Whatever it is that Simeon Burke – the younger brother of Enoch – is trying to achieve, one suspects that dragging the Bar Council into the 21st century is not high on the list. In fact, given his family’s conservative views on many things, it is probably not on the list at all.
Whatever his higher purpose, Simeon has written to the chairman of the Bar Council complaining he is unable to find a master or senior barrister willing to train him in the workings of the court.
“I am deeply concerned that I am receiving different treatment to that experienced by other applicants for membership of the Law Library who have not established a pupillage arrangement,” he told Sean Guerin SC.
He goes on to say that “I am concerned that I am currently being faced with the possibility of being effectively shut out of membership of the Law Library and practice in the courts due to the situation.”
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First, a recap of The Bar of Ireland’s medieval traditions. Basically, if you want to charge people money to represent them in court in Ireland you must qualify as a barrister so you can practise at the Bar of Ireland, which requires “a period of study at The Honourable Society of King’s Inns, founded in 1541 during the reign of Henry VIII”.
Once you have done that you must then “devil” or work for at least year for another experienced barrister to learn how the courts work. He or she is your “master”, and you are the “pupil”. You work for free.
According to the Bar Council, it “is first and foremost the responsibility of the entering Pupil to secure a Master. It is not a matter for the Council of The Bar of Ireland nor the Committee Chairs to secure a Master for any Pupil”.
They publish a “register of Masters”. There are currently 174 on the register of which 18 are currently available.
There are more than 2,000 members of the Bar Council.
The only logical conclusion is that most pupils find their masters through routes other than the list, based on their academic prowess and connections.
Burke does not seem to have a problem with the way the master-pupil system works in principle, just with the fact that it doesn’t work for him.
His concern is not grounded in the much more fertile issue of how the whole notion of masters and pupillage is fundamentally discriminatory and potentially a bar to minorities entering the profession.
Burke’s academic record is exemplary. He studied law at the University of Galway, Cambridge University and the aforementioned Honourable Society of King’s Inns; he won prizes and was called to the Bar (graduated) in first place in October 2023.
It is reasonable to assume his difficulties in finding a master relate to the adverse publicity associated with his support of his brother. Simeon had a conviction for a “volatile” breach of the peace following a “melee” at his brother Enoch Burke’s case in the Four Courts in Dublin in 2023 struck out after a judge found there was insufficient evidence of him committing a criminal offence.
Given the Burkes’ rather muscular brand of Christianity, it is tempting to quote from the Bible (Galatians 6:7) at this point: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
In other words: If you want to pursue a career in the bar, it is best not to get involved in a dust-up in the courts or what the judge who heard his appeal termed “unbecoming” behaviour.
This, however, is reductive and just a tad hypocritical. There are plenty of members of the bar and judiciary who have skeletons in their closets. There are also conservative senior barristers who may agree with the Burke family’s beliefs, if not their methods.
There is also the obvious example of three-times Olympic medal winner Michelle Smith de Bruin who was banned for four years by Fina, the international swimming federation, for tampering with a urine sample. She retired from swimming and went on to qualify as a barrister and has a successful practice. She found a master and qualified in 2005.
But much has changed in the intervening years, including a far more censorious tone to public debate, much of it driven by the echo chamber that is social media. The consequences of being on the wrong side of the ever-more strident consensus on an issue in the public domain – regardless of your personal convictions – can be very significant, particularly for businesses, and at the end of the day barristers are self-employed businesspeople.
Presumably barristers are steering clear of Burke – who on paper should make an excellent pupil and whose views they might privately agree with – because they simply do not want their personal brand associated with his family’s antics.
It may be hard to have too much sympathy for Burke, but his plight raises questions about access to the profession for those whose world view does not conform to the rather narrow one that prevails in society. That is not healthy for any democracy that draws its judges from such a shallow pool. Particularly one such as ours that is undergoing dramatic and far-reaching change.
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