South Square

It’s hard, though, to get away from the restructuring and insolvency core of this set. And why would you want to? It’s a fascinating area, as one member explains: “Insolvency lies at the intersection of many different areas of law. Tenants at South Square have worked on some of the biggest cases in recent years, including the Lehman Brothers Waterfall applications and the Debenhams insolvency. It is immensely interesting.” An insider tells us that “because of our specialty in insolvency law, we do all of the important Supreme Court and Court of Appeal cases”. The set prides itself on being unparalleled in what they call “our area”, regularly handling cases that are “legally and factually complex”.

Apparently “there is lots of opportunity” to be led by the silks as a baby junior, too. That means “the Court of Appeal and Privy Council several times on novel areas of law” and “matters that have been on the front pages of the financial press”. Commenting on the type of work even newbies can expect, one tenant tells us: “I’ve got two cases in the Supreme Court this year. I’ve also done a five-day international arbitration on my own (I’m a junior junior).” Sounds exciting!

On the transactional restructuring side, South Square’s caseload features plenty of distressed businesses that have dominated the headlines in recent years. Members appeared on all sides of the Thames Water restructuring plan, one of the most closely watched restructuring proceedings in recent memory given the public importance of the utility and the sheer scale of its debt. The set has also been involved in the restructuring plan for Poundstretcher, another familiar high street name, as well as Argo Blockchain, the Nasdaq-listed crypto miner whose restructuring raised novel points about “gifting” and the use of Part 26A plans in the crypto sector.

Then there’s the contentious side of the practice, where South Square’s members are regularly instructed in disputes arising from corporate distress, financial scandals and alleged misconduct. Recent examples include Credit Suisse v SoftBank, a Greensill-linked £440 million claim against the Japanese investment giant. There’s also the litigation relating to London Capital & Finance, the failed mini-bond business, where the court found in a 341-page judgment that LCF had operated an investment fraud after marketing itself to retail investors as a legitimate and regulated financial services business. And in the BHS litigation, South Square members were involved in heavyweight claims concerning wrongful trading, misfeasance and directors’ duties following the collapse of the former high street giant. Taken together, the work neatly captures both sides of South Square’s practice: helping to reshape distressed businesses before they fall over, then fighting over what went wrong when they do.

To get up to speed with this calibre of work, it helps that pupillage at South Square is “heavily focused on feedback”. Baby juniors talk about “rotating through supervisors more quickly than at other sets”, which exposes them to “a wide variety” of approaches to the job. Pupils are given “excellent and transparent” feedback, with “all supervisors” offering regular assessments. One insider shares the benefit of “knowing where I stood and where I needed to improve at all times”. This “carefully structured and thought out” training doesn’t stop once rookies gain tenancy, either; it continues throughout the early years and beyond.

With so much high-value work going on, getting a decent work/life balance is, as one member puts it, the dream: “At South Square it can sometimes be hard to maintain, as there are always crunch times before hearings and deadlines. However, you are in control and can take on as much work as you can manage. It’s a personal choice.” While “work-life balance at a high-flying set is always going to be a challenge”, “chambers do respect your availability as long as you are open about it. It is always a conversation with the clerks and other members of chambers.” The good thing about being in court less often, roughly once a month according to one insider, is that there’s more time to work on cases at your own pace. When you’re being led, that’s trickier, as you’ll be following your leader’s timeline. One junior tenant does tell us, though, “I go on holiday whenever I want for as long as I want”. Nice! And while rookies have to be “prepared to give up evenings and weekends now and again”, a junior assures us: “I definitely don’t get beasted by my clerks/leaders the way some other baby juniors [at other commercial sets] do.”

Clerks are described as “fantastic”, along with the hard-working support staff, including 24-hour third-party IT support on hand to assist with anything. The tech is said to be “very impressive”, as with all service-related things, and one insider boasts of “on demand assistance for whatever you need!” Problems are “quickly resolved”, with one tenant calling it “rare compared to my previous experience in a much larger company!”

“Everyone’s door is open!”, we’re told. As a set on the smaller side, South Square benefits from a “real sense of camaraderie” and an “in it together” mentality. According to one former pupil, “everyone at South Square has an open-door policy from baby junior all the way through to leading silk, and anyone is happy to talk through any issue or question you have, whether legal or personal”. One member, who shares a corridor with the head of chambers, says they regularly pop in to chat about their cases. Junior tenants describe chambers as “a source of great support”, with the freedom to ask questions and seek help from members of “all levels of seniority”. It’s a properly worldwide set, too: “Two of my colleagues live full time in America because their spouses are based there. Chambers is very supportive of taking sabbaticals or time off for childcare responsibility.”

