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25 March 2016 / Athelstane Aamodt
Issue: 7692 / Categories: Features
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A life in the day

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Athelstane Aamodt shares a walk through chambers

I’m extremely lucky to work where I do. Gray’s Inn, despite the fact that it came off terribly in the blitz, remains a beautiful place. I love how I am in one of the busiest parts of London and yet frequently the loudest thing that I will hear in my room is the two-stroke engine of a lawnmower or the chiming of the Inn’s chapel bell for Matins.

Anyone who isn’t a lawyer will doubtless have all sorts of ideas about what barristers chambers are like. They invariably involve notions of Dickensian, port-sodden blimpery, leather wing-back chairs and dotty fustiness. As any barrister reading this will attest, most of today’s barristers’ chambers are absolutely nothing like this, although some charming and idiosyncratic traditions do remain.

Pigeonholed

The first thing I do when I go into chambers is check my pigeonhole. I wager that all barristers do this, on average, about one hundred times a day. The reason for this is simple. Paper in your pigeonhole usually means that you’ve been paid. And getting paid is always a

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Jurit LLP—Caroline Williams

Jurit LLP—Caroline Williams

Private wealth and tax team welcomes cross-border specialist as consultant

Freeths—Michelle Kirkland Elias

Freeths—Michelle Kirkland Elias

International hospitality and leisure specialist joins corporate team as partner

Flint Bishop—Deborah Niven

Flint Bishop—Deborah Niven

Firm appoints head of intellectual property to drive northern growth

NEWS
Talk of a reserved ‘Welsh seat’ on the Supreme Court is misplaced. In NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC explains that the Constitutional Reform Act treats ‘England and Wales’ as one jurisdiction, with no statutory Welsh slot
The government’s plan to curb jury trials has sparked ‘jury furore’. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke, partner at Hill Dickinson, says the rationale is ‘grossly inadequate’
A year after the $1.5bn Bybit heist, crypto fraud is booming—but so is recovery. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Holloway, founder and CEO of M2 Recovery, warns that scams hit at least $14bn in 2025, fuelled by ‘pig butchering’ cons and AI deepfakes
After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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