Are there girls, boys and babies in your office?

In 1990, when I agreed to help set up Doughty Street Chambers, it was on condition that I would never call any barrister ‘Sir’ or ‘Miss’ and that I expected all my staff to use barristers’ first names. In 17 subsequent years in legal management I’ve visited a great many chambers and I’m still taken aback when I hear a barrister addressed as if they were a school teacher among children.