Advocate's Clerk

Advocate's clerks run the daily business for a ‘stable’ (group) of advocates.

The Work

Your work will depend on how senior you are.

You could be:

• organising advocates' paperwork and planning their schedules


• helping advocates to prepare cases, by doing research


• arranging meetings with solicitors and negotiating fees


• going to court with advocates, with books and papers relevant to the case
• a link between advocates and solicitors: deciding which cases to accept, discussing the case with the solicitor, recommending a particular advocate to the solicitor, arranging court appearances, negotiating fees based on the difficulty of the case and the advocate's experience


• managing the practice as a business by keeping diaries and recruiting and training junior clerks


• filing, photocopying, answering the phone, posting invoices, collecting fees, checking Counsels' Boxes and keeping financial records


• organising and classifying items in the library.

Conditions

• Most advocates' clerks work in offices in the Advocates' Library in Parliament House in Edinburgh. A small number work in Glasgow.


• You may travel to courts around the country.


• Your standard working hours would be 9.00am to 5.00pm, Monday to Friday, although hours can be irregular.
• You may have to work evenings and weekends, when your advocates are working on a complex case or when deadlines are tight.


• You have to dress formally, usually in a dark suit.

Getting In

• The minimum entry requirement is Higher English. However, many stables prefer you to have 3 or more Highers, including English.


• Increasing numbers of entrants have a Higher National Certificate (HNC) or a Higher National Diploma (HND) or a BA or MA degree in law or legal studies.


• For entry to a degree course, you normally need a minimum of 3 Highers. Higher English is usually required, and for some courses you may need Standard grade maths. However, entry requirements can vary considerably among universities and colleges and you should check the details in the relevant prospectuses.


• You normally need 1-2 Highers plus Standard grades for entry to an HNC or HND.
• Advocate's clerks work for Faculty Services Ltd, a company providing support services to advocates. They do not work for individual advocates. There are at present about 88 clerks.


• Jobs are advertised in the Edinburgh press.

What Does It Take?

You need to have:

• good written and spoken English


• good concentration


• a polite, professional and helpful manner


• patience and perseverance


• good organisational skills


• a good memory


• good IT skills


• respect for confidentiality.

• a good negotiator


• attentive to detail


• good with numbers.

Training

• You would train on-the-job under the supervision of an experienced clerk.


• You may attend short training courses and seminars from time to time.

Getting On

• You usually enter as a deputy advocate's clerk.
• As you gain experience and develop your skills, your duties increase and you may be able to move on to become an advocate's clerk.


• As part of your ongoing training you would probably take short courses run by Faculty Services Ltd.


• It is an increasing trend for clerks to become Practice Managers of their own stable of advocates within the Faculty specialising in a particular aspect of law.

Pay

The figures below are only a guide. Actual pay rates may vary, depending on:

• where you work


• the size of the organisation you work for


• the demand for the job.

More Information

Addresses

The following organisation(s) may be able to provide further information.