jtlawwork 1 Barristers: Training and Work. [How Barristers are trained} WORK There are around 8,500 barristers, known collectively as the Bar. Their governing body is the Bar Council, which, like the Law society, acts a s a kind of trade union, safeguarding the interests of barristers and also as a watchdog, regulating barristers training and activities. Advocacy is the main function of barristers and much of their time will be spent in the court preparing for it. Until the changes are made under the CLSA, barristers were, with a few exceptions, the only people allowed to advocate in the superior courts- the House of Lords, the Court of Appeal, the High Court, the Crown Court and the Employment Appeal Tribunal. Barristers also do paperwork, drafting legal documents and giving written opinions on legal problems and issues. A solicitor on behalf of a client usually engages barristers and work on what is called the ‘cab rank’ rule – technically, this means that if they are not already committed for the time in question, they must accept any case which falls within their claimed area of specialisation and for which a reasonable fee is offered. 020201 what's it to you? who go blather from