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There’s one aspect of being a criminal barrister which I do love - listening to my clients.
Don’t mean when they are giving me instructions about their case but those small moments when when they pull the curtain back and show some part of their past or their thoughts.1/?
Don’t mean when they are giving me instructions about their case but those small moments when when they pull the curtain back and show some part of their past or their thoughts.1/?
It’s an odd *relationship* but one which is based on a degree of trust.
Not saying naïveté on my part but an ability to accept what they are saying at face value helps. In some respects it doesn’t matter if it’s wholly accurate - NB this is not about the discharge of prof duties
Not saying naïveté on my part but an ability to accept what they are saying at face value helps. In some respects it doesn’t matter if it’s wholly accurate - NB this is not about the discharge of prof duties
Because each life story heard has something to teach. Not just about the general human condition but sometimes about your own.
Your hear about choices made, routes not taken, help not given or sometimes sought, luck turning and dark places that can’t or aren’t climbed out of...
Your hear about choices made, routes not taken, help not given or sometimes sought, luck turning and dark places that can’t or aren’t climbed out of...
You also learn that people “get away” daily with inflicting cruelty and pain on others with no comeuppance, no (public) accountability and no retribution. And I’m not talking about the client but others in their life whose actions have far reaching & probably unforeseen effects.
This is not to negate individual responsibility but you can see how some lives unravel by a tug on a thread at the wrong time or in the wrong way. Some are able to overcome it and others can’t or won’t trapped like a snake swallowing its own tail.
Often would like to meet these people to hear their side of events & their take on what happened for balance & to see the whole picture. To see how they felt or understood their lives interplayed with another’s. Every action we take has consequences- the Q is, can you bear them?
And it always causes me to pause and reflect on my own. To take stock and think. To hold myself accountable even just for a moment. Can I live with the choices I made/make? Can I act with kindness, compassion and bravery when it’s needed not by me necessarily but someone else?
Don’t think that a lack of criminal convictions automatically makes you a *good* person. #familylaw can probably tell us much more about that...
If I only we all thought a bit more before we acted out, even just counted to ten... I’d be out of a job probably but happily so.
Fin
If I only we all thought a bit more before we acted out, even just counted to ten... I’d be out of a job probably but happily so.
Fin
