ABSTRACT

It may come as a surprise to many students, but there is more to being a barrister than being a good advocate. A barrister’s work can be separated into two main areas: advocacy, otherwise known as ‘court work’, and ‘paperwork’, which encompasses the skill of opinion writing.1 Many civil barristers actually do very little court work and specialise almost totally in paperwork. In fact those who have large ‘paper practices’ may only go to court once or twice a year and spend the rest of their time drafting court documents and writing opinions. Whatever area of law the barrister eventually specialises in, be it criminal or civil, a proportion of his or her work (and therefore income) will come from writing opinions.