Delivering specialist lectures, raising awareness of external CPD opportunities, and ensuring clear lines of accountability.

Background

Fountain Chambers is a medium-sized set with 34 members dedicated to providing a friendly, high-quality service to solicitors, individuals, unions, businesses, and local and national government departments. We remain committed to evolving how we practice, ensuring that we continue to meet the changing demands of the legal landscape, keeping our roots at the heart of our local community.

What Fountain Chambers Does

• We remind members at regular intervals of their CPD responsibilities.
• We try to ensure, through encouragement, that no member tries to meet all their CPD obligations at the last moment.
• We encourage members to attend the free CPD seminars provided in person and online by the North-Eastern Circuit Education Committee, as well as various specialist bar associations.
• From time to time, we organise short CPD lectures for members and instructing solicitors. These have included updates on criminal law relating to hearsay and bad character and developments in sentencing for serious sexual offences. We have also held seminars on trading standards and updates in family law.
• At the end of each year, Chambers collates members’ CPD forms before the 31^st December deadline. This is to ensure that members are meeting their obligations and accessing relevant professional education.
• Head of Chambers and the Management Committee take responsibility and provide support for anyone who encounters issues in completing their CPD obligations on time.

Next steps

We will continue to encourage members to embrace the ethos that CPD requirements are in place to ensure good practice and allow individuals to improve and grow as practitioners.

A proactive approach to professional development, including a series of in-house masterclasses.

Background

Deans Court Chambers is a modern, innovative, and forward-looking set comprising around 100 barristers, 12 of whom are King’s Counsel. We aim to provide the highest service standards and anticipate and respond to our clients’ needs. Originally founded over 125 years ago on Moseley Street Manchester (Circa 1897), Deans Court Chambers is recognised as one of the country's leading sets of independent barristers, with a strong presence nationally and locally.

Chambers believes that continuing professional development (CPD) is extremely important in ensuring we deliver the best possible service to our clients. Professional development allows barristers to develop their understanding of a particular area of law, ensure they are up to date with relevant changes, and uphold our reputation for superb client care.

What Deans Court Chambers does

• We have always promoted a proactive approach to CPD, including completing CPD forms throughout the year. Regular reminders are sent regarding due dates.
• Barristers are expected to complete their CPD requirements to the best of their ability. They are reminded that this process is for their benefit and to further their practice.
• Members are set specific deadlines when chambers expects CPD to be completed. If members fail to meet these deadlines, this is reported to the Head of Chambers for further investigation and explanation.
• We regularly offer ‘Masterclass’ sessions where senior members of chambers present 30-40 minute sessions on topics such as ‘Building a clinical negligence practice and keeping it’, ‘How to cross-examine an expert’ and even ‘Using social media to promote your practice’.
• These sessions encourage younger practitioners to reflect on their practice and learn from the experiences of more senior members' triumphs and mistakes during their time at the Bar.
• Feedback on these sessions has been excellent, and we have seen an increase in CPD engagement, especially from our junior members, as they look to enhance their practice. Senior members have also found that discussions with junior members at these sessions have helped them reflect on their practices and processes.
• Barristers are expected to focus on a particular area of their practice that they would like to evolve or ensure they are up to date with, for example, due to regular changes through case law and statutory updates.
• Improving barristers’ practice through CPD has allowed us to offer a better service to our clients, adding value to chambers and the industry we serve.
• Chambers’ approach to CPD has greatly improved its effectiveness in assisting practitioners in building and maintaining their practice. The use of training sessions, along with high expectations of completing CPD, means barristers understand how to keep themselves up to date and who to speak to to ensure they are doing their best in every aspect of their work.

Next steps

We plan to continue with our internal masterclasses and hope to expand them further, covering a wider range of topics and areas so that they benefit Deans Court members the most.

We also plan to continue to promote the importance of CPD and ensure that all members meet the BSB’s requirements and expectations. CPD is an important aspect of any practising barrister’s career, and chambers will continue to support it as much as possible.

We are willing to contribute to the BSB’s strategic plans for promoting CPD and its benefits on a continuing basis, which highlight the strength of what the Bar offers the legal market.

A strong culture of supporting and learning from each other, including a mentoring programme in the works.

Background

The ethos of 18 St John Street Chambers is to combine the delivery of the very highest standards of professional service to our clients with a friendly and supportive environment for our members. Continuing Professional Development (“CPD”) plays an important role in maintaining and enhancing both strands of this ethos yet further.

What 18 St John Street Chambers Does

Chambers makes it clear that it is the individual obligation of each member to comply with all Bar Standards Board CPD requirements, and we email reminders of the deadlines for doing so. We invite our members to provide their completed records to Chambers so that these can be held centrally and monitored. This is overseen by the Chambers Manager and, in the event of any concerns, raised with the Chambers Management Committee and ultimately the Head of Chambers.

