Managing your workload as a barrister, and how to turn work down well

For most barristers, the hardest word to say is not in court. It is "no" to a clerk or solicitor offering another brief. Self-employment makes every piece of work feel valuable, and the fear that a declined instruction means the solicitor will never call again is deeply rooted at the Bar. But accepting everything is one of the fastest routes to poor quality work, missed deadlines and burnout. Learning to manage your workload, and to turn work down well, is a professional skill.

Why saying yes to everything does not work

A practice built on accepting every instruction looks busy, but it tends to have three problems. Preparation suffers because there is never enough time, so you are always working at the last minute. Your practice drifts towards whatever arrives rather than the work you want to be known for. And the risk of a serious error rises, with all the professional and regulatory consequences that follow. Solicitors notice this too. They would rather a barrister who is honest about capacity than one who accepts and then returns the brief the night before.

Know your real capacity

You cannot manage your workload until you understand it. Keep a simple record for a month of how long different types of work actually take: a conference, a skeleton argument, a written advice, a day in court plus preparation. Most barristers underestimate preparation time by a wide margin.

Then work out a realistic weekly capacity, allowing for travel, administration, development and time off. That figure becomes your guide. When the diary is approaching it, the default answer to new work should be a question rather than an automatic yes.

Your professional obligations

The Bar Standards Board Handbook includes the cab rank rule, which applies to barristers in independent practice in certain circumstances, but it does not require you to accept work you do not have time to do properly. You must not accept instructions if you lack sufficient time or experience to handle the matter competently, or if accepting them would cause you to breach other professional obligations. Turning down work you cannot do well is not a breach of duty. Accepting it may be.

For direct access work the position is more flexible again, as the cab rank rule does not apply in the same way, and you must consider whether the case is suitable for public access at all.

How to turn work down well

The way you decline matters more than the fact of declining.

• Respond quickly. A prompt no is far better than a delayed one. The solicitor can find someone else while there is still time.
• Be clear and brief. "I am afraid I am not able to do this properly in the time available" is enough. You do not need to justify yourself at length.
• Offer an alternative. Suggest a colleague in chambers or on your panel with the right experience. Solicitors remember who helped them solve a problem.
• Leave the door open. Say that you would be glad to help on future matters, and mean it.
• Let your clerk handle it where possible. Clerks are skilled at managing these conversations and protecting your relationships.

Choosing what to decline

Not all work is equal. When capacity is tight, think about which instructions to prioritise. Consider the fee relative to the time, whether the work builds the practice you want, the importance of the relationship with the instructing solicitor, and how much you will learn. Low paid, last minute returns from a firm that rarely instructs you are often the easiest to decline. Work for a loyal solicitor in your core area deserves priority.

Practical tools for managing workload

A single diary. Everything goes in one place, including preparation time, paperwork deadlines and personal commitments. Preparation should be blocked out like a hearing, not squeezed around it.

Weekly planning. Spend thirty minutes each Friday reviewing the week ahead with your clerk. Identify pinch points early and decide what can move.

Paperwork deadlines. Agree realistic dates for advices and pleadings when you accept them, and record them. If a deadline is going to slip, tell the solicitor early.

Buffer days. After long trials, build in a lighter day for recovery and catching up. It is far more productive than running straight into the next case.

Limit late returns. Agree with your clerk how many late returns you will accept in a week. Late returns are part of practice, but they should not be the whole of it.

Talking to your clerk

Your clerk is the most important ally in managing your workload. Be honest about what you can manage and what kind of work you want more of. A good clerk will steer the right work towards you and protect your diary. If you work without a clerk, workload management falls entirely on you, and it is one of the main reasons sole practitioners find practice exhausting.

The long view

It also helps to revisit these decisions every few months, because the right balance changes as your practice grows.

A career at the Bar can last forty years. Barristers who thrive over that time are rarely the ones who took every instruction in their first decade. They are the ones who built a reputation for doing excellent work reliably, and who protected the time and energy needed to keep doing it.

If you would like support with diary management and a steady flow of suitable instructions, Clerk&Counsel works with independent barristers to provide both.