We were delighted to hold our Women at the Commercial Chancery Bar Virtual Event on Thursday 14 January 2021, organised by Rosanna Foskett.

With over 50 attendees, Catherine Addy QC opened the event with a welcome to Maitland Chambers and explained what life is like for her at the Commercial Chancery Bar.

The attendees were then given an introduction to witness handling from Rosanna, before being split in to breakout rooms for a cross examination workshop hosted by Fiona Dewar, Thomas Munby, Narinder Jhittay, Hannah Ilett, Ted Loveday, Andrew McLeod, Charles King and Edward Armitage. Finally, a question and answer panel session was held by Rebecca Page, Amanda Hadkiss, Ryan Turner and James Mitchell, where questions such as work/life balance, how to prepare for interviews and tips for improving CV’s were answered.

Attendees kindly had this to say about the event;

• "The cross examination exercise was brilliant. Not only was it a chance to brush up on advocacy skills, the engaging and networking element of it was great too."
• "Definitely the best virtual event I have attended."
• "I just wanted to say thank you for yesterday evening’s event; I really enjoyed it. It was a helpful insight into Chambers and the areas of practice and fun to try some case analysis and cross examination. Please pass on my thanks also to members of Chambers for being so open and engaging."
• "I really enjoyed the event last night and found the breakout room to be a good way to have the confidence to speak up during the session."
• "I found the evening to be a really useful insight and will certainly be applying for a mini-pupillage at Maitland as a result."
• "Thank you so much for your enlightening introduction to cross examination this evening. It was my first taste of witness handling and I really enjoyed it."
• "Before the event, I posed quite serious questions about the culture of Commercial Chancery. I was delighted by the honest and very personal reflections by Catherine Addy QC. It dispelled much of the poor perception that I had gained through reading articles and I particularly noted the progress made with increasing numbers of women becoming silks. It was also reassuring to hear that a career at the Bar did not pose any more difficulties for parents than any other professional career. This has assured me that it is possible to pursue a career at the Commercial Chancery Bar."

We hope that all attendees found the event useful, and please click the hyperlinks for more information regarding Pupillage or our remote mini-pupillages. Please keep an eye on our website for the next date when we will hold this event but if you wish to register your interest beforehand, please email pupillage@maitlandchambers.com