Careers
Pupillage
We invest a great deal of time and effort seeking to develop the next generation of family lawyers.
We look for the very best candidates, especially those prepared to make a commitment to St Mary's and a career on the Midland Circuit.
Recruiting tenants who complete pupillage with us has been the way we have grown Chambers into the diverse, welcoming set which we are known as today.
Our pupils will have three different supervisors and will have the opportunity to experience all areas of work which Chambers is involved in.
We recruit our pupils through the Pupillage Gateway, details of future recruitment will be posted on here.
Our standard approach to processing pupillage applications is normally in three stages:
- Marking of anonymised application forms using a standardised marking scheme. The criteria for 2023/24 is currently being updated and will be made available to applicants.
- First round interviews are offered to those make the cut off point from the first step. These are normally 15 to 20 minutes in length.
- Final round interviews are offered to those who progress from the first round. These are normally an hour and a half in length.
Whilst we expect high standards throughout pupillage, all offers of pupillage are made with the intention that pupil will become a tenant on successfully completing pupillage.
Pupils are mentored throughout their time with us by three different supervisors, making sure they have access to a wide range of work and styles of advocacy. Supervisors also encourage their pupils to attend court and complete paperwork for other members of chambers. This ensures that future barristers fully immerse themselves in the St. Mary’s culture and understand our approach to providing legal services and client care.
As well as the technical training we also offer our pupils support, encouragement and advice aimed at setting them up for a career at the self-employed Bar. This includes guidance on accounting, marketing, client care and other soft skills which are all important aspects of the role.
Alongside a pupil supervisor you will be allocated a more junior ‘buddy’ who will offer more informal support. This will be someone who has relatively recently completed pupillage at St. Mary’s and will be able to provide useful guidance and support.
The clerking team will help you navigate your way through your early weeks in Chambers and will help to provide opportunities to shadow several different tenants. During your Second Six the clerks will find appropriate work for you to undertake as you start to build your own workload.
Chambers guarantees income of £30,000 p.a. (£12,000 in the first six and £18,000 in the second). Pupils in their second six months generate income from their own work. In the last five years this has produced an average income in the second six months in excess of £25,000. Over the last five years our first-year tenants received an average income in excess of £90,000. Nil expenses are charged during pupillage, which means all receipts during the six months are the pupil’s exclusively, and Chambers charges a highly competitive rate of expenses to all tenants upon completion of pupillage.
During your first six we will pay your reasonable return travel expenses from Chambers to court. During your second six we will not pay any travel expenses when you are undertaking your own paid work, we will however pay reasonable travel expenses when you are following your supervisor or other member of Chambers at court. We will pay for any compulsory training courses and any travel/accommodation costs associated with them.
We recognise the further strides the Bar needs to take in becoming a more diverse profession. Chambers takes its commitment to equality and diversity very seriously. Chambers operates an equal opportunities recruitment policy and encourages applications from candidates from all backgrounds regardless of age, gender, race, pregnancy, sexual orientation, marital status, religion or disability. We especially welcome applications from those presently under-represented within the profession and we apply an equal opportunities tie breaker under the Equality Act 2010 where two candidates of equal merit are scored equally. We never recruit less qualified candidates over more qualified candidates.
“Aside from straight forward shadowing, pupillage at St Mary’s allows you essentially ‘be the barrister’ as from the very outset you will prepare the cases as if they were your cases”
"St Mary's published a Pupillage Policy with a clear breakdown of what it is that they're looking for in their candidates at the Pupillage Gateway stage: a points-based system with different points awarded for different criteria such as academic excellence, work ethic and commitment to the Bar. Certainly, for me that transparency was very helpful so that I could identify any gaps in my application and plug them."
“You have constant support at St Mary’s through your pupil supervisor, your buddy and other members of chambers who will always go out of their way to help you whether that be a quick chat at chambers, a telephone call or 5 minutes at Court. The clerks are great, they are understanding and realistic, I never felt pressured into doing cases and never felt out of my depth, I always could speak to the clerks and they would go above and beyond to help me”