What Barristers Actually Do All Day: Emily Windsor on the Reality of Chancery Practice
Ask most people to describe a barrister’s working life and they will reach for courtroom drama. The reality is considerably broader. Emily Windsor, a chancery barrister with experience as a Judge, has offered a clear-eyed account of what daily professional life at the self-employed Bar actually involves — the work itself, the structure that surrounds it, and the demands that independent practice places on those who choose it.
Windsor’s chancery practice covers three overlapping areas: advising clients, preparing their cases, and appearing in court on their behalf. The client base she works with spans a wide range — from farmers in Cumbria navigating complex land or inheritance questions to household-name companies dealing with significant commercial matters. Windsor values that breadth. No two cases follow the same path, and the variety of clients and legal questions keeps the work intellectually engaged.
The structural context for all of it is self-employment. Most barristers — Windsor among them — are not employed by firms. They are independent practitioners who belong to a set of Chambers. Windsor describes this as a model that offers genuine advantages: the freedom and autonomy of running your own practice, combined with the community infrastructure that Chambers provides. When support is needed, colleagues are there. The isolation of solo practice is real, but it is not total.
Windsor is straightforward about the other side of that equation. Individual responsibility for a practice means carrying the weight of cases personally. Most barristers work through their matters alone — teams exist in some circumstances, but they are not the default. Windsor reflects that this produces a kind of professional accountability that stays with her outside working hours. She thinks about her clients in the evenings and at weekends, and acknowledges that the responsibility does weigh on her at times. It is, she suggests, an inherent feature of the self-employed model rather than something that can be designed away.
The working environment has shifted considerably over her career. The correspondence culture she entered — letters, measured replies, a slower professional tempo — has long been replaced by email and the expectation of prompt responses. The pace has increased, and barristers operating independently feel that shift without the buffer of support staff. Technology has, however, also created flexibility that did not exist before. Legal research and case materials are now accessible from a laptop anywhere. Working remotely is a practical reality. Windsor notes that anyone with responsibilities outside the office — family, caring duties, or simply geography — can now manage those alongside a full practice in a way that was not possible a generation ago.
Emily Windsor’s view of the Bar after decades in practice remains strongly positive. The intellectual engagement, the variety, the energy of court — these are things she continues to find genuinely compelling. Her verdict is direct: a fulfilling career, and one she would recommend.
