Clerklife: Becoming a barrister's clerk

'This is a brief ' he said indicating the tatty pile of papers tied up with hot pink string 'and your job is to get your hands on as many of these as you possibly can'.

That was pretty much my induction. Well that and being shown where the kettle was so I could make the copious amounts of tea that a clerks’ rooms runs on. It was my first day as a junior clerk in a barristers’ chambers. Manchester was the centre of the known universe with the Stone Roses Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets at the height of their powers. The red half of the city was about to emerge as the dominant force in football for years to come and I was about to put my first foot on a career path that would define my life for decades.

I had dropped out of A-levels after a year without any real idea of what I wanted to do. After applying for a range of jobs and never quite...

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