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Brian Bourke interview 10 October 2005
But I think now that the ambition of the Bar has been superseded by avidity, I think we just have succumbed to greed.
I don't believe in the principle of silk, I'm so Irish that I don't believe in it and I don't know why people claw
to do it now. You'll find there'll be 180 applications, I suppose, for silk this year and Marilyn Warren will have
to give it to 10 or 12 of them.
Apart from a philosophical objection to it, I've never liked working with other barristers. Frank Vincent was junior
to me once, and Colin Lovitt, a pretty distinguished bloke at the Bar now, good bloke good mate of mine. He was
junior to me a couple of time in murder trials but I always liked to do things my way. I was sort of bred to be
independent, my father treated me as a brother rather than a son and I just don't like working with other people.
I had Mandy Fox as a junior in a murder trial we did over here a couple of years ago, but that was just to read a
welter of transcripts and all that sort of stuff. I'm not reflecting on her, she's a capable barrister, but I
never wanted to be a silk.
What do you think has brought about this avidity as you describe it?
At the Bar?
Yes.
Oh, I think the money now that silks get paid is bordering on obscene. I think we're all grossly overpaid,
but some of these people now - they're in receipt of incomes that are not warranted or justified. I think
the development of the commercial world to such a degree where commercial barristers are in such demand that
huge fees could be charged I'm not suggesting that a fellow like Myers is not worth every cent that he gets.
He is an outstanding individual - he's left the Bar now - but people just latch on to it. I think you'd find
at the Bar now there's a lot of silks who are not earning much because there's too many. There's a section of
the silks here who are silks for some social reason they might perceive to be important.
Conducted for the Bar Oral History project by Juliette Brodsky in Owen Dixon Chambers East and filmed by Stewart Carter (People Pictures)
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