I've had a bit of news on my pupillage. I'll be getting a new pupilmaster shortly, after a case we've got next week.
Helen, who sits across from me, is on the chambers pupillage committee and mentioned last week that they were thinking of allocating me to a new barrister as part of their normal rotation policy. I've met the guy in question and he seems, well, nice. He has a bit of a practice in international child abduction, apparently. It was actually the guy with whom I did my one noting brief. I hadn't got a clue what I was doing, which must have been bloody obvious, so there is a risk he already thinks I'm an incompetent nincompoop. So that gives him a bit of a headstart on everyone else, I guess.
The Master went to speak to him, I think mainly because he just likes to be involved. He reported back and reckons it is a good idea and that we'd suit each other. This guy's last pupil asked far too many questions, apparently, and if he's going to have a pupil he wants one that will leave him to get on with things and be more or less self-sufficient. Suits me very well, and will give me a lot more opportunity to take on some Free Representation Unit cases. And it sounds like, unlike The Master, he won't be calling at around 9am and around 6pm every day to check that I'm still in chambers, which will be nice. The Master actually didn't do this yesterday, and I was left feeling slightly less like a surly teenager.
There is, of course, the the problem of titles. Being an ex-historian, I think I'll adopt the royal succession convention of 'the King is dead, long live the King!' I'll let you know when it happens, but otherwise I'll be continuing to refer to The Master. For those less familiar with this concept, think Christopher Eccleston bowing out to David Tennant in Doctor Who. Same role -- being enigmatic, combatting technologically advanced pepper pots, allocating me work, checking I'm in chambers -- but different actor, dress sense and personality.
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A pupil's view
5 comments:
I am terminally geeky, so I can't help but note that the Doctor Who analogy is far too apt, being that The Master is also Doctor Who's greatest non-advanced Pepperpot arch-nemesis.
My work here is done. To the Batmobile, away!
Just curious - so what title would you use in referring to your old Master?
Good points, both. I think the original title for my pupilmaster was a nod to Doctor Who, which I've subsequently managed to forget. I basically learned to read with the old Terrance Dicks books. Not quite sure how to get around future references, if any, to the old Master. Possibly just The Old Master or Ye Olde Master would do it. I'll try and think of something clever, but I doubt I'll come up with anything!
Peter Davison was the fifth Doctor, William Hartnell the first. Why not take the same convention. FirstMaster and now onto SecondMaster? Really like this blog for obvious reasons.
Babybarista, I haven't linked your blog for reasons of slight miffedness that someone's making up a similar blog! You could well be on to something with this suggestion, though. I'm likely to get a third Master/Mistress before the year is out, which also perhaps favours that approach. As with the number of fingers possessed by Simpsons characters, I'd like to keep it simple and quick. I've still got a couple of weeks to ponder it, anyway.
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