Jonathan Owen
Name: Jonathan Owen
Chambers: Ropewalk Chambers
University: Oxford
Subject: law
Graduated: 2003
Working as a barrister outside London
Nottingham has a busy local legal profession and court work regularly takes barristers much further afield. The city, with its central location, is well placed for this kind of practice.
My working week consists of court hearings, paperwork and, to a lesser extent, conferences with solicitors and clients. In a typical week I will be in court most days, either in trials or in shorter application hearings (procedural hearings before trial). This sometimes involves a lot of travel and always provides a great deal of variety.
Working life in a Nottingham set
As my practice has grown the paperwork has increased. This mainly consists of settling pleadings (formal court documents) and advising on the full range of the kind of disputes in which I appear in court. I have a very broad range of civil work, including personal injury, contractual, landlord and tenant, and insolvency disputes. Sometimes my only involvement in a case will be attending the final hearing. In other situations I will have drafted the pleadings and possibly advised on the case before seeing its conclusion in court or in settlement.
The work keeps me busy and extends outside of regular business hours. Preparation is the key to all of the different work in which a recently qualified barrister is involved. The various different professional commitments, in court or in paperwork, place conflicting demands on my time and create tight deadlines so organising my time is important.
- Find out more about practising personal injury law at the Bar
- Find out more about practising insolvency law at the Bar