Chambers regularly hosts seminars (usually on a departmental level) for professional clients. We encourage as many members of Chambers as possible to speak at seminars, which enhances those speakers’ development in the process of their preparation and presentation. Members are also encouraged to be involved in, and to attend, Specialist Bar Association (and similar) events.

As a multi-disciplinary set, we provide peer support between departments, and have had internal seminars on topics where there is overlap. If members of Chambers wish to diversify into areas which cross into other departments, we offer guidance, assistance and (where appropriate) supervision.

In addition to the practice development provided by the Chambers Director and the clerking team, the Head of Chambers and other senior members are also available to provide support and advice to those thinking of applying for part time judicial posts or for Silk, as well as to any member wanting career guidance.

Next Steps

We intend to introduce a mentoring programme whereby it is hoped that every member of Chambers will be a mentor to one member and be mentored by another. This will include consideration of CPD in the context of career development.

Importantly, we treat CPD as a part of career development and as a part of the process of life at the Bar.

Embedding excellence: How Park Square Barristers champions practice – specific Continuing Professional Development (CPD) through its constitution, proactive leadership, and culture of continuous learning

“CPD should be considered an enhancement to practice, not simply a box to tick. Chambers makes this possible by facilitating meaningful CPD relevant to practice area and level of call.”

Background

Park Square Barristers (PSQB) is one of the largest barristers’ chambers in the country.

We have three offices on the North Eastern circuit with a membership approaching 200 and over 40 staff. We have a depth of experience, expertise, age and diversity.

Our main practice areas are crime, family, civil, regulatory and the Court of Protection.

What Park Square Barristers does

• CPD in line with Bar Standards Board (BSB) requirements is a compulsory condition of PSQB membership. It is listed in our constitution and code of conduct.
• We keep members informed about CPD requirements and best practice in our Annual General Meeting (AGM), making it clear that it is the individual’s responsibility to keep up to date records.
• CPD reminders are often communicated in the minutes of our Management Board meetings.
• Our practice teams hold quarterly team meetings, during which the heads or deputies of each team discuss training and development. We encourage internal training, especially for our junior tenants and pupils.
• For example, in September 2024, our Criminal Team hosted a training session on public interest immunity and disclosure. The latest case law, along with practical tips, were discussed. A senior police disclosure officer was invited to share their expertise. Case studies, role play, and a mock exercise were set up for discussion during breakout sessions. The training was aimed at and assisted those barristers applying for CPS panels and upgrades.

Testimonial 

• Our in-person and remote CPD seminar programme has been hugely popular over the years. The majority are free to attend. Our Family Team regularly hosts over 200 delegates online in their seminars, and our full day, in person annual Personal Injury Seminar attracts over 100 delegates every September.
• We upload a monthly webinar to our website. Delegates can sign up to view and claim their CPD on a range of topics and practice areas.
• PSQB funds a comprehensive online library for its barristers and pupils. Sites like CrimeLine also include helpful podcasts as a learning tool for practice development.
• Our Leeds office has hosted a number of training events run regionally by the North Eastern Circuit and nationally by the Inns of Court, Bar Council and BSB.
• Several of our senior barristers lead pilot schemes and training for new legal procedures.
• The PSQB Wellbeing and Mentoring Scheme has been recognised nationally. Internal training on issues like vicarious trauma and practical sessions on dealing with stress and caseload aim to promote a healthy work-life balance. PSQB has its own in-house therapist to support and deal with the demands and challenges of life at the Bar.

Next steps

• We are about to embark on a major building project at 6 Park Square, which will transform our work facilities. We are looking to create a large seminar room. The Management Board is keen on each practice team arranging one weekend a year for their barristers to focus on learning new skills, career development and best practice.

Tom Doyle shares his experience practising in family law and how specialist and general continuing professional development (CPD) supports him in dealing with emotionally complex cases, maintaining essential skills, and staying grounded in professional standards.

About Me.

I am a 30-year-old, proudly Northern, state-school educated barrister, practising in criminal and family law at Park Square Barristers, Leeds.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the below?

Competence: The ability to do the job of being a barrister.

Park Square Barristers: The largest multidisciplinary set on the North-Eastern Circuit with talent across all levels.

Children law: The law insofar as ensuring that all th children are properly looked after and their welfare needs met. 

My Path into Family Law.

Truthfully, I didn’t intend to practise family law prior to coming to the Bar. I saw myself as a wig-toting criminal barrister, crusading across Crown Court rooms up and down the country.

Nonetheless, I undertook a common law pupillage at my first set in London, encompassing criminal, civil and family law.

I was assigned a supervisor in London who specialised in family law. I spent three months within my first six shadowing my supervisor throughout a wide spectrum of family law cases, with a particular focus on children law.

On starting ‘on my feet’, I found that a lot of my instructions were within family law. Repeat instructions then became more and more common, with my family law practice growing as a result.

