Going to the Bar

The President of the WA Bar reflects on the Bar and becoming a barrister.

The following are remarks provided by Brahma Dharmananda SC, President of the Western Australian Bar Association, at a Piddington CPD session — Going to the Bar: Why, when and how — which was held on 26 March 2024.

At the 60th celebrations of the WA Bar last year, we published a booklet. It gave some insights and highlights of how our Bar started only in 1963 and has grown steadily.

The WA Bar has great strengths and provides quality independent counsel. The WA Bar provides great training with its Bar Readers’ Course and its Essential Trial Advocacy Course, run in conjunction with the Australian Bar Association.

The WA Bar is a collegiate group of people, now practicing in more than one set of successful chambers.

By any measure including by comparing us with the Bar Associations in the east coast, the WA Bar is small. There is much room for growth. The WA economy continues to grow. The demand for highly skilled barristers appears always to be in the increase.

The WA Bar and the WA judiciary have always welcomed counsel (both senior counsel and junior counsel) from the other States. Interstate counsel often appear in many cases, including high profile cases. The argument that there are many advantages to brief a local counsel has been well heard and well understood.

But, there is a shortage of counsel with the required experience and with sufficient availability at the local Bar to serve the needs of many clients, including mega clients.

There are, therefore, many opportunities for quality counsel at the WA Bar.

If you are thinking of coming to the Bar, consider these things. Do you have colleagues in the amalgam that will be an initial source for work?

You will need to start somewhere. You cannot take for granted from where your first brief will come. Having colleagues that might get you involved in a case in your early days at the Bar is important. You need to nurture your client base from the very start.

If you have experience in a particular area or have a reputation in a particular area, that will help. You may need to focus on that area and try and win work in the area to develop your reputation.

Of course, if you have done good work in a broad range of areas or have a good reputation as able, you will be well placed. But, may I say, don’t assume you are ready. Please take action and develop a plan.

Another thing to consider is whether you have a good working relationship with one or more senior counsel.

Senior counsel can be great mentors. They will get you involved in cases if they know you and trust you. Again, trust needs to be built, and not assumed.

Another question is: why do you want to be a barrister?

Do you want to go to Court? Going to Court and presenting a case is not easy. It is not for the faint hearted. But, different counsel have different styles. You do not need to be an extrovert.

You need to have ability and a willingness to master your brief and work out the best way to present your case.

These skills can be taught, to an extent, but you learn mostly by experience. The question for you is whether you want to commit to doing the hard work to develop skills.

Being a barrister is a curious profession.

I am reminded of Justice Patrick Keane’s 2014 speech at the Silks’ Dinner in the High Court. Justice Keane said:

“Apart from the profession of arms, no other professional has to deal with a live opponent determined to confound one’s best laid plans. Lord Atkin … once said of the Bar that it is the only profession in which one goes to work each morning knowing that your workday will involve a highly intelligent individual doing his [or her] best to prove to another highly intelligent individual that you are a congenital idiot.”

As I said, practising as a barrister is not for the faint hearted. But, practising as a barrister is great fun.

It is a well kept secret that practising as a barrister is a lot more fun than working extreme long hours in the amalgam.

I would encourage those who are thinking of joining the Bar to build a network of colleagues and counsel; and to reflect on whether you want to do the required hard work.

If you take small and meaningful steps to develop a plan for yourself, and are determined to make it, you will. Practice as an independent barrister is very rewarding. You get to assist clients and the administration of justice in a very direct way.

Brahma Dharmananda SC practices in commercial litigation. He appears in the superior courts, the appeal courts and in arbitrations. Brahma has appeared in a number of leading High Court cases. He has been recognised by independent publications as the “Market Leader” or as “Pre-eminent”, and for his work in “Bet-the-Company Litigation”.

Before his practice as an independent barrister, Brahma worked at Mallesons Stephen Jaques. Brahma was admitted as an equity partner of Mallesons in 1994, at the age of 29. In 1989/90, Brahma worked in Mallesons’ New York office.

Brahma has a Bachelor of Jurisprudence with First Class Honours; and a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours from UWA. He was the top of his LLB class. He was awarded the H.C.F. Keall Prize in Law; and the David De Barron Cullen Prize in Mercantile Law. Brahma also has a BCL from Oxford.