Most working professionals take for granted a set of structures that barristers largely do without: employment contracts, line managers, team meetings, and someone else to absorb the pressure when a project becomes difficult. Emily Windsor, a chancery barrister with experience sitting as a Judge, has reflected on what the self-employed model of the Bar actually delivers — and where it makes demands in return.
Windsor’s practice is broad. Her clients range from agricultural businesses in the north of England to companies recognisable from everyday life. The legal matters vary considerably, but the professional task is consistent: work through complex problems carefully and find the best answer available for the person who needs it. Windsor values both the variety and the intellectual rigour that the work requires.
The structural context for that work is self-employment within Chambers. Emily Windsor regards this model with real appreciation. Running an independent practice means she is not managed, not constrained by a firm’s internal pressures, and free to organise her professional life according to her own priorities. Chambers provides the surrounding community: colleagues who are available for advice, a shared working environment, and the kind of professional relationships that make independent practice sustainable rather than solitary.
She is also clear about the other side of that arrangement. Personal responsibility for a practice means there is no buffer. When a case is difficult, it is on the barrister. Windsor notes that most barristers deal with their cases individually — silks sometimes lead juniors, but the default is a single practitioner carrying the matter. That individual accountability means the work follows her home. She thinks about her clients in the evenings and at weekends and acknowledges that the responsibility does weigh on her at times.
The working environment has changed considerably over Windsor’s career. Written letters were once the standard medium. Replies were expected within days. That pace has long since given way to email and the expectation of faster responses, and Windsor observes that the digital shift has increased the tempo of practice meaningfully. But it has also changed what flexibility looks like. Legal research and case materials that previously required a physical visit to a library can now be accessed from a laptop anywhere. Windsor notes that anyone with responsibilities outside the office — caring duties, family commitments, or simply a preference for working outside the city — can now manage those alongside a full practice in a way that would have been impractical thirty years ago.
One element of the Bar’s professional culture that Windsor highlights is the relationship between experience and value. Senior practitioners in their sixties and seventies are frequently regarded as being at the height of their careers. Their accumulated knowledge commands respect and generates work. This stands in contrast to sectors where long service can become a liability rather than an asset.
Windsor’s own experience reflects that longer arc. When the question of retirement came up in conversation with her pensions advisor, she found she had no compelling answer for why she would want to stop. The work, the clients, and the energy of court continue to hold genuine appeal. That, she suggests, is what the Bar can offer — if you are suited to it.