It's not quite LA Law

A stiff breeze outside the Four Courts has black gowns billowing majestically in the sunlight. Inside along the cool stone corridors men and women in wigs and gowns are walking purposefully to their desks at the Law Library. These are the hallowed halls where Barra Faughnan will spend the best part of his working life.

"There is a collegial atmosphere," he says. "The collective atmosphere is definitely attractive. It's very social. But it's not really as rarified as people make out. There's an awful lot of common sense involved as well. Ultimately you're dealing with people."

There's a long and challenging road ahead for Faughnan. Having completed his devilling, now begins the hard part. He must establish himself as a barrister-at-law. "You're not allowed advertise for work," he explains. "You're dependant on solicitors to give you work which is why being introduced to them is so important. They are the only source of our work. In the absence of solicitors you get no work."

Today Faughnan, like most young barristers, is working in the Four Courts, making contacts, meeting senior barristers and solicitors, drafting legal documents, researching cases, meeting witnesses and appearing in court for clients. "One of the realities when you start is that it takes a number of years to establish yourself. There's a policy of open entry to the bar.

"You can give it a go if you satisfy the criteria. What's difficult is what I'm doing now. It's the fact that establishing a name for yourself is so hard."

After graduating with a BA honours degree in English and classical studies from UCD, Faughnan went to King's Inns to study law. He spent two years studying at night for a diploma in legal studies. After finishing this course, he moved on to do the two-year barrister-at-law degree.

Last year he devilled, which involves working with a barrister as a kind of apprentice. "It was a very, very productive year. Whom you devil with is important, it depends on the kind of pupil-master relationship you have. I was very lucky."

His work is split between the paper work that is drafting, which a barrister has to do before a case comes to court, the research which may have to be done, preparation work and the actual time in court.

"It's an exciting environment to be in . . . but people nowadays would probably relate to something like LA Law whereas it's much quieter and more organised than that, and the wigs and gowns, the proceedural aspect, makes it more formal and more dull to those outside.

"I do think you have to like words and like writing; you do more writing than anything else. The key is when you are drafting, you must set out what happened to your client. It's on the basis of the draft that you fight your case - you fight it out on paper before you go into court."

Faughnan studied for his Leaving Cert at St Micheal's Secondary School in Ailesbury Road, Dublin. He started debating here. In 1991 he won the individual speaker award in The Irish Times Colleges Debating Competition.

"There are a lot of qualities that make up a good barrister," he says. "It's not just about being a good speaker or having a good knowledge of the law. You have to be very good with people - it's all very well to say you'll run this case but in order to do it right you have to have a good relationship with your solicitor, you have to relate to your client, you have to interact with any witnesses there might be. And you have to deal with the judge and they differ the same as anybody else. It requires varied talents. At the end of the day you have to be thorough."

At school, he says, he was very competitive. "It helps to be competitive. There's no doubt about that." Many people who debate go on to do law, he explains, and "there has to be an element of the extrovert and the egotist to it.

"Debating was very good training. It has to help but at the same time being a lawyer is entirely different. It's helpful in terms of being being able to speak fluently and being able to create arguments but there's an awful lot more to being a barrister."