Articles 5 and 14 of the ECHR, and whether the early release provisions to which each appellant was subject discriminated against him.”

Steven is proud of his involvement with the training of new barristers: “The thing I’m most happy about in my career is running the pupillage system here for a number of years. I get more pleasure out of following people through the process, from first application to pupillage to tenancy, than from winning in court. That seems to me to be where you can have a real sense of achievement because you get to see someone developing, you gain a valuable asset for chambers and you often become good friends.”

The least enjoyable part of the job is that of time wasted: “As with many jobs, there are a number of circumstances where you end up wasting time. For example, you’re travelling around the country or waiting for a case to be called – that can be a most unsatisfactory part of the job, but not unique to being a barrister.”

Steven discusses how best to approach the search for pupillage: “If you’re applying for pupillage, you need to have a good track record in passing exams – there’s no getting away from that. You need a clear head, good judgement and the ability to get on with people. If you want to come to the Bar (and you’re not interested in doing family, criminal or tax law), you really should get a broad-based experience. I wouldn’t advise anyone to say that they just want to do public law at an early stage, because you end up prematurely narrowing your options.”

Advocacy skills are important, but only when employed in the right way, says Steven: “It is important that you are able to convey clearly what you mean, but advocacy in terms of rhetoric is no use whatsoever; in fact, it can do more harm than good in front of a judge. They can get very irritated if they think that someone is trying to pull a fast one. They prefer to be told what the situation is and left to make up their own minds.” Developing such skills is imperative: “You will have difficulty getting pupillage without mooting or Free Representation Unit experience because you really won’t know what you’re letting yourself in for. It’s no good being academically brilliant but not enjoying getting up and arguing – it’s too late if you find that out in your second six. So it’s much better to try it out and see if you like it. If you don’t, there’s no point in becoming a barrister.”

Steven is also keen to see that someone is well-rounded: “The thing we look for is people who have an interest in things outside the law – we wouldn’t give pupillage to someone who sat in the library all day in order to pass exams, but had nothing else to offer. Other things might be anything from music to sport to a career in business.”

Steven thinks that if you do your homework, you shouldn’t be surprised by anything at the Bar, over and above the “great collection of historical portraits that are secreted about the Inns”. He says: “The idea that it’s some strange organisation like the Freemasons, where you’re going to be initiated into something bizarre, is nonsense. However, one thing that you should consider is that there are already too many barristers and you shouldn’t want to add to that unless you really want to be a barrister. If you can’t imagine being anything else, then go for it. But be realistic – I’m constantly surprised by how many people waste their OLPAS applications by applying to a set that they simply won’t get into. You should only apply to those where you have a realistic chance of being taken on.”