Andrew Spencer

Name: Andrew Spencer
Chambers: 1 Chancery Lane
Position: tenant
University: University of Oxford
Subject: politics, philosophy and economics
Graduated: 2001

Why I chose a career as a common law barrister

I worked for a year after university before deciding to become a barrister. I was keen to become an expert whom people would come to for help and advice, and also knew I liked the sound of my own voice! I found tort and, to a lesser extent, contract the most interesting subjects on my conversion course and so I knew I wanted to go into common law. 

Working life at the common law Bar

I’m in court about three times a week, all over the country. This is great in that I get to see new places but bad in that so much of my time is spent on trains (or waiting, frustrated, at the station). The rest of the time I’m preparing for court or doing written work, either pleadings or advice. I get the papers a few days in advance and have a handful of cases on the go at the same time. Before going to court I normally discuss the case with the solicitor; I meet my lay clients shortly before we go into court and we have a quick conference. Other than that I prepare my cases entirely by myself. Most of my cases are consumer contract disputes (in which a member of the public has bought something that he or she is not satisfied with) or accidents of one sort or another. Increasingly, I am also doing negligence cases involving professionals. The most exciting times happen when I’m involved in a number of very different cases in the same week, for example working on a landlord and tenant case, a package holiday claim and a personal injury case while also seeking an injunction under the Protection from Harassment Act. 

Dodging the media

I will never forget my first day as a pupil. I turned up in chambers fresh from a month’s holiday and was thrown straight into the thick of a clinical negligence trial at the High Court with my pupil supervisor – we had to dodge TV cameras all the way down Fleet Street.