Law Story 3– Darren Weir
“You will never know where your next case will lead.”
Follow along as we take a dive into Darrens journey into law.
An absolute privilege to interview Darren Weir, a former Barrister now turned Senior lecturer at the University of Kent. For listeners interested in both pursuing the Bar or wanting to gravitate towards teaching, this story is definitely for you. This will provide readers with an insight into the bar, pupillage, life as a Barrister as well fantastic tips and tricks from someone who now guides the next generation of lawyers. If you wish to learn more from Darren, feel free to contact him via LinkedIn
Listen to the full story:
Please introduce yourself and tell us what it is you currently do ?
My name is Darren Weir, I was a Criminal Barrister by trade for twelve years and I am now a senior lecturer at the University of Kent.
What inspired you to pursue a career in law ?
Going back to when I was a teenager, I wanted to have a career in acting. I attended a part time stage school and I was in the National Theatre and I was also in TV ads and shows and enjoyed the acting. When school got serious and you are told that an actors life is very volatile, and I was pushed on to do other things.
At age 15 or so, I considered becoming a Barristers Clerk and through a solicitor contact I was put in touch with a Chambers to complete a mini pupillage. From this I was sent off to court and realised that in fact, a Barristers life wasn’t so different to that of an actor, you are just acting on a different stage. I liked the sound of becoming a barrister and having knocked on doors on local firms in the High Street I got even more work experience and this is what allowed me to decide I wanted to do a law degree.
What were your experiences like taking the bar and what were the challenges you faced ?
I was called to the Bar in 1998 and so did my Bar school between 1997-1998.I was the first year where the Bar course was available in other places other than London, before this point there was only one provider which is now known as the City University. I stuck with the well known provider at the time and there were about 800 of us on the course !
It was very squashed, very cramped conditions but it was bang in the middle of the Inns, right next to the pub and it was very social and in this regard was very enjoyable. I got the sense the course was more skills based and was thoroughly enjoyable. You just have to knuckle down and get on with it.
I also worked part time during my studies, I had about three jobs working weekends for breakfast at the Holiday Inn and evenings at the Harvester and during the week working at a firm of solicitors as an outdoor Clerk and going to court in between lessons.
A very busy but very enjoyable time !
How did you manage your time with everything you were doing ?
When I think back on it, god knows how I did it but it was a crazy time. Even during pupillage I kept the weekend jobs but couldn’t do the clerking as it was a full time pupillage.
It was hectic but you just got on and had very little social life. Work and the bar school.
What was the process and your experiences like applying for Pupillage ?
I would have to say it is definitely harder now that it was when I was applying, not only is there more people but with the introduction of minimum wages etc, Chambers could no longer offer unfunded pupillage which meant that the number of pupillages available were significantly reduced particularly for common law chambers.
I was fortunate that I was in a time where I could apply for an unfunded pupillage and I had lots of rejections but when you grew up auditioning in the acting world you also got a load of rejections so you get use to it and unfortunately it is one of those things you have to suck up, take as experience and move on.
The pupillage interviews I had were interesting to say the least. The one interview I got, I was only granted an initial six month pupillage and that point I didn’t know what would happen after however, I was fortunate to have been kept on. I stayed on at 2 Paper Buildings based in London and I was my supervisors first pupil which was also a lovely experience.
The interview I got, the first interview was an advocacy exercise and that was it, the second interview was more of a discussion talking about your CV. Simon Tolkien (Grandson of famous author J.R.R Tolkien) who was the head of pupillage told me that the main reason I secured the pupillage was because I was first on the advocacy day and that I was being compared to everyone else. My biggest advice in respect of interviews such as this is that don’t be afraid to go first or go last, these are the best positions to go into an advocacy exercise interview.
Pupillage was hard work in terms of trying to get it, just persevere keep going and keep improving. If your mind is on it, you’ll usually get it.
What is it like being a Barrister and being in court, how do you deal with nerves ?
Everyone deals with nerves differently. Really, it is about practice, I use to talk to myself in the shower, in the car driving and my internal voice was always going on at me. The more you practice something the more confidenct you can get. If you have a chambers that provides good training, use this as an opportunity to get feedback as much as possible.
The scariest thing for me when training as a Barrister was going to training weekends or going into the Inns to complete mandatory advocacy training experiences as the trainers back then were brutal and this was the most scary thing. With hindsight, they were probably like that so you could get confidence in the court as you got through this gruelling training.
Usually when Judges see young lawyers they are quite sympathetic and helpful and some will invite you into their chambers after to give you pointers.
The thing is not to be fearful about it, if you are prepared and do your best what more can people ask of you- that’s my philosophy. Preparing will cut the nerves by 50% because if you know it, there’s no reason to be nervous.
Could you talk about any cases in particular that helped boost your career ?
It was when I had a rolling caseload of around 30 Crown Court Cases at one go which helped me build my reputation for particular types of work and firms continued to use me and it just continued to grow. It is at that point where you feel a bit secure in yourself, that’s the point in your career where you feel quite happy.
It was obviously an amazing feeling getting your first murder brief and being on the prosecution but that was as far as I got, I had done cases on rape, sexual assault and murder and was contempt with this and wanted to try something else and this was at a time when criminal law was going through some very serious cuts and so I got out early but you never know, I may go back one day who knows !
