It is thought that more than 5,000 barristers work in the employed sector. Many more, however, are part of an invisible workforce. Because Bar Council rules outlaw multi-disciplinary partnerships, barristers who work in accountants’ firms are classified as non-practising. Many others who work in capacities such as company secretaries (or prime ministers) do not register with the Bar Council as employed barristers, and so their numbers are uncounted. The Bar Council itself takes in subscriptions (this is at least an indication of minimum numbers) from slightly under 3,000 barristers in employed practice. But the numbers are thought to exceed this by at least as many again. The proportion of those called to the Bar who end up pursuing an employed practice now represents one-third of all barristers in practice.
Barristers are a very diverse group and work in fields as varied as all aspects of commerce, finance and industry, the armed forces legal services, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Government Legal Service (GLS), local government, as magistrates clerks, with trade unions and at law centres. There are hundreds – if not thousands – of non-practising barristers who are employed in solicitors firms. For example, we know that Allen & Overy alone employs more than 200 barristers. An employed barrister, Dame Juliet Wheldon QC, heads the GLS as the Treasury Solicitor. Another, Lord Alexander of Weedon QC, is the past chairman of NatWest Bank. Such a large number and in so many very high-profile and important positions means that this category of barrister is a highly significant sector of the Bar. Many barristers move from chambers into employment and back again. A lifetime career in self-employed practice from chambers is no longer necessarily the only route that many prospective barristers take on being called to the Bar.