On the social side, with everyone getting along so well and the barristers being “a fairly relaxed bunch”, chambers’ drinks and spontaneous coffees are a regular feature, as are lunches both as a whole set and in smaller groups. There’s a summer party, a “fancy” Christmas do and a spring reception that clients are invited to as well, plus other celebrations dotted in between, “so there is plenty of opportunity to eat and drink nice food!” We also hear the baby juniors regularly head out together on a Friday night. As one spy puts it, “There is no forced fun, but people are genuinely friendly”.

In terms of location, South Square is housed in a “lovely Georgian style” building in Gray’s Inn, overlooking Gray’s Inn Hall and boasting plush facilities inside. One former pupil praises the reception and meeting rooms as “top notch, City law firm-standard”, with client-facing areas that are “well-furnished”. Another rookie, clearly used to higher standards, notes that “it’s not quite the Ritz” and, sadly for them, “there’s no chandeliers or gold gilding”. The private areas are a “bit shabby”, though chambers has been investing in refurbishment. Members are quick to concede, however, that “we all get our own room which are spacious, light and airy”, with tenants free to decorate to their own tastes; “mine is like my own personal little oasis and I love it”. Some spots are a touch “shabby-chic in places”, but the conference rooms are “swanky”, and there are newly refurbished shower facilities for those who cycle or run to work. We also hear the set has “the best stocked pantry of any chambers I’ve ever set foot in!”, which earns serious bonus points from us.

For those looking to apply for pupillage at South Square, applications go through the Pupillage Gateway. Like most chambers, there are two rounds of interviews. Candidates invited to the first round, held in front of junior barristers, will face questions on their application form as well as some debate-style, quick-fire questioning. Those who make it through to the second round face a more extensive interview before a panel of more senior tenants, silks included. This round places more focus on a legal problem you’ll be given before coming in. Anyone lucky enough to land pupillage will receive a generous award of £90,000.

Pupillage at South Square is all about learning. There’s a non-practising second six because, as one former pupil explains, “much of the law we do is techy and complicated and you definitely need that year to get to grips with how it all works before being let loose as a tenant”. Fret not, though: while pupils aren’t on their feet in court at any point, they get loads of practice with drafting and opinion writing, plus the chance to sharpen their verbal skills through some “really useful” in-house advocacy exercises. Pupils change supervisor every six to eight weeks to gain from a wide range of expertise. They also “sit with a mentor for the first few months which means you’re not just left on your own and there’s always someone to talk things through with”. All of which means that, come tenancy, “you’re fully prepared to hit the real world running”.

The set is looking for “high calibre” candidates with strong academic records and “the potential to become an outstanding commercial barrister”. For a closer look at South Square, the set offers 40 two-day mini-pupillages. As a mini-pupil, you’ll be paired with a junior member of chambers, giving you the chance to observe the wide range of work on offer. You may also visit the Commercial Court and, schedule permitting, join other members for lunch. The minis aren’t assessed; they’re designed to give candidates a valuable insight into the life of a junior barrister at South Square, the nature of the work and the culture of chambers. The set also covers travel expenses up to £100 for public transport, and you’ll receive £20 a day towards other costs.

South Square works closely with organisations such as the Bar Council, 10,000 Black Interns, the Black Talent Charter, the Women in Law Pledge and Bringing [Dis]Ability to the Bar, while using Rare’s Contextual Recruitment System to further diversity and inclusion. The set also takes part in COMBAR’s mentoring scheme for candidates from under-represented groups at the commercial bar, and works with a number of charities and initiatives committed to providing access to justice for all. South Square is a proud supporter of Advocate, a charity that provides legal assistance for people who cannot get public funding and are unable to pay for a barrister.

I was fortunate that whilst on the BCL I got pupillage at South Square. At that point South Square was not part of the Gateway (although it now is) and this was my first time applying. As a result, I never went through the Gateway process. Prior to applying for pupillage, I had done quite a few minis (roughly 6-12) in a range of areas. I had done a mini at South Square (which encouraged me to apply) but my co-pupil (and now co-tenant) had not.

The pupillage experience

Pupillage at South Square is organised into seats of roughly 6-8 weeks. This is shorter than at other commercial sets and means by the end of pupillage you have been supervised by most of the senior juniors in Chambers. This structure is a real benefit because it exposes you to a wider range of work. At South Square, there are 4-6 formal assessments throughout the year. These cover the range of skills you need to practice here including drafting particulars of claim, preparing an opinion, and advocacy exercises. The advocacy exercises in particular are really fun (even if they are a bit nerve-wracking) and always involve an old case from someone in chambers. I was tasked with putting a well-known airline into administration and had to pretend it was 3am when we were making the application.

