Stephen Ward - Tales of a Barristers Clerk

Contents

Tales

of a

Barristers Clerk

STEPHEN WARD

and the late

FRANK PARSLIFFE

Copyright 2020 Stephen Ward and Frank Parsliffe

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

The right of Stephen Ward and Frank Parsliffe to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

First published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by

The Choir Press

ISBN 978-1-78963-173-9

To respect the privacy of the barristers, clerks, court staff, lay clients and solicitors we have worked with over the years we have changed some of the details in this book. The dates are random, and the stories go back over a long period of time. Some of the great characters mentioned in this book have sadly passed away but they will always be remembered as generous people who gave time, patience and experience to new junior clerks.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my long-suffering wife Claire. We met in a nightclub in East Grinstead when I was 18, we were engaged when I was 20 and we were married when I was 21. It has been said that behind every successful man is a strong woman and that is certainly true with us. Throughout our marriage of 30 years now, Claire has put up with calls from Barristers all hours of the day and night, weekends and even Christmas Day on one occasion. There have been many trips away, lots of travel, numerous late nights, dinner in the oven, but never a complaint. The life of a Barristers clerks wife is not an easy one.

Thank you Claire, love you.

Preface

If you have bought this book, firstly thank you, then secondly, you can be pleased with yourself as you have made a donation directly to the Barristers Clerks Benevolent Fund. When I set out to write this book I assigned all the royalties to the Benevolent Fund to help clerks or their families who have fallen on hard times. All royalties will go directly from the publishers to the Benevolent Fund. Thank you.

I wanted to write this book because every clerk has a story to tell, every clerk says they will write a book one day, but they dont, or at least very few do. So, I decided to write the book and not leave it until I retire.

This book is about my life as a clerk, it includes stories passed onto me by other clerks working in chambers and, where needed, the identities of those involved have been removed. Some of the stories I have heard over the years may or may not be true, but I never let the truth spoil a good story.

The book is intended to be funny, serious, and share with you a little bit of chambers life, as I am often asked about the strange world of being a barristers clerk. Where the terminology is specific to the legal world, I will do my best to explain what it means.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to our contributors:

Martin Poulter Ben Trott Martin Secrett Tim Markham David Goddard Philip Alden Tony Stephenson

A change of course ...

My story starts as a 16-year-old boy attending my interview at 2 Crown Office Row, 2nd floor, right, in the Temple, London, just off Fleet Street. Most people have no idea that the Temple or the other Inns of Court exist or that they are public places which you can visit any time. If you walk along Fleet Street or the Strand, the Temple is between Fleet Street and the Thames. Walk in, have a look around, it is free and a magical place, often used for film sets. Temple church in particular is worth a visit.

Anyway, I went to 2 COR (as we call it), was introduced to Tom Parsliffe, a large, cheery man who seemed to find everything amusing. Tom was the senior clerk; he was the first clerk I ever met, and I worked with him for some time. Many of the stories in this book involve him, who I will always remember fondly.

This book started as a collection of short stories and then something strange happened which changed the book before it had really begun and here is why.

I received an email from a lady called Claire Long saying her dad Frank had written a book but sadly passed away before it was published. A few email exchanges and a phone call later, I realised that Frank, also known as Tom, was the Tom Parsliffe I had known, so I was surprised to hear he had written his story and that it was about life in chambers long before I arrived.

1st November 2018Dear StephenVincent Denham suggested I get in touch with you. I met him at the Chambers UK launch last night and I was telling him how my father [Frank Parsliffe (aka Tom)] worked as a senior clerk in the Temple for 50 years from pre-war to the early 1980s. He had started to write a book about his time in the Temple which was sadly never finished. Vincent had said you were looking for clerk stories for a new publication.I wondered if you might be interested in what my father had written. He died two years ago but we still have his manuscript, which particularly documents life during the war years in the Temple.Kind regards, Claire Long

I was intrigued and so this book has changed course and is now also a tribute to the late Tom (Frank) Parsliffe. I tell my story including tales from other clerks and then hand over the book to the late Tom who finally gets his story into print and gives you an insight into what clerking was like during and before the war. I hope you enjoy both our stories. Special thanks to Toms wife Angela and his daughter Claire for allowing me to use his text in this book.

I have been a barristers clerk in chambers in Middle Temple, to Third Junior in Serjeants Inn, Second Junior in Grays Inn, then a short spell in Manchester as a Junior before settling in Somerset in 1993 when I became a Senior Clerk, the most senior position you can achieve in the clerking world. Aged 21, it was a steep learning curve as nobody ever tells you what a senior clerk does. It is a complete mystery to most junior clerks.

These stories are historical and in recent years more formal training and dedicated courses have been developed to teach modern business skills to new clerks which is a great advancement.

The route taken by a youngster wanting to be a barristers clerk begins as The Boy, progressing to Third Junior, Second Junior, Junior and finally Senior Clerk. Generally speaking, each stage is reached by moving to another set of chambers.

Part One: Tales from the Temple

Stephen Ward

Chapter One: Starting out

How did you become a barristers clerk?

This is one of the most frequently asked questions at dinner parties, social events and on camp sites. Most clerks will have a story to tell about how they first got into clerking as it such a strange world and not generally understood by those outside of the profession.

For me I was 15 and a half. I had been quite naughty at school and never really had much interest in learning. I just wanted to earn some money and spend it. By 14, I had become quite good at both and had my own successful lawn mowing business with friends helping out. My dad had loaned me the money to buy a petrol Flymo from a catalogue and then a petrol strimmer. I was too young to drive so we re-engineered a set of old pram wheels to take the Flymo, strimmer, broom and edging shears.

I lived just outside Brighton in a place called Telscombe Cliffs. The roads are ordered in a grid formation so we would work our way up one road and back down the other side one day, then the next road the next and so on. All after school or weekends. Sometimes during school times, but only when mum and dad were away, which resulted in me getting to know the headmaster quite well and the chair outside his office, which was plastic from memory and quite uncomfortable.

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