Tag Archives: maternity

Baby Choo Point Oh!

Baby 2.0 arrived on Sunday. Normal service will resume soon. In the meantime…

…Thanks to several of my clients who told me to be sure to make sure the new baby gave our first son a present when he arrived in the world. I was doubtful this would be very meaningful since our oldest is only 22 months. But I took their advice to see what happened: hidden in baby’s blanket when he first met his big brother was a new choo choo (thank you ebay). I didn’t really think he’d be old enough to register, but what d’you know? The next day he was trying to unfold the new baby’s hands and saying ‘oh no – choo’ which we couldn’t really translate, but it was only later on when he tried to peek inside the baby gro and said ‘oh no, choo choo all gone’ that we twigged just how much had registered with him. They really do miss nothing. Except the big stuff obviously  – while I laboured and delivered at home (puffing like the little engine that could), the 22 month old snored through the whole thing, just in the next room!!

Guidance For Knocked-Up Lady Barristers

According to the much esteemed ‘Counsel’ magazine, The Bar Council is soon to publish a ‘Guidance and best practice document for women planning to take maternity leave’. It goes like this: ‘1. Don’t. 2. In the alternative, don’t come back.’. Fnar.

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But seriously, this is good news, always assuming that the description above is a slip of Tim Dutton QC’s pen rather than an indication that it’s guidance for the women who are going on maternity leave in particular rather than for the Bar in general – generally speaking those of us who are or have been in that situation are relatively clued up – and frankly we just get on with it. It’s the other chaps that might need a bit of guidance on how to make returning to the bar a little more manageable. And after all it’s the bar collectively / chambers that has the equality duty to discharge, not the individual pregnant barrister.

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I’ve no idea what it will say, but I will link to the guidance when it becomes available.