Join us for this episode of Law Talks, with Callum Reid-Hutchings, who is a Barrister at Gatehouse Chambers, working in commercial litigation, insolvency and company law, construction disputes, employment law, and defamation matters. Callum describes a varied career path from early non-legal jobs to university, the bar course, commercial litigation paralegal work and a judicial assistant role, until ultimately securing pupillage and tenancy at Gatehouse Chambers.

He explains discovering the Bar later, preferring courtroom advocacy and self-employment over becoming a solicitor, and focusing on commercial work after exploring other practice areas. Callum outlines what he learned from his paralegal and judicial assistant roles about litigation realities and what persuades or annoys judges, and emphasises transferable skills from non-legal work and competitive sports. He shares advice on selecting chambers, interview preparation, and managing applications efficiently, and discusses building a practice through availability, strong solicitor relationships, and resilience.

00:00 Welcome and Introductions

00:08 Career Journey So Far

02:26 Choosing the Bar

04:19 Barrister vs Solicitor

05:20 Paralegal Life in Litigation

08:01 Finding Your Practice Area

10:38 Judicial Assistant Insights

13:44 Transferable Skills Beyond Law

17:24 Picking Chambers and Bouncing Back

21:27 Interview Preparation Tips

24:48 Application Challenges and Strategy

27:54 Inside Pupillage Year

31:52 Building a Tenant Practice

34:58 Final Advice and Wrap Up

This episode is sponsored by LawPods, a podcast marketing agency that services some of the biggest brands in law.

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Our intro music is adapted from 'Sprightly' by GarageBand Apple Loop and 'Sprightly Remix' by Adamo.

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In this episode of Law Talks, Priya Greig, a practice manager and barrister’s clerk at Twenty Essex Chambers, describes her career path from paralegal to junior clerk and progression through assistant practice manager roles.

She explains the clerking recruitment process, typical duties such as fee negotiation, diary management, court listings, and business development, and highlights the job’s variety and strong focus on networking, including hosting and attending events. Priya discusses how chamber structures vary, the importance of building personal working relationships with barristers to tailor workloads, and notes that clerking remains largely paper-based.

She outlines career progression and earning potential, movement between practice areas, and opportunities for international travel through arbitration work. Priya also shares her involvement with the Female Fraud Forum and offers advice for aspiring clerks and barristers on networking, shadowing, and mini-pupillages.

00:00 Career Journey and Getting Into Clerking

04:51 Week in the Role

08:00 Working With Barristers

10:54 Earnings and Growth

13:54 Advice for New Juniors

17:40 International Travel Opportunities

18:26 Female Fraud Forum

20:15 Outside Initiatives

21:30 Applying for Clerking

23:08 Clerking Before Pupillage

Recruitment agencies contacts:

Priya Greig

Matt Curness, GRL

Elliott Rogers, Briefed

This episode is sponsored by LawPods, a podcast marketing agency that services some of the biggest brands in law.

Enjoying Law Talks? Sign up for our Linked In Newsletter, and follow us on Instagram and TikTok to receive all our latest news.

Want to read the episode transcription? Sign up to receive our monthly episode transcriptions.

Want to feature on Law Talks? We're always happy to hear from legal professionals keen to share their insights and experiences with our listeners.Contact us.

Our intro music is adapted from 'Sprightly' by GarageBand Apple Loop and 'Sprightly Remix' by Adamo.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join me for this episode with Elizabeth Huang, an associate in Slaughter and May’s Competition and Regulatory team, who discusses her path from studying law and completing the BCL (focused on law, technology, and society) to joining the firm as a trainee in 2021 and qualifying into the Competition group in 2023.

She shares advice for vacation schemes and training contract applicants, emphasising seeking university careers support, prioritising quality over quantity, tailoring applications, and giving personal, genuine reasons for “why law” and “why this firm.” Elizabeth explains Slaughter and May’s multi-specialist approach, her varied training contract seats (including a secondment to the firm’s Hong Kong office), and how seat changes build skills.

She outlines competition work across merger control, antitrust/behavioural matters, and the emerging field of digital regulation, describing the work lawyers do in advising clients on regulator-facing strategy, investigations, and compliance.

She addresses work-life balance realities, noting it can get easier after qualification, and highlights a major project advising a big tech company in the UK’s first investigation under the new digital markets regime.

00:12 Legal Career Journey and Choosing the BCL

04:07 Vacation Scheme Advice

07:33 Why Slaughter and May

10:10 Vacation vs Training Contract

11:41 Training Seats Explained

17:16 Competition Law Overview

22:54 Why Competition and Project Variety

25:50 Client Relationships Over Time

27:46 Work Life Balance Reality

32:18 Memorable Digital Markets Case

35:27 What Prepared Me Most

This episode is sponsored by LawPods, a podcast marketing agency that services some of the biggest brands in law.

Enjoying Law Talks? Sign up for our Linked In Newsletter, and follow us on Instagram and TikTok to receive all our latest news.

Want to read the episode transcription? Sign up to receive our monthly episode transcriptions.

Want to feature on Law Talks? We're always happy to hear from legal professionals keen to share their insights and experiences with our listeners.Contact us.

Our intro music is adapted from 'Sprightly' by GarageBand Apple Loop and 'Sprightly Remix' by Adamo.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.