Lord Hope: 'I have to confess, as I look back, that I was almost wholly unfit to practise'

Published on Tuesday 5 April 2011 12:43

The only rules I had to satisfy (to go to the Bar] were that I had to have the right passes in my law degree, that I spent a year devilling and that I could answer in Latin three questions that were put to me in Latin at the faculty's oral examination.

There was no requirement to sit for the diploma, as it had not yet been invented. The law degree which I studied for was an ordinary degree, for which the course was three years. An honours degree was not available, and when I left the university, it was still in its infancy. So I had no option but to take the ordinary degree like everyone else. It was, it has to be said, a very ordinary degree. One of the professors who taught us Scots law spent almost his entire time reading out, word for word, chapters from Gloag and Henderson. When, one day, he departed from that text we discovered he was reading instead from an article that had been published in the Scots Law Times. It was, for the most part, learning by rote, and one was tested by class exams every fortnight.

Most of the passes I needed were in things that everyone had to do to get their degree - Scots law, constitutional law and criminal law, of example. To satisfy the faculty, I had to do evidence and procedure, which was taught to us by part-time lecturers from the Faculty of Advocates. I also had to do forensic medicine.

There was no requirement to qualify as a solicitor before you started devilling, although we were advised that it might be helpful to work for a while in a solicitor's office. This was done as a so-called bar apprentice, unpaid. Many Edinburgh firms were happy to oblige, and took some pride as they watched their previous apprentices make progress at the bar. I worked for two - one was Simpson & Marwick - in the holidays.

I received my law degree on a Wednesday in July 1965 and was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates on the Friday of the same week. Only six people were called to the bar in my year - this was not abnormal - and I was the only one to be called on the day when my turn came. I have to confess, as I look back, that I was almost wholly unfit to practise. I had a reasonable grasp of written pleadings due to my year's devilling. But I had only the sketchiest knowledge of the rules of court, to which our attention had not been drawn at all at the university. Nor had I really been tested in the art of conducting a case in court. My training was confined to observing the work done by my devil masters. So I had to set about learning my trade on the job.