No rizz Keir
Stereotypes are rarely fair or accurate. However, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the stereotype of a barrister (charismatic, well-spoken, intelligent beyond compare) is an accurate one.
For professionals who spend their lives advocating before judges and juries in high-stakes public fora, you’d think that would make them some of the most capable leaders imaginable.
However, Keir Starmer (in the eyes of the British public, at the very least) seems to have dodged that particular reputation. In fact, given his high-profile legal roles, why is it that his tenure as Prime Minister has been marred by ridicule over his communication style and public presentation?
Whilst not here to comment on the particularities of his politics, Legal Cheek’s Alex Aldridge and Julia Szaniszlo are back to discuss what it really means to be a barrister, whether the above stereotypes ring true, and why it is that so many barristers seem to end up in politics.
You can listen to the podcast in full via the embed above, or on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
The Legal Cheek Podcast is proudly independent. Thanks to our sponsor Simpson Thacher, home of the private equity training contract, for making that possible
The comments are going to be fruitful.
They have gone to youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCT4b9gNtyM
Jury advocates have to be charismatic in the main, and all must be able to engage ordinary people, and have a feel for what moves them, and how they’ll feel about hearing one thing or another.
A barrister who only ever argues in front of a professional bench has little need of that type of the gift of the gab. Detail, precision, and smarts are largely sufficient. Those talents hold little stock with an increasingly short-sighted, and unthinking public.
I’m not sure he’s ever addressed a jury, has he?
Hopefully this country will NEVER allow a crime barrister to hold high office ever ever again.