LPMA veterans Christine Kings & Edith Robertson (share a master class in practice management with John van der Luit-Drummond
It was at an Inns of Court conference in 1994 that Christine Kings realised real change was finally coming to the Bar. During a Q&A session before 300 lawyers on what a practice manager did, and why a chambers might employ one, a clerk stood up and asked her: ‘What do they pay you?’. As a sudden hush descended upon the conference floor. Kings replied that she was paid in line with the Bar Council’s recommendation of £44,000 for a practice manager salary.
‘As far as he was concerned, this was like saying, “Ha, you’re rubbish. You’re only paid £44,000 a year,” but you could’ve heard a pin drop in that room. You could see all these barristers thinking: “£44,000 per year for someone to run our chambers? And we’re paying 7% of our income to senior clerks?” That, I think, was a turning point. The Bar suddenly realised it could get professional staff for a fraction of what it was paying
