Interview With Emily Windsor
You might never need a barrister to help you through property dilemmas — lucky you. But if indeed you find yourself in need of some legal assistance, or are just interested in what this specialised field entails, this frank and wide-ranging discussion with Emily Windsor, barrister and former judge — is a good place to begin. In this interview, Windsor, who specialises in property and agricultural law, explains how technology has changed legal practice, and the importance of mentorship.
You specialise in property litigation with an emphasis on agricultural law. What initially drew you to this area of practice?
I have always been quite argumentative, and keen to see injustices corrected. So law in general was a natural fit. But finding my specific niche happened quite organically. I knew that I wanted to specialise in civil law, so I applied for mini-pupillages, and then pupillage, in a range of civil sets, and found that property law suited me.
Once I had joined Chambers, I was brought into a few big agricultural cases as a junior, and found that I really enjoyed the subject matter. Agricultural law is a mixture of technical black letter law and some very human clients. It also helps that the community of agricultural lawyers in England and Wales is particularly friendly and supportive.
As a general editor of Muir Watt & Moss: Agricultural Holdings, what does the process of updating such an important legal text involve?
It’s quite something to be responsible for a text that’s been around since 1912.
We really see ourselves as custodians of this incredible legal resource. We are very fortunate to have the backing of Sweet & Maxwell with the updating project, and a particularly good team of editors there.
We update the work every four years or so, usually over the court vacation over the summer, when people have more time. The book is updated by a team of five contributors, and we all take responsibility for a few chapters. I edit the chapters on succession — which relate to the circumstances in which old-style 1986-Act agricultural tenancies can be passed on when the existing tenants die or retire. It means I comb through all the recent case law, checking for legislative changes, and making sure everything is current. One aspect of devolution is that there are now two different sets of rules in operation in England and Wales!
What I enjoy about the process is that you get to step away from the day-to-day pressures and fully immerse yourself in a specialist subject for a short time. By the end of the writing period, you are really on top of the material — which is satisfying. And it is quite a privilege to be the latest in a long line of very distinguished editors.
Reforms to the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 have changed succession requirements. How might these impact farming families?
These reforms are quite a seismic shift, to be honest. Before, if you wanted to succeed to a tenancy, in order to prove your “suitability”, you would need to show you had the appropriate training, experience, and financial standing. Now, the bar has been raised considerably. You have got to prove you can farm the holding commercially, with “high standards of efficient production” and “care for the environment.”
Potential successors now also need to demonstrate they would be shortlisted by a prudent landlord if the tenancy were on the open market. That is introducing a whole new commercial dimension that wasn’t there before.
This will have a real impact on some families who have been farming the same family farm for decades. Many of these operations run on incredibly thin profit margins, especially with all the changes to subsidies post-Brexit, the constant price squeeze from supermarkets, and now, of course, the tariff war. You have often got three or four generations living on the holding — all of whom have lived on the holding for most of their lives, depended on it for the income stream and made incredible sacrifices for future generations in the process. They have built their entire lives around the expectation of succession, and suddenly the goalposts have moved. It must be devastating to discover that that legacy might slip away because of the new commercial tests.
How has technology changed the practice of law during your career?
It has been revolutionary. When I started in the mid-’90s, people wrote hard copy letters to each other, and barristers who typed their own opinions on a computer (as opposed to dictating them into a dictation machine) were considered quite modern. Our diaries were large paper diaries, which were kept in the clerks’ room.
Now everything moves at a much faster pace. You can send out an email of advice, and within 30 minutes receive a list of follow-up questions.
One of the upsides of the technological transformation is the amazing accessibility of legal knowledge. Services like Westlaw have digitised virtually everything, so you can access the full range of legal texts from anywhere. I can be sitting at home at 10 p.m. researching a niche point of law that would have required a visit to the library 20 years ago.
What challenges have you faced as a woman in the legal profession, and how have things changed since you began your career?
I’ve been incredibly fortunate in my experience. By the time I joined the Bar in the mid-’90s, things felt pretty fair and balanced, at least in terms of getting your foot in the door. I never felt that being a woman was a disadvantage, or that I was treated differently.
That said, I’m very aware that the generation before me might tell quite a different story, and that my experience was not the universal experience. I think things have definitely continued to improve since I started.
Technology has been a significant breakthrough for women in law. Before, if you needed to access cases or textbooks, you had to physically be in the library. Not exactly compatible with childcare or other family responsibilities. Now, the ability to work remotely and access everything digitally means balancing professional and personal demands is so much more manageable.
The profession has also worked much harder to promote retention. There is now much more accommodation for career breaks, flexible working, part-time arrangements – all things that benefit everyone but can be particularly important for women.
We’ve made real progress, and that’s brilliant to see. The bar feels like a much more inclusive place than it was when I started out, although of course there is always room for improvement. One continuing challenge is to improve the gender pay gap.
What do you believe are the biggest barriers to entry and progression for underrepresented groups in the legal profession?
If I had to pinpoint the two biggest hurdles, I’d say that historically, they have been funding and access to pupillage training.
