Helpline for struggling barristers hears of surge in financial woes

Barristers are like professional dancers: it's all very glamorous watching the performance but you never see the damaged feet. So says Hilary Tilby, chief executive of Law Care, a free helpline that has been reaching out to lawyers in crisis for the last three years.

Time was when “taking silk” was viewed as a ticket to riches. Being called to the bar was linked to a gilded existence, bound up with the respect and admiration of society. But this ancient profession and its members have taken some blows in recent times.

The figures reflect this, with the number of barristers dropping out of the bar increasingly significantly, from 43 in 2008/09 to 140 in 2011/12. This year, the rate is expected to rise again.

“Most lawyers are not wealthy. You will get a few who rise to the top and make a fortune but most just graft damn hard to make a living,” says Ms Tilby.

Law Care, a UK based helpline for the profession, has dealt with 19 serious case files in Ireland since its establishment in 2010 and the majority have been referred on for further, specialist attention.

Top of the list of problems: depression, stress and anxiety, generally as a product of chronic financial insecurity.

“Some people have no one to talk to and some people don’t want to bother their family. And the bar is very competitive and a lot of people don’t want to wash their dirty laundry with other members.

“The problem with lawyers is that we are problem solvers and when they can’t solve their own problems they begin to look at themselves in pejorative terms. Lawyers are their own worst enemies.”

Figures released by the Bar Council of Ireland show that in the last two full legal years, the number of barristers leaving the profession has spiked.

While entry levels remain constant at an average of 147 per year since 2009, the level of defections is catching up. In the legal year 2011/2012, 140 left the bar. The year before the figure was 103, and that compares to just 43 in 2008/2009 and 71 the following year. In 2012/2013 the rate is expected to rise again, already standing at 94.

“We are all dropping like flies,” says one barrister, requesting anonymity.

“There are just so many of us, way too many for the amount of work that is around. It’s a rush to the bottom and whoever is the cheapest will get the most work and if you have the volume you will be OK.”

Since 2008 barristers have experienced a 33 per cent cut in legal aid fees while in civil cases State sponsorship has dropped by up to 50 per cent. Private fees have also reduced.

As of February this year there were almost 2,300 registered barristers in Ireland, the vast majority junior counsels. Not all of the recent increase in departures can be put down to the large pool. There are those who become judges and those who simply retire, but the majority have either left or have been excluded for the non-payment of subscription fees to the Law Library.

David Barniville, a senior counsel and chairman of the Bar Council's external relations committee, agrees there is an anomaly in the perception and reality of a barrister's life, particularly in recent years.

“There is a disconnect,” he says. “People start off with great enthusiasm; they think this is a great profession, it’s something they really wanted to do.

“And then the reality hits them very quickly that this is not all it’s cracked up to be. The work may be great if you can get it; the people may be great but ultimately you have to pay your bills.”

While junior barristers will traditionally work for a period of five to seven years before they begin to realise the financial benefits that passage has become even more difficult to navigate.

Double jobbing is common, Mr Barniville says, with call centres, security beats and waiting on tables increasingly the lifeline of would-be barristers.

“The attitude [ONCE]was that it would be sort of demeaning if you were seen one day acting in a case down here [IN COURT]and the next day your solicitor or your client went into the pub and was being served a pint by that person,” he says.

“You see so many hard cases as well, so many people who are at their wits’ end. Loads of people struggle to [pay their professional fees] and they make arrangements to pay a little bit off here, a little bit off there and sometimes they can’t even do that. They just get to the end of their tether.

“There is less work, there is less paying work. For some people eventually they just can take it no more.”

And so what is the result? Hilary Tilby, a practicing lawyer of 40 years who has run her helpline for 12, has seen all the results in their various manifestations and they’re generally not good.

“People are suffering with legal aid cut backs and the collapse of the economy. The emphasis of the calls is on stress and a lot of the stress is finance related,” she said. “Everybody else’s job looks glamorous from the outside; you see a ballerina but you don’t see her bleeding feet.”

Things are beginning to settle, she says and like many professions still deflating from the bursting of a bubble, it will likely come good. But in the meantime, many are stuck in the vacuum.

“There are a huge number of barristers from my year that have left the library and it’s done so quietly. It’s not like there is a big going away party,” explains one barrister.

“It’s stressful because you get the work and then you have to work to get paid for the work. A lot of barristers are losing faith in staying there but looking around there isn’t any place to go.”

The Law Care barristers’ helpline is: 1800 303145