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OPEN THREAD: What do barristers earn post-pupillage?

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By Legal Cheek on

41

Spill the (chambers) tea… ☕


Last week, Legal Cheek launched an open thread exploring solicitor salaries after the training contract — aiming to shed light on an area often shrouded in secrecy.

Over 160 comments later, the thread has become a treasure trove of pay insights from some of the country’s top law firms. That said, a word of caution: the information isn’t verified, so make sure to do your own research too!

But with several baby barristers reaching out to us in response, it’s clear they’re feeling left out, and calling for a dedicated thread of their own.

The 2025 Legal Cheek Chambers Most List

One young barrister emailed us to say:

“I saw your recent open thread on NQ salaries and bunching. I think it’s a great idea as so many firms are opaque about earnings. Would you be able to create a similar thread for earnings for baby/”junior junior” barristers? Many chambers are also very opaque about the earning potential of their juniors. I would find it helpful to have some transparency for not just current barristers but also students looking at the bar.”

We’re happy to oblige. Whether it’s commercial, civil, family, criminal — or any other area for that matter — if you’ve got the inside scoop on barristers’ earnings at a particular set, share it in the comments below.

41 Comments

Anon

Year out of pupillage covering civil + bit of family and earned around £110k gross in London

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(8)(4)

Questions

Anyone got any info on Kings Chambers in Mcr, Outer Temple or Crown Office Row?

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(0)(0)

Anon

Year out of pupillage in chancery / property – earning around 220 in london

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(7)(1)

Anon

Caveat- out of London, common law, and ten years ago, but I don’t think any more than £30k

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(3)(4)

Anon 2

1 year of tenancy in commercial (70%) + public (20%) + mixed civil (10%) = ~£125k gross in London. Including 6 weeks of holiday in the year.

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(7)(1)

Barrister

6 weeks’ holiday isn’t terribly much! Don’t be afraid to take more!

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(9)(1)

Band 1 commercial sets thread

Insight on One Essex Court / Fountain Court/ Brick Court / Essex Court Chambers would be really appreciated. Specifically, as OEC average pay has been published, do the others pay the same? How many hours do you need to bill for the average salary / what is the hourly rate VAT inclusive? How many hours do you need to work on top of the hours that you bill for?
And, what do they keep after VAT and rent/clerk fees i.e. real income? But before corporate tax please, since you can choose how to allocate that money tax-wise, so we can compare like-for-like. I feel like this would remove once and for all, all the obscurity I found in trying to figure this out online. Thank you 🙂

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(2)(5)

bazzer

I think you should do a bit more research into how barristers and barristers’ chambers operate before demanding such intricate detail regarding pay structures.

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(21)(2)

Band 1 commercial sets thread

Are you gonna say what’s missing or did you just want to add nothing? Do it after you’ve looked up the verb “demand” on a dictionary

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(1)(13)

Band 1 commercial sets thread

I’d also look up “intricate” all I’m asking is how much they get paid, for how many hours, and what is their post VAT/fees revenue

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(3)(3)

Why

Corporate tax lol

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(5)(0)

I’m not a barrister I am currently employed

Yeah see… can somebody explain please?

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(0)(0)

Why though

Vast majority of barristers are self-employed practitioners. A few may have “self-incorporated” (i.e. created a limited liability company with themselves as director) but I’d be fairly surprised if any good-quality Chambers agreed to have a tenant whose relationship with the set was as something other than a natural person.

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(5)(1)

FC junior

The really short answer is ‘quite enough’ for whatever most people would have planned… £200-400k gross would be a normallish range for a first year (of which you would keep c.50% after tax/expenses) depending on how hard one works and that can go up quickly if you want it to.

This is where at any of these sets demand for baby juniors (who typically undertake time intensive tasks) far outstrips supply, and starting rates for commercial work will be somewhere around £150 ph (and rise quickly). More generally, and as others have pointed out, there will be a lot of variation which increases with time (both between barristers and, in my experience, from year to year depending on e.g. whether brief fees land and the vicissitudes of life more generally (e.g. babies!)).