In terms of cases where something just comes out of something, I was instructed to do an appeal in the Crown Court for a lady who had been convicted of animal cruelty in the Magistrates court. She had represented herself which was never a great idea and decided to appeal. The case involved a horse which was unusual as animal cruelty cases tended to relate to dogs and the RSPCA were prosecuting and were the respondents in the appeal. With a Crown Court case this was a total rehearing and evidence was called again and this time we had some really good experts for the appellant and there was some great cross examination of the RSPCA that was very enjoyable and we won the appeal at the close of the prosecution case and the lady got her horse back. Because of this case, I then started getting instructed by the RSPCA ! All of a sudden all these cases beagn arriving in which I would be prosecuting for the RSPCA and so created a whole new revenue stream which all came about from the performance of one case which was seen by one solicitor.
You are only as good as your last case and that is something you must always remember and always try and perform at the best of your ability. In work, always put your best forward, you never know what that piece of work will turn into.
How much did you have to market your work and network to help build your reputation and caseload ?
Networking was important then and it still is now. When I moved from London to a small chambers in Canterbury in which I helped build up the criminal work for the chambers. I had effectively built up my own practice which was really difficult as I was effectively infiltrating a ‘London Mafia’ in Kent. There were a couple of chambers who effectively help a monopoly of Kent Courts and it was very hard to infiltrate that.
I had a lot of work to do so I arranged comedy nights, bowl nights and bowling games and all sorts of things in an attempt to bring people together and say here we are, a local criminal team to use as opposed to going to London and getting barristers from there with a general service as opposed to our personal local service. The practise then got to a point where I was essentially being told by Judges that I had outgrown where I was and I could only go to London and I didn’t want to, this was one of the reasons I took the decision to leave the bar as I would have had to leave many good friends and a good work-life balance behind.
Networking is really important and keeping connections is key. The firm I did some work experience for in West London, sent me work when I went into pupillage which gave me some cases in the Magistrates Court and then the Crown Court also.
What was the transition like going from Barrister to Senior Lecturer and what was your reasoning for wanting to become a lecturer ?
I never actually wanted to become a lecturer and actually left the bar and went into completely different business in Sussex. I actually started with something completely different and worked in hospitality and in fact owned a hotel as well as becoming chair of the hospitality association and was thrown the keys of a local Theatre by the local council and in turn began running a 500 seat theatre. I did loads of creative things and teaching wasn’t on the agenda at all.
It wasn’t until my wife who was also a Barrister who then became a lecturer at the University of Kent went on maternity leave, that I was parachuted in to cover her maternity and became a sessional teacher since 2011. It wasn’t until 2018 that I was offered a full time position and it was then I became a senior lecturer which was very late in the day. Transition wise I didn’t really feel it as i never expected to be teaching however it has been really interesting. It is great to teach and train the next level/generation of lawyers and keep in touch with the Inns and help with pupil training and new practioner training which also helps keep my practice skils up as well.
One message I would relay is never close a door anywhere. It’s the beauty of the law that you can always go back to it even if you leave and always continue to nurture your knowledge.
Touching on continuing nurturing knowledge, what do you do to keep up to date with global trends and legal developments ?
I lecture in the law of evidence which is very criminal based and also lecture in Criminal Litigation now as part of the Universities MLaw course and so I use CrimeLine which is my saviour. This is a service you can subscribe to which sends you bulletins and cases to stay updated.
Also with being in education, scholarship is really important and i am looking into scholarship areas such as looking into how to develop employability and I am also giving a paper on my style of teaching which is ‘Edutainment’. I have to read journals about styles of teaching etc and I am currently reading a Canadian Journal on the scholarship of teaching and learning.
A good place for students to keep an eye on is places such as the Justice Select Committee who often look into the different aspects of the Justice System. For example, I am part of a combination group of academics and practitioners who worked together to put forward policy and our submission was in relation to the use of video recorded cross-examinations very recently and in the paper, I commented on youth courts which is something I am really interested in. You also need to be commercially aware and have commercial awareness, keep an eye on the things going on around you and be aware of what firms are currently having to deal with in certain practice areas.
You just have to keep an eye on certain things and try and keep on top of things as much as possible. Don’t let it overburden you otherwise it is just constant noise.
For those about to start law school, what is one bit of advice you would give ?
A couple of lessons to remember:
University is nothing like school. You cannot expect to be spoon-fed everything, be prepared to read and there is a lot of reading.Before you come to University over the summer, try and improve on your speed reading, don’t try to read everything in detail and practice your eyeball movements.
Just turn up to lessons. You are paying by way of future taxes for this, would you buy a cinema ticket and not turn up to see the film ?
Don’t be afraid to speak up! Even if you aren’t prepared, just turn up and don’t be afraid to speak up and say the wrong answer, there is no wrong answer most of the time so it really doesn’t matter if you are wrong.The amount of students I still get during training who don’t come up with answers because they think they are wrong, who cares ! It is better for you to be wrong at University in a safe space than in front of a High Court Judge!
Is there anything you would change to your law story ?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Should I have left back in 2010/11 may be, I look now at my old housemates sitting as recorders and part-time Judges and think that could have been me. Back at stage school, the guy who was two classes below me someone called James Corden, should I have made friends with him a bit better ?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but don’t second guess yourself, go with your gut go with your instincts at the time and stick with the choices you make. I am a big believer in what’s meant to be is meant to be.