On moving to Park Square Barristers in Leeds (my hometown), I have continued to undertake family law, alongside my criminal law practice.

What Makes Family Law Different?

One of the most significant features of family practice is that many hearings, including all those pertaining to children, are in private. As a result, many of my lay clients come in completely ‘in the dark’ as to how family law and procedure works. Part of the job is trying to explain and demystify a very opaque system.

Furthermore, many of my clients are very vulnerable, facing incredibly significant and emotionally taxing decisions. Soft skills are therefore very much a necessity.

Expectation management is a hugely significant part of the job. Often, I represent parents who face legal severance of their children from their birth family, in the form of adoption. Sometimes, this decision is clearly in the best interests of the child, but the parent may well disagree. It is important to remind parents that their children’s interests are the primary consideration of the Court, as opposed to theirs.

The job also involves dealing with a wide variety of professionals, including social workers, healthcare professionals, police officers and the like.

Family law, especially public children law, also has elements of inquisitorial law – a stark contrast to the largely adversarial criminal sphere. A multi-disciplinary and collaborative approach is therefore needed.

What I Enjoy Most?

My favourite part of the job is helping clients be able to ‘see the woods from the trees’ and put differences aside in the best interests of their children.

Oftentimes the child’s voice gets completely lost within fraught proceedings, with parents letting their own animosity to their ex-partners cloud their judgment. In my own opinion, when the child wins, everyone wins.

Challenges in Family Law.

What are some of the challenges you face when representing clients within family law / court?

Family law clients can often be difficult, not necessarily through any fault of their own. Quite understandably, parents can get very combative when the lives of their children are concerned.

What strategies do you use to build rapport with clients and help them engage in the process?

I find that the best way to work with difficult clients is not to demean them or make them feel bad about their (sometimes poor) decision making, but rather to try and empathise with their situations and understand what has brought them to this point. Being able to relate to your clients is an important step in being able to guide them to outcomes that work both for them and for their children.

My CPD journey.

My journey with CPD is still very much in its infancy, with me still being subject to the New Practitioner’s Programme (‘NPP’) requirements.

My Chambers tries to arrange a lot of its own in-house CPD events, in order to reduce the common reliance on both Circuit and Inns of Court events. This saves time and expense on travel, sometimes allowing me to undertake CPD from the confines of my living room!

The Family Team at PSQB has been particularly keen recently to arrange CPD training that is somewhat ‘outside the box’. For example, we recently arranged a seminar on perinatal mental health with lectures given by visiting clinicians. This is a topic which, at first blush, may seem unconventional. However, there is a clear link and relevance between this and practising family law, as cases dealing with postpartum depression and other forms of perinatal mental ill-health are not at all uncommon.

Useful CPD Opportunities.

Beyond the BSB-mandated advocacy and ethics training for NPP barristers, I would certainly encourage practitioners to look at doing their vulnerable witness training as soon as possible (I intend to do mine later this year). This is a particularly useful piece of training for practitioners who, like I, practise between the family and criminal jurisdictions, where vulnerable parties and witnesses are particularly prevalent.

Despite it sounding somewhat dry, I would also urge new barristers to learn how to run their practice, for example, learning how to plan and manage finances (whether through an accountant or not). The self-employed Bar is often one’s first experience of being self-employed. Being on top of your practice and your finances takes a lot of the stress off the job and allows you to focus on the key parts of the job, like advocating in court!

Advice for New Family Law Barristers.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. You often feel like a fish out of water when you first start ‘on your feet’, with everything seeming like a great big scary unknown. There are always people around to soundboard ideas off, whether it be your supervisor, other members of chambers or even people you come across sat in the robing room!

Don’t assume that, just because your instructions say X, then X must be right. Sometimes, for example, Y is a better option for your lay client, but your solicitors/lay client struggle to see that and instruct you to pursue X. As counsel, you are to be fiercely independent. Don’t be afraid to promote what you, in your professional judgment, deem to be in your client’s best interests (although try to do this in a tactful and collaborative way, as alienating your solicitors helps nobody!)

CPD Planning.

I try to keep my own CPD diary saved as a Microsoft Word document (the hope being that, when the time comes, it will simply be a ‘copy and paste job’ into the BSB’s own CPD forms!)

I also try to put pen to paper and write down all of the different strands of CPD (advocacy, ethics, practice management, etc) and list the various CPD events I’ve attended under its relevant heading. This helps me keep on eye on whether there are any categories of CPD that I am neglecting.

Looking Ahead.

Family law, including children law, does appear to be becoming increasingly collaborative and inquisitorial in nature. For example, the Ministry of Justice has only recently launched the West Yorkshire Pathfinder Programme, designed to streamline the often prolonged and fraught model of private children proceedings into something more holistic, with the parties and children very much at the centre: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-of-children-to-be-supported-thanks-to-multi-million-expansion-of-innovation-in-family-courts.