If all you care about is money you may ultimately earn more as an equity partner at an equivalent level law firm, but it is a long old (and extremely competitive) slog to get there. Of course the quid pro quo is it is extremely competitive to get into a leading commercial set – perhaps overly simplistic but one could say that the bottleneck just comes a lot earlier in the process.

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(7)(0)

Anonymous

1 year of tenancy. Portfolio career including teaching at a university 1 day/week. Chambers focuses on social housing and immigration. I do more education, employment and civil than my chambers colleagues. About £80k at the bar and about £20k outside of it. Would probably get to around £105k gross if I were full-time at the bar.

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(5)(0)

anon 3

Will be 1 year into tenancy this Autumn. Regional set doing civil/ PI / employment

Past 12 months receipts of 80k (work done 100k).

For those not at the bar its worth bearing in mind that, once you account for chambers calls/ rent/ accountant/ insurance/ certificate/ travel, lack of employer pension contributions, etc, £1 of receipts is probably worth ~60-65p in employment salary equivalent.

Also worth bearing in mind that the lag between work done & receipts differs by practice area. Eg – lots of CFAs in PI which might take years to pay but privately paying clients with money held on account by sols should be much quicker. Comparison of earnings across different practice areas will be distorted more by this in the early years of practice as aged debt & WIP grows.

Bar Council’s report is probably a more useful resource for early years earnings comparison

https://www.barcouncil.org.uk/resource/new-practitioner-earnings-differentials-at-the-self-employed-bar-april-2024-pdf.html

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(14)(0)

Al

Excellent points. Not least the cashflow element. This will be a particular issue for publicly funded work. Back when I did criminal work the “36+ months” column on my aged debt printout was depressingly full.

You can do debt factoring, but essentially this is just a loan, so you need to take into account interest payments etc.

Also, if being instructed through solicitors, make sure they have taken on responsibility for paying you, so you don’t end up having to chase the client yourself.

Similarly, if doing direct access work, remember you can’t hold client money on account. So unless you agree a fixed fee (with all the risk that entails) you can’t be paid until after you’ve done the work.

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(2)(0)

Ms Anonyma

4 years post-tenancy, £450k gross. Top set, mixed civil

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(5)(0)

Anon

Assume take home is about half that after expenses and tax?

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(0)(0)

One of the KBW’s

Gross £80K+ doing crime only first year post-tenancy.

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(4)(1)

A second KBW

Gross over £100K first year post tenancy within the last few years.

Crime only. Mostly prosecution.

Something else to factor in is chambers percentage and rent which can make a massive difference to your take home.

Mine is a flat rate and no rent, and it’s well under 20%.

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(1)(0)

Northerner

I’m tempted to exchange my chambers for another one.

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(3)(0)

Commercial Barista

A reminder that, generally speaking: When barristers talk about earnings, they’re talking about turnover, not profits. Profits can be far less. Chambers take a fair chunk – anything between 15% and 20% per cent is normal. Some have room rent as an additional cost. Then barristers have to foot the bill for their own professional indemnity insurance, practising certificate, travel costs, business development expenses, computer, desk, etc. etc.

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(3)(0)

Indeed

Yes, that’s what gross means – total income before any deductions. You’ll also need to fund your own pension, and then there’s the big one: tax. That can take up nearly half of what’s left, depending on your setup.

Most barristers operate through a limited company, the company pays corporation tax on its profits, and you’ll then pay income tax (and possibly dividend tax) on what you draw from it. So tax is paid at both company and personal levels and has gone up massively in the last few years.

So headline figures should all be read with a massive pinch of salt.

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(1)(3)

Commercial barrister

No barrister I know operates through a limited company…?

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(5)(0)

Anonymous

Traditional Chancery on circuit, with a substantial amount of London work, £180k (£220 billed).

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(2)(0)

I have a question

How many years into tenancy?

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(1)(0)

Paketa

Immigration. 30-40 gross. London
fresh tenant. 1 year

miserable level of earnings.

but outstanding work life balance.

