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Lawfluencer barrister quits criminal bar for happiness

By Legal Cheek on Sep 29 2025 9:47am

Taz Aldeek says he wants to start ‘living for today’

A YouTubing junior barrister has gone public with his decision to quit his job as a prosecutor after two years.

Legal Cheek readers may recognise Sheffield Uni law graduate Taz Aldeek, who until recently was an advocate for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). We spotlighted him in 2023 as a lawfluencer to watch, thanks to his popular YouTube channel, where he shares everything from pupillage application tips to insights into life as a barrister.

But Aldeek has now taken to LinkedIn to reveal he’s quit his “childhood dream” after deciding to “to put myself and not the job first”.

In a candid post, the 31-year-old explained how he had “spent [his] 20s chasing what felt like an impossible goal, only to achieve it and decide to walk away less than two years into the role”.

Aldeek reflected on his time as a prosecutor, saying he “loved being a prosecutor, working alongside truly passionate professionals within the criminal justice system”, and that “advocating for victims of crime, in court, gave me a deep sense of fulfilment”.

But the demands of life at the criminal bar soon took their toll. The work, he admitted, was “all consuming”, leaving little room for friends, family, or rest.“Towards the end I was tired of living a career centric life where I was always on the clock, early starts, late finishes, sacrificing evenings & weekends,” he wrote.

After “several months of mental tug of war”, Aldeek said he realised he needed to reprioritise, choosing happiness as his guiding factor. “Letting go was necessary to create space for other areas of my life to flourish,” he said. “It also meant a fundamental change in thinking and moving away from working for tomorrow to start living for today.”

Despite his decision, Aldeek stressed that being a criminal barrister “will always be one of the highest honours of my life” and paid tribute to colleagues “fighting for justice each and every day, often at great personal and professional sacrifice, in the face of harrowing conditions, inside a system on the brink of collapse”.

Looking ahead, he described the future as “uncertain but that’s ok”, adding that “the unknown is the perfect place to find something new and to begin the process of redirection”.

Aldeek’s post triggered an outpouring of support. “You pursued your dream and achieved it,” wrote criminal lawyer Paige Tugby. “It is sad to hear you’re leaving the criminal bar, however, you have inspired so many and should be incredibly proud.”

“Hearing all of the grief that comes with stepping away from something you’ve loved and come to identify with so deeply,” another added. “Excited to see how this next chapter unfolds.”

The challenges of working at the criminal bar are well documented. Research earlier this year found that one in three criminal barristers are seriously considering leaving, citing financial pressures, long and stressful hours, and increasing administrative burdens as key concerns.

5 Comments

Civil Junior - 7 years in

Sep 29 2025 11:33am

I have huge respect for anyone who pursues a career at the Criminal Bar – equal, if not greater, workload, without the pay.

The first couple of years in practice are gruelling, but that is because it’s the steepest part of the learning curve and your anxiety about doing the right thing for your career is in full swing.

However, it gets better:

1. Remuneration improves;

2. Independence improves, in that you develop the ability to say “no” to your clerks when you previously thought that’d mean the end of your career;

3. Perspective improves, in that you come to realise that this is just a job. Yes, an important job, where the stakes are high, but a job nevertheless. To my mind, more harm than good is done when barristers put the job on a pedestal to the exclusion of all other factors.

When I was about 2 years into practice, I realised after a particularly busy period that I was always thinking about work, and my stress levels were high. I was working back to back weekends and struggled to switch off. At that time, I decided to make a proactive change – I started to say no, I asked for prep days to be booked into my diary, and I judged my capacity based on a 5-day working week (weekend working before a trial is unavoidable, but no reason to be doing paperwork over the weekend).

My theory was that if these changes could not be accommodated, then frankly I would switch careers and do something else, rather than stay on that treadmill for another 30 years. Ultimately, those changes could be accommodated easily, and my practice got stronger.

I respect this individual’s decision to leave the Bar, and I do not profess to understand that pressures of the Criminal Bar, but if anyone at the junior end is reading this comment, then just know that it doesn’t have to be this way. Exercise some agency – if it doesn’t work in your Chambers, then move Chambers. If it doesn’t work in the new Chambers, then consider a switch. But try and make the change at the Bar first.

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Future Pupil

Sep 29 2025 12:18pm

This guy was employed though, at the CPS

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Dubya

Sep 29 2025 12:38pm

If you are working every hour of every weekend at this job – you are doing something wrong. Nobody is that busy. It isn’t simply a case of asking for days out of court. There are easier methods. Doing attendance notes before you go home or back to chambers. Getting up early to work before court rather than working until late at night when you are more tired. Use the evening to switch off, watch telly, spend time with family or play warhammer – you will be more productive for it and will eventually get out of that classic – “I need to finish it before I go to bed” mindset. Be strict with yourself at the weekend. Say to yourself you will get up early Saturday and Sunday and prepare Mondays trial and once you have, stop and spend the day not thinking about work. Work out what you actually need to to to prepare the trial for that day. If you have a trial on a Monday, do you need to prepare every witnesses cross examination – look at the batting order. If you are simply doing a mention, do you need to read every last page of the case? Maybe when you start but as you progress – No. Look what happened in the last few hearings and work out what the issues are going to be. Everyone has their own methods, you will find yours – you have to force yourself to do it. For your sake and for the sake of those around you – because they are more important than the job. When you die you won’t be thinking at the last – if only I had read the entire 1000 pages of that case for a 2 minute hearing – you’ll be thinking of the of the lovely day out you had with your family instead.

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Anonymous

Sep 29 2025 1:42pm

To preface, I agree, but it is much easier said than done!

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A Count

Sep 29 2025 12:44pm

The prosecutorial side can be better funded simply by ending the use of defence solicitors and counsel and moving to a bare bones public defender model and then shifting the savings over.

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