ACCORDING to Harry Sacher (1881‒1971), himself a barrister and journalist, there were three different routes to success for members of the Bar. One was to be a member of a busy set of chambers, where surplus work would be passed on to its most junior members. The second was to have a close connection with a solicitor. ‘To know solicitors who are prepared to nurse the aspirant is the easiest road to success,’ Sacher claimed,

The third way of succeeding was to write an authoritative legal text, so that one became recognized as the leading expert in the field; again, this would attract the attention of solicitors and, one hoped, their instructions.

In 1934 it was estimated that 5 per cent of practising barristers were Jewish, which meant that there were approximately 100 Jewish members of the Bar. In 1924 there were seven Jewish King's Counsel out of a total of about 300—namely, D. L. Alexander, B. A. Cohen, S. H. Emanuel, H. H. Haldin, H. S. Q. Henriques, A. M. Langdon, and S. Mayer. During the 1920s and 1930s the bulk of these barristers continued to come from the most affluent Anglo-Jewish families or from families which were closely linked to the legal profession; very few originated from an east European Jewish immigrant background. A young man (or woman: Helena Normanton became the first female barrister to practise in England in 1922) who wished to become a barrister had to pay entrance fees of £200 to the Inn of Court which he had decided to join. In the Middle Temple, one of the Inns, students dined in messes of four, each of which was allotted a couple of bottles of wine; some students chose to dine with Muslims so as to have more wine to drink.