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(2)(2)

Chancery 8PQE

About 750k, though expect to be £1m+ in a few years. Not bad but contemporaries at top sets earning more.

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(3)(2)

Student

Is that gross earnings or post expenses?

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(0)(0)

Charles

I think back to my first years of practice. I don’t have the precise figures, but I think £1,000 in my first year and £2,500 in the second year would be about right.

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(0)(2)

Anon NE

Leading set on the NE Circuit – Family (90%) and Court of Protection (10%). Current pupil and looking at around £120,000 by the time I’ve been on my feet a year.

Important to note that your take home pay as a barrister is a lot less than your earning figure due to all the expenses and Chambers rent etc. It’s also noteworthy that just because you ‘bill’ this amount, doesn’t mean you get paid that per year, aged debt is a very real thing and means you are likely looking at weeks to several months after doing work before you actually see that money.

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(1)(0)

Baz

Employment, London, 6 years’ post tenancy, 275k, 10 weeks holiday.

Around 100 – 110k first year.

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(2)(0)

Anon

Public/civil in London.
10 yr PQE.
300k +VAT (with 8 weeks holiday per annum, and try not to work weekends).

A few things I wish I had known:

– For the majority of self-employed barristers, receipts are highly variable year-to-year. This is somewhat within your control (I.e. how much you want to work) but in large part out of your control (hourly rates can vary case-to-case, client-to-client; one big case can make a huge impact). The main exception is publicly funded work hourly rates are fixed, but quite low).

– Chambers expenses/rent varies wildly from set to set, both in amount and method of calculation/collection. Some adopt the same fixed rate for everyone, others use complex formulas. The vast majority of barristers pay 7%-25% of their receipts in chambers rent/expenses. In general, the more lucrative the set/practice area, the lower the percentage.

– As a general rule of thumb, I take home about 50% of my receipts (after deducting chambers contribution/rent and tax).

– Cash flow is crazy and unpredictable. Sometimes nothing for months and months; then a huge dollop. You need to build up savings early to manage this.

– Tax is crazy and unpredictable. There is a lag so you can have a huge tax bill in a quiet year. Again, savings needed.

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(9)(0)

Truesayer

Payment on account. Nightmare for Barristers!

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(1)(0)

Commercial set (London)

First ten months circa 205k in receipts and circa 250k in billings (both excl VAT). Not charged rent/chambers contribution in first year, but general business expenses (mainly furniture) probably about 2k.

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(1)(0)

Dikshun

For those earning the high figures – any regrets choosing the bar over say, BigLaw i.e. Magic Circle / Elite US firms? Other than if you make partner at these firms, it appears that the Bar at the commercial/chancery top end is still better paid (initial impressions). Or is this wrong?

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(0)(0)

Ms Anonyma

No regrets whatsoever. Hours are better, pay is better and no answering to bosses at the bar. Yes, there are tricky clients and tricky sols, but it’s all for your own benefit – you can choose where your own pain threshold lies – not guided by some partner’s stash at the end of the year. I much prefer my life over my solicitor friends’ lives and I get paid more.

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(5)(0)

New tenant

Seconded.

Making equity partner at a MC/US firm might get you paid more, but you can make a very good living at the commercial/chancery bar. No targets/billable hours, no partners breathing down your neck, unlimited holiday (though unpaid)…of course there are downsides, but it could be much worse.

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(0)(0)

New tenant

On circuit, commercial/chancery pupillage. On track to bill around £140k in first year of tenancy (before chambers fees of 15%).

As a “salary” equivalent after expenses, chambers fees, bad debt etc I expect it’d be around £110-£120k.

Tbh I can live very comfortably on that on circuit. Cash flow is up and down but the fees clerks generally do a very good job. I get around £10k-£15k of receipts per month.

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(1)(0)

Lord Harley

Billed just over GBP1m gross in 2023 and 2024. Called in 2010. Commercial set, not MC.

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(2)(0)

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