Choosing Your Pupillage II: Chambers or Employed Bar?

The Pupillage Podcast

Before you come to making pupillage applications, you have to decide what sort of pupillage you want. Do you want to practise at the employed or self-employed Bar? Should you apply only to the crème de la crème of chambers or should you apply to a spectrum? Are you looking for a big mixed practice chambers or something small and specialist? Do you want to work for the Government Legal Department or perhaps in a charity or NGO? Or do you want to be at the cutting edge of alternative business structures and join an in-house chambers within a solicitors’ firm? These are just some of the questions you will ask if considering a career as a barrister. We asked our guests about their own experiences and roles to help you find the answers. Guests in order of appearance Elaine Banton: barrister at 7 Bedford Row http://www.7br.co.uk/barrister/elaine- banton/ Julia Horner: Practice Director at Blackstone Chambers https://www.blackstonechambers.com/recruitment/staff/ Jessica Lee: barrister and Middle Temple bencher https://1gc.com/barristers/profile/jessica-lee and on twitter @jessicaleelaw Michael Harwood: barrister and President of MTYBA https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-harwood-24273342/?originalSubdomain=uk and on twitter @mi_harwood Sahar Farooqi: barrister and director of advocacy at DWF LLP https://www.dwf.law/en/People/Find-a-lawyer/2017/S/Sahar-Farooqi Alison Pickup: barrister and legal director of the Public Law Project https://publiclawproject.org.uk/who-we-are/staff/ Matt Ahluwalia: barrister and Justice First Fellow at the Public Law Project https://jff.thelegaleducationfoundation.org/fellow/matthew-ahluwalia/ Useful Links DWF Advocacy Limited: https://www.dwf.law/en/Connected-Services/DWF- Advocacy Barrister’s earnings: https://www.chambersstudent.co.uk/where-to- start/newsletter/how-much-do-barristers-earn Public Law Project: https://publiclawproject.org.uk/ Justice First Fellowships: https://jff.thelegaleducationfoundation.org/ Glossary Arbitration: a type of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) where disputes are resolved outside the traditional court structure. Disputes are decided by arbitrators and are legally binding. Counsel: another term for barristers CPS: the Crown Prosecution Service Door tenant: a barrister who is affiliated to, and predominately practises out of, another chambers or has another employer. Employed Bar: a term that refers to barristers who are employed. Fused profession: the system whereby the legal profession is not divided between solicitors and barristers and the two roles are united; most common law jurisdictions outside England and Wales have fused professions. Government Legal Department: the largest provider of legal services within the Government Legal Profession. Government Legal Service: recently renamed the Government Legal Profession, this is the umbrella group comprising around two thousand qualified lawyers employed as civil servants in around thirty UK Government departments. The GLP (GLS) includes legal teams employed within, for example, the Attorney General’s Office, HMRC, MI5 and MI6. Independent Bar: a term for self-employed barristers practising in chambers. Litigator: a lawyer specialising in litigation; often used interchangeably with advocate. Marshalling: work experience shadowing a judge. Mini-Pupillage: a period of work experience in a barristers’ chambers, usually a week or less, sometimes assessed. These are generally only available to those in their final year of a law degree or from the law conversation course onward. Permission hearings: an early stage of a judicial review. QC: Queen’s Counsel – an award for excellence in advocacy in the higher courts. Those barristers who become QCs are also known as ‘silks’. The title depends on the sex of the sovereign and during the reign of a king, QCs will become ‘King’s Counsel’ or ‘KCs’. RTA: road traffic accidents.