How it works

Pupillage is divided into three parts, each of which is with a different pupil supervisor. The first part runs from October to December. During this time you will be based almost exclusively with your pupil supervisor. In the second part (January to March/April) you will work with a wider range of tenants. This expands in the third part (April onwards) with a view to your undertaking work for as many tenants as possible (achieved through a system of double marking). This exposes you to as wide a range of work as possible and allows as many members of chambers as possible to assess your work.

Feedback is given throughout pupillage both by your supervisors and by other tenants who you work for. In addition, we will offer you realistic feedback at the end of the second part of pupillage as to your prospects at that stage of being taken on as a tenant and how those prospects can be improved. 

The tenancy decision is taken in July. It is rare for our pupils to do their own work before then.

If a pupil is offered a tenancy, the final period of pupillage is spent preparing for practice, shadowing more junior members of chambers and undertaking work for the Free Representation Unit, with the support of your pupil supervisor and other tenants.

Our junior tenants have an opportunity to work throughout the range of our expertise, alone and being led. Advocacy is an important part of practice from the start.

New tenants are exempt from rent and other chambers’ expenses in their first year. Every new tenant taken on by chambers in recent years has quickly established a thriving practice.