Awards of up to £100k!
Barristers’ chambers in England and Wales are paying their pupils more than ever, with Legal Cheek’s latest analysis revealing growing competition at the top end of the market.
Topping this year’s Chambers Most List are Gough Square Chambers and Gray’s Inn Tax Chambers, both offering pupillage awards of £100,000. A further 14 sets share second place, each offering £90,000 following a raft of increases across the board. These range from 11KBW to XXIV Old Buildings, and include bar ‘Magic Circle’ members Blackstone, Brick Court and Fountain Court.
While some pupillage awards are paid as a fixed sum, others include guaranteed minimum earnings during a pupil’s practising second six, when they can take on their own cases. This is an important distinction: pupils at sets offering a guaranteed minimum can earn more than the advertised figure if their second-six earnings exceed that amount. For example, while a pupil at Gray’s Inn Tax Chambers receives a fixed award of £100,000, a pupil at Gough Square could take home even more, depending on how much work they undertake during their second six.
Unsurprisingly, the upper reaches of the rankings are dominated by heavyweights of the commercial and commercial chancery bar, including Serle Court (£85,000), Maitland (also £85,000) and 3VB (£90,000).
Three sets have boosted their awards by a whopping £15,000. Public law heavyweights 11KBW and Monckton have both increased their offerings from £75,000 to £90,000, while 5 Essex Chambers has raised its award from £65,000 to £80,000.
There have been plenty of other sizeable increases, too. Six chambers have upped their awards by £10,000, including Brick Court, which now offers £90,000, and Devereux, where the figure has climbed to £85,000.
Across the 51 sets featured on this year’s Chambers Most List, the average pupillage award now stands at around £81,000. Of those, 18 have increased their awards, while the remaining 33 have kept theirs unchanged.
So, how do the chambers stack up against one another? Here’s the full rundown, with more analysis below.
Check out full detail on awards, including drawdowns and earnings above the paper figure, on our 2027 Legal Cheek Chambers Most List.
How much will I earn as a pupil barrister? 💷
But the big bucks aren’t reserved for just the London sets. Kings Chambers, which has bases in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham, has increased its award by £5,000 to £80,000, putting it ahead of some of the capital’s biggest names.
The increases also widen the pay gap between pupil barristers and trainee solicitors. While the highest-paid trainees can expect to earn £70,000, the average salary on the 2027 Legal Cheek Firms Most List sits at around £51,000. Potential tax advantages associated with pupillage awards could stretch that gap even further. And the earning potential doesn’t stop there: new tenants at elite commercial sets can pocket as much as £360,000 in their first year, dwarfing the highest newly qualified (NQ) solicitor salary of £181,000.
Of course, these figures aren’t directly comparable. Barristers’ earnings are typically gross figures, from which they must pay chambers rent and other professional expenses. And because most barristers are self-employed, they miss out on perks enjoyed by law firm employees, including private healthcare, workplace amenities and paid holidays.
It’s also worth remembering that not every corner of the bar offers such generous financial rewards. Many sets specialising in publicly funded work, including crime, immigration and some areas of family law, continue to offer pupillage awards close to the Bar Standards Board minimum. Since 1 January 2026, that has stood at £25,863 a year for pupillages in London and £23,504 for those outside the capital.
Check out full detail on awards, including drawdowns and earnings above the paper figure, on our 2027 Legal Cheek Chambers Most List.
