One anecdote from around the same time, possibly apocryphal,
is widely shared. At a chambers that had expanded and was bringing
in more money, three silks decided their chief clerk’s compensation,
at 10 percent, had gotten out of hand. They summoned him for
a meeting and told him so. In a tactical response that highlights
all the class baggage of the clerk-barrister relationship,
as well as the acute British phobia of discussing money,
the clerk surprised the barristers by agreeing with them.
“I’m not going to take a penny more from you,” he concluded.
The barristers, gobsmacked and paralyzed by manners, never
raised the pay issue again, and the clerk remained on at
10 percent until retirement.
My command of the English language fails me here. Could somebody explain his response to me?