During pupillage I was exposed to a range of commercial, insolvency, banking and finance, and restructuring work. The day-to-day tasks of a pupil at South Square are pretty varied. You may be asked to prepare a research note for your supervisor, do a draft of a skeleton or opinion which your supervisor is working on, or do a specific piece of ‘dead work’ (i.e. an old case). The process is structured to expose you to a variety of different tasks and areas of practice. Supervisors will ask you at the beginning of each seat which areas or types of work you still need to cover, and will endeavour to plug any gaps.

One important point is that the second-six is non-practising at South Square. The reason for this is that you use the second-six to really hone your knowledge of some of the more technical aspects of insolvency law, so you are ready to hit the ground running as a tenant. Unlike some other commercial sets, there is plenty of opportunity for unled work (particularly in insolvency) in your first few years of practice.

There is regular and very helpful feedback on your work, as well as end-of-seat and mid-pupillage reviews. The supervisors are very clear about what you need to improve on and what you are doing well. Pupillage at South Square is all about learning and improving over the course of the year; no one is expecting the finished product straight-away. It is also non-competitive. You are never made to feel like you and your co-pupil are competing; in fact, chambers goes out of its way to make sure that is not the case. We usually take two pupils every year and the expectation is that if you meet the required standard for tenancy, you will get taken on.

The transition from pupil to tenant

The transition was very well-managed, and I felt supported throughout. The responsibility of running your own cases can initially seem daunting but South Square has an open-door policy and the junior juniors regularly pop into each other’s rooms to ask questions. This is a really good way of being able to ask questions which feel stupid (but rarely actually are) and to get the benefit of the experience of people who were in your shoes a few years before.

When you start tenancy at South Square you are allocated a mentor for the first six months of practice. You sit in their room during this period so that you can ask questions and they can check that everything is going well. The mentoring relationship is something which is really valuable, and people continue to ask their mentors for advice even after they have got their own room. Your former supervisors are also continuing sources of advice and support. I have also found they are really good at getting you involved in their cases and giving you opportunities.

What is your practice like now?

My practice is a mixture of insolvency and commercial work. I also have a good balance of led and un-led work, which gives me the opportunity to be involved in the bigger cases and also get advocacy experiences. I would say barristers at South Square (and commercial sets generally) are in court less than other areas — I am in court roughly 3-4 times a month, but it varies massively. One important difference from other commercial sets is that there is more minor insolvency applications for baby juniors to do, such as extending administrations or winding-up petitions. This means we are in court on our own more than our contemporaries at other commercial sets.

What is the culture of chambers?

South Square’s small size is a great asset when it comes to building a cohesive and friendly environment. It is easy to know the vast majority of members of chambers. People wander into each other’s rooms for a chat or for some advice. There is always someone to go for lunch with or to grab a coffee.

What is pretty unique about South Square is the relationships that are formed between people at different stages of their careers. Because of the small size of the set there is a great deal of mixing and people are not siloed into particular levels of call. There are also more formal events such as monthly drinks and lunches where the whole of Chambers gets together. There are bigger events in the Summer and at Christmas.

Chambers has great facilities and fantastic admin staff/clerks who are always able to help out. Everyone in Chambers has their own room which they can turn into their personal oasis and decorate as they see fit allowing you to express a bit of personality.

Top tips for those wanting to become a barrister/secure a pupillage at your chambers

(1) Know the Set. Make sure you understand our key practice areas and what they involve. Be wary of chambers’ websites, they often say a set does a particular type of work when very few members actually do it. Look at Chambers and Partners / Legal500 rankings to get a sense of what a particular set is good at.

(2) Engage with the Set’s Practice. Demonstrate that you are engaged with what a set does and what it is like. Look at recent decisions members of chambers have been in. Think, how can I demonstrate I am interested in this type of work?

(3) Use Concrete Examples. In your application and at interview you need to give concrete examples of how you meet the selection criteria and have the right skills to succeed. Don’t just tell us you have good advocacy skills – explain when you have used those skills and what the effect was. At times people fail to make the best out of the amazing things they have done.

(4) Think Critically. Look at your application form and think about what your weaknesses are. Use mentoring schemes like those run by the Inns or COMBAR’s scheme, to get some frank feedback on your application. Then work to fill the gaps and improve the weak points.