How to start your career as a barrister
Whether you are a law or a non-law degree holder, there are two key points to remember as you start your career journey:
- Research – do as much as possible, as this will give you a clearer idea about what you would like to do when you come to apply for pupillage.
- Legal work experience – get as much as you can , whether it's short-term, long-term, part-time, full-time or voluntary. With some legal experience behind you, your job applications will look more credible and you will have a better feel for which part of the Bar might suit you best.
Apply for work experience
The best work experience you can do if you want to become a barrister is a mini-pupillage. These are short periods of work experience (from three to five days) spent in chambers.
Mini-pupillages can be done at any point before your BVC and at any time of year. However, the earlier you apply the better as it’s good to have a few mini-pupillages under your belt before you apply for pupillage.
You should aim to do at least three mini-pupillages, ideally in sets of varying size and practice area, so that you can get a better feel for what the work is like in practice.
The Pupillages Handbook is a good place to start as this publication lists chambers offering mini-pupillages as well as pupillages.
You could also apply directly to commercial and government organisations with in-house counsel for work shadowing (observation for a few days), so that you gain experience of working with solicitors to understand more fully how they work. See the Law Society's Directory for details of employed solicitors and in-house counsel.
Don’t be tempted to focus just on London – chambers exist outside of London too. Use the Pupillages Handbook and the Bar Directory to track down your nearest set of chambers.
Other useful experience for the Bar
- Court visits – local County, Crown Court or Magistrates' Courts
- Work for a solicitor – as your livelihood may one day rely largely on work given to you by solicitors, the more you know about their business the better
- Public speaking – moots, debating societies etc
- Campaigning, voluntary work in areas of publicly funded work covered by the Bar or working for the local Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB)
- Free Representation Unit (FRU) – provides training for volunteers to become caseworkers and represent members of the public in employment and social security tribunals
Gather information
As soon as you start thinking about a career as a barrister, investigate different employers and areas of legal practice.
For example, do you want to join the independent Bar and work as a self-employed barrister in chambers or would you prefer to work in-house as part of the employed Bar?
- if you are at university, a good time to start your research is in your second year (if you are a law student) or your final year (if you are a non-law student)
- attend general careers and law fairs (which tend to take place between October and February each year), careers talks on the Bar and any presentations by chambers. Visit your careers service for information or go to prospects.ac.uk for information on open access events at other universities
- if you are not currently studying law but have friends who are, ask if they know of any events you can also attend
- if you are already working, you can find out about law fair dates and venues from www.prospects.ac.uk
Where to get information
- your university careers service
- College of Law open days
- Bar Standards Board website
- The Law Society's Directory of Solicitors and Barristers graduate careers website, Prospects: www.prospects.ac.uk
- student guides to the legal profession such as Chambers and Partners Student Guide and the Training Contract and Pupillages Handbook (lawcareers.net)
- legal graduate recruitment directories such as Target Law and business-to-business directories such as Chambers and Partners and Legal 500, which are comprehensive client guides rather than purely student guides
