How to Secure Pupillage at a Commercial Chambers: Part One
Introduction
Application season is fast approaching for pupillage starting in 2025/2026. A successful application depends on early planning and thorough preparation. This two-part series of articles will explain how to effectively prepare your pupillage applications to commercial chancery sets. This article will focus on the written portion of the application process.
About me
This year, I accepted an offer of pupillage at one of my top-choice sets. It was my third round of applications, so I am well-versed in this competitive and gruelling process. I have interviewed at commercial and chancery sets around the country, and have been on the receiving end of both rejections and offers.
Step 1: scope your experience
The first thing you should do before the Gateway opens (both metaphorically and literally) is to map out all your relevant work experience on a piece of paper or Word document. I prefer the old-school method of creating a bubble diagram on A3 with coloured pens. This will help you to organise your thoughts, as well as structure your responses to application and interview questions.
Group your experiences into relevant skills that chambers look for: e.g. communication, presentation, organisation, attention to detail, resilience, etc. You will find these skills listed on the ‘pupillage’ section on most chambers websites. Check this out for all of your top-choice sets to get a sense of what they are looking for.
Step 2: narrow your top choices
Opinion is divided on the question of how many sets you should apply to. Some advocate for a ‘scatter-gun’ approach: i.e. apply to as many as you can as that will increase your chances of securing an offer, numerically speaking. However, in my experience, it is better to narrow down your choices and focus on perfecting those applications.
Start by listing up to twenty sets in your preferred practice area/s. Rank them in order of priority, with sets at the top of the list being those you will apply for first. Be practical and realistic: balance the number of ‘magic circle’ sets with some more specialist, niche and growing sets. Narrow this down to a ‘top ten’ list. Be brutal and well-considered. For every sacrifice, you are giving yourself more time to perfect an application to a set that is likely to offer you pupillage.
Next, create a short, executive summary of each set in your top ten. Make this no more than a single page of A4. You should cover areas such the pupillage itself (i.e. structure, practicing or non-practicing etc), practice areas, typical clients, rankings and awards etc. This will save you time when answering repetitive questions such as “why us”, ensuring that you have the relevant content at your fingertips.
Step 3: structure is everything
Some candidates have excellent experience but struggle to convert written applications to interviews. This is almost always down to structure – not necessarily poor structure, but structure that could be improved.
When thinking about structure you should be thinking about three things: what you are saying, how you are saying it, and how it looks. Starting with what you are saying: you should plan out what you are going to say in response to each question in no more than three short bullet points. Word count permitting, you should aim for between two to three points, in order of relevance to the question. The most common format, of course, when answering competency-based questions (e.g. tell us a time when you…), is the STAR method: Situation-Task-Action-Response.
When thinking about how you are saying it, make sure to clearly signpost each separate point. For example, starting each paragraph or point with “First,”, “Second,”, and “Third”, or using numbered lists. There is no consensus on the use of bullet-points, but I had the highest application-to-interview yield when I started using them. However, I only used them in the work experience section of the application form. This had the advantage of drawing to the most important points to the markers’ attention. I answered chambers-specific questions using well-structured prose.
Regarding how it looks, consider whether you have appropriately spaced out your points into separate paragraphs. For example, in response to “why do you believe you will be a good barrister”, you may want to separate your points into short paragraphs. So, if your points are (i) intellectual ability, (ii) communication skills and (iii) attention to detail, you should dedicate a short paragraph for each skill, making sure you back up each point with evidence (the classic ‘PEE’ method, i.e. point-evidence-explain).
Step 4: read and read again
You cannot write a winning application in a single sitting. You will need to come back to each application with a fresh pair of eyes. This process can take multiple days. For these reasons, it is better to work on up to three applications simultaneously. Dipping in and out of different applications in this way makes the process a little more varied. It also gives you a comparative overall understanding of your top ten sets, which will help you to understand how each one is different (again – useful for answering ‘why us’ questions’).
It is also essential to have others read over your applications: even the most meticulous applicants miss the odd typo. Family, friends and colleagues are excellent candidates. If asking a friend from a law background, it may be better to choose someone who has already obtained a pupillage offer, as (i) they will have more time on their hands to assist you, and (ii) it will not feel competitive.
I discussed my answers to legal problem questions with senior colleagues. This helped me to evaluate all possible points which the markers might be looking for. I asked my law school friends who had already secured a pupillage offer in the previous year to read over and discuss my answers to biographical questions. This helped me to express myself in the most reader-friendly way, avoiding complicated grammar and sentence structure. I also asked my parents, who have editorial experience, to read over each application to check for typographical errors.
Step 5: be yourself
Your written application is the first piece of written advocacy that each set will see. The markers will be assessing you based on the criteria on their website. However, they are also looking for a colleague – someone to work and socialise with for the foreseeable. Therefore, it is important to showcase your personality as well as your professional and academic achievements.
There is an “Interests and Recreational Activities” question box on the standard Gateway form. Amongst other things, I talked about my love for baking – what I enjoy about it, why I enjoy those things, and examples of some of my inventive creations and competitions that I have won. This came up more than I expected in the interviews and assessment days, which shows that barristers take a real interest in candidates as people.
Do not use that question box to try and sound like Mother Theresa – It will come across as sanctimonious and will not market you as someone who is relatable. Save the segment on how you achieved world peace for the “Scholarship, Awards and Prizes” question box!
Step 6: take regular breaks
It is really important to keep living your life while you write your applications. Not only will having a healthy social life help you to return to your applications with fresh eyes, but it will stimulate your mind with ideas and help you get over writers’ block.
Starting your applications early is the key to good balance – especially if you have a full-time job to juggle. Most chambers release their adverts (and sometimes, their questions) around the end of November (this year, Monday 25 November at 12:01am). Applications themselves open on Thursday 02 January 2025 at 11:00am, so you have between those dates to start drafting your answers for sets which have already started to advertise.
Good luck with your applications this year. The second article will cover interviews and assessment days and will be published next year before the deadline closes on Thursday 06 February 2025.
Michael Coumas will start his commercial chancery pupillage in 2025. He is a law tutor and was Called to the Bar in 2022.
