Research, Research, Research … Makes for a Good Pupil!

Researching all night, researching all day......

Researching all night, researching all day......

The success of any would be lawyer is the ability to research well with fastidious preparation.  Indeed as you venture upon your BVC the aptitude to write accurate and well delivered opinions demonstrates a key prerequisite within the armoury of any barrister.  No doubt as you currently tackle your well documented researched case law, you will turn to Blackstones, Archbold and then the luxury of LexisNexis, Westlaw and Lawtel.  However, when you enter the role of pupil you may find that your chambers does not necessarily have all those luxuries that you took for granted whilst engaged upon all your hardy studies.

To this end, I have placed some new links into the Blog under the aptly named banner of “Worthy Legal Databases”.  Here you will find links to BAILII and CaseCheck which are easy to use online databases for case law, whilst OPSI will deliver up the relevant legislation that you may be seeking.  In any event, I strongly urge you to go and have a look at all three.

Obviously, there is a most important matter that no barrister should forget and that is if you do not have access to key databases and your BVC provider is not available, then do not forget the library at your INN.  Many is the time I have sought reliance upon my Inn’s library at a minutes notice all of which can be extremely handy if you are prepping up for a pupillage interview or working upon a pro bono case.

Meanwhile, returning to the notion of preparation in earnest. I recall a colleague of mine, Montague-Smyth (who will appear frequently across the cyberwaves of the Pupillage Blog), recanting the story about a pupil working rather diligently for his Pupil Master. Often the pupil would be working through the night preparing for the following day’s activities in court and would take to sleeping upon the floor of chambers, as this became a more reliable bedding compartment.  I hasten to add that the due diligence of the pupil resulted in his successful completion of pupillage, however this successful tenant may now at last be found sleeping in a bed at night!

As always,
Justin Time

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