Barristers -v- Clerks: Clerks 1, Barrister nil

One of the oddest things about the Bar is the curious relationship between barristers and clerks. As a pupil barrister, I was the lowliest of the low, a barely visible form of algae - of less importance in Chambers than the cleaning staff.

And yet, the clerks, older and wiser than me by far, addressed me as "Mr Williams", and I in turn would address them by their first names. I never got over the weirdness of this, given that every instinct suggested it should be the other way around. But woe betide any pupil barrister who failed to understand where power really lay - the clerks have it, and pupils don't. The clerks can make or break your career.

On one occasion I complained to the clerks (very politely, and in the mildest possible tone) about a particularly hideous brief that had come in for me; a multiple repossession hearing (a subject on which I knew literally nothing) with a fee that would barely cover the cost of my transport.

After my complaint, as if by magic, I found that my supply of briefs had completely dried up. For two weeks I languished in purgatory, until, lesson learned, the clerks started to send me work once more.

I never complained again.