Female leaves instruction to barrister to make cheese (4)
I believe the answer is:
brie
'cheese' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'female leaves instruction to barrister' is the wordplay.
'female' becomes 'f' (abbreviation).
'leaves' suggests deleting specific letters.
'instruction to barrister' becomes 'brief'.
'brief' with 'f' taken away is 'BRIE'.
'to make' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for brie that I've seen before include "Round soft Fr. cheese" , "Variety of cheese" , "Kind of soft cheese" , "cheesy stuff" , "French produce" .)