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‘I start pupillage next month – any top tips?’

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By Legal Cheek on

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Barrister-to-be seeks advice


In our latest Career Conundrum, a pupil barrister asks readers to share their best tips for making their training period run as smoothly as possible.

“Hi Legal Cheek. The email subject sort of it explains it. I am due to start pupillage next month in London and looking for some general advice on dos and don’ts from those who have been through it. Keen to hit the ground running and make a good impression, so any advice (general or otherwise) is most welcome. Thanks.”

If you have a career conundrum, email us at tips@legalcheek.com.

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2 Comments

Anon Pupil Supervisor

Write everything down. Take a note in every conference and hearing. In particular, take your own note of all feedback on your work given by your supervisor or other barristers. If feedback is given orally, email your note back to them afterwards and politely ask if they agree it. Organise your notes so you can check back on them – next time you do a piece of work, re-read your old feedback. If your supervisor sends you their own work, keep it (with their permission). Build your own repository of feedback, notes, and good examples of things. It’s hard to give advice about being a good pupil, but being a well-organised pupil with a decent filing system will help good pupils shine.

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Junior junior junior

Depends a little on the area of law and the structure of your pupillage.

I can only speak from experience in crime but my top tip is be friendly with the solicitors (or more often paralegals) who send you the work in your second six. They’ll grow with you and you don’t always get a chance to re-impress your brilliance down the line once they’ve got preferred counsel and are sitting on better briefs. Don’t myopically only befriend the big dogs in chambers. Network network network.

My top civil friends seem to have these strange assessment procedures which are prioritised over bringing in and servicing work. That’s fine, just do the assessments and be nice!

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