The cost of qualifying used to be eye-watering — law degree, bar school, living expenses while you’re studying. But there have been some really positive changes to qualification routes. There are now more online options, part-time courses, staggered training phases, all of which make the process more affordable and accessible. You can even study certain elements independently now, which dramatically cuts costs. The Inns of Court also make a huge financial contribution to the cost of training for the Bar.
As for work experience, well, there was a time when many mini-pupillage opportunities were allocated on an ad hoc basis, and when connections helped. Now there is much more awareness,and indeed regulatory insistence, that opportunities need to be properly advertised and fairly allocated. Organizations like the Sutton Trust run fantastic programs specifically targeting underrepresented groups.
So the Bar has made good progress, but there’s still plenty of work to do. Both in terms of recruitment, and retention and progression. It’s one thing to bring diverse talent in; it’s another to ensure that people from all backgrounds can thrive long-term and reach senior positions. The Bar does now seem very committed to supporting initiatives that make the bar more inclusive. There is a wider recognition of the importance of the legal profession reflecting the diverse society it represents. We’re not there yet, but we’re certainly moving in the right direction.
You mention mentoring as important to you. How has mentorship shaped your career, and what motivates you to mentor others?
Mentorship has been absolutely fundamental for me. When I was still at school, I did a week of work experience in the criminal courts in Birmingham. The barristers there were incredibly generous with their time, explaining procedures, discussing cases, and giving me a real insight into what a legal career involved.
I don’t come from a family of lawyers, so without that early guidance, I might never have found my way to a career in the law. That is why I feel so strongly about giving back. I regularly have work experience students shadowing me, and I make sure they get plenty of chances to ask questions and discuss what the work really involves, just as people kindly did for me all those years ago.
What is really rewarding is seeing these students develop over time. The Bar is actually quite a small world, and because people tend to stay in the profession for decades, you do often get to witness an individual’s career progression.
Of course, mentoring is just as valuable at all stages of a person’s career. I still have a pool of senior colleagues that I can approach for honest advice and feedback, and having access to this collective pool of wisdom and support definitely makes me a better barrister.
How do you balance the independence of being a barrister with the responsibilities it brings?
That is really the central tension of life at the Bar. We have got this wonderful autonomy as self-employed practitioners, but the responsibility that comes with it can be enormous.
Unlike solicitors who usually work in teams with various levels of supervision, being a barrister can feel quite solitary and isolated at times. Even though you practice from Chambers with a group of supportive colleagues, ultimately your cases are your own, and the responsibility for any particular case falls on you. For example, none of your colleagues steps in to handle your cases when you’re away, unless you make particular arrangements for this to happen. I definitely find myself thinking about clients when shouldn’t be — whether it is in the evenings, at weekends or holidays. It can be hard to switch off.
This weight of responsibility can be quite heavy at times. You need self-discipline and organization while still remaining flexible enough to handle the unexpected developments that inevitably come your way in legal practice.
What helps enormously is the collegiate atmosphere of Chambers. We might all be self-employed technically, but there’s this wonderful informal support network. You can pop your head around someone’s door with a quick question, get a second opinion on a tricky point of law, or sometimes just have a coffee and a moan.
I’m incredibly lucky to be in a set where people tend to join at age 25 and leave at 70. That creates this fantastic sense of community despite our individual practices.
What advice would you give to law students or junior barristers looking to build successful careers?
First things first — believe in yourself. I know the Bar can sometimes appear formal and intimidating from the outside, with all its traditions and legal language. But beneath all that is a profession that’s actually remarkably accessible and supportive. Don’t let the wigs and gowns put you off.
Expect setbacks along the way. They’re part of the journey for everyone. Most successful barristers I know have stories about pupillage rejections or cases that took unexpected turns. Tenacity is absolutely key. If this is what you want to do, keep pushing through those grueling moments.
I would also say to keep an open mind about different areas of law. The specialisation you think you want at 21 might not be where you ultimately find your niche. I’ve seen countless colleagues who ended up in completely different fields from those they initially planned, often because of the opportunities that presented themselves during their early careers. Legal career paths rarely follow a straight line, and that’s perfectly fine.
Looking ahead, what developments or changes do you anticipate in your area of law, and how are you preparing for them?
Property law is constantly evolving. It’s never static. In agriculture, we are currently seeing an increased focus on environmental stewardship, and I expect that trend to intensify. Sustainable land use, biodiversity, carbon management — these will all become increasingly central to how agricultural land is regulated and valued.
Brexit has completely transformed the subsidy landscape for farmers, and we’re still seeing the ripple effects of those changes. The free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand are presenting new challenges for UK farmers, who are operating under stricter environmental and welfare standards, which naturally increases their production costs.
The digitalisation of property transactions and dispute resolution is another major shift. Remote hearings became the norm during COVID, and while we’ve moved back to in-person for witness evidence, many procedural hearings remain online. I can only see that trend continuing.
To stay ahead of these changes, I’m constantly learning. As with many professions, there is a real emphasis on the importance of CPD these days, and rightly so, because in this job you have to be constantly updating your knowledge.
