Pupillage Vacancy Information
About Authorised Education and Training Organisation
5 King's Bench Walk is one of the UK's leading criminal law sets and is ‘Chambers and Partners’ Crime Set of the Year having secured the title in 2019 and 2024. Chambers has fifty-four members, including nine KCs, senior treasury counsel, two junior treasury counsel and two monitorees.
We prosecute and defend in equal measure and members of chambers regularly appear in some of the most serious and high-profile cases in the country, including in cases of serious and organised crime, serious fraud and terrorism. We principally practise in courts in London and on the South-Eastern Circuit, although we also act in cases across the length and breadth of the country. As well as general crime, individuals in chambers have expertise in diverse practice areas such as courts martial, inquests, actions against the police, extradition, and licensing. We have a small team in chambers who specialise in family and civil work.
Chambers undertakes a substantial and increasing amount of privately funded work.
Prosecuting or defending, publicly funded or private we strive to provide the highest standards of advocacy.
Structure of Pupillage
5KBW are seeking to recruit up to three pupils to begin in October 2026. We take on pupils with a view to recruiting them as tenants and take pride in our strong record of recruiting pupils to tenancy.
During pupillage, successful candidates will spend their first six months accompanying their pupil supervisor to court each day, although there will also be opportunities to spend time with more junior tenants, to experience life in the magistrates’ court and on less serious Crown Court cases and each pupil has a junior and KC mentor. In the second six months, our pupils can expect to spend every day in court, conducting their own cases, which will include some Saturday court work, by rota. We ordinarily anticipate pupils will undertake a ‘probationary tenancy’ prior to making offers of tenancy.
We pride ourselves on offering pupils a fully rounded education, which includes regular workshops from senior members of chambers, fortnightly in-house advocacy training and seminars on interesting and novel cases. These sessions also provide a great opportunity to allow pupils to get to know members of chambers, away from court. We are a friendly set and take an interest in making sure our pupils are comfortable and well-supported, as well as ensuring we get to know our pupils personally and professionally.
Financial and Other Support Available
We offer a pupillage award of £40,000.00, comprised of £20,000.00 in the first six months and a guaranteed income of £20,000.00 in the second six months. A payment of £1000 is provided to assist with travel. Our pupils do not pay rent or commission and new tenants pay reduced rent for the first 4 years of tenancy.
Equality Diversity and Inclusion
Chambers has a firm commitment to equal opportunities and encourage applications from those who do not consider themselves from what may be perceived as the ‘typical’ background, irrespective of age, race, religion, belief, sexual orientation, gender, or disability. We are committed to providing a work environment in which all individuals are treated with dignity and respect. We are committed to the furtherance of Equality and Diversity and promoting access to the legal profession and to the Bar.
We have a dedicated Equality and Diversity Committee made up of practicing members of chambers through which we support a number of programmes promoting diversity. We have a partnership with the 10,000 Black Interns project and have welcomed two interns in both of the previous two years who spent four weeks with us at 5KBW to be repeated again this coming year https://www.10000blackinterns.com/. We also work closely with the Bridging the Bar Scheme https://bridgingthebar.org/and and have a close relationship with the London Academy of Excellence in Tottenham where we have provided careers mentoring, advocacy workshops and work experience.
The accessibility officer is Nicki Crew and you can contact her with any questions you may have at nicki@5kbw.co.uk.
How to Apply
Aspiring barristers are invited to apply to chambers between Thursday 2 January 2025 and Thursday 6 February 2025 using the Pupillage Gateway application system to search for the relevant Pupillage Vacancy and selecting ‘Apply for this pupillage’.
Candidates will be asked to respond to the following questions from Chambers:
- Why do you believe you will make a good barrister? (Character limit maximum 1200)
- Why do you want to join our chambers? (Character limit maximum 1200)
- If you had the power and the money to invest in just ONE part of the criminal justice system what would it be and why? (Character limit maximum 1200)
- Has the criminalisation and punishment of offences involving online speech got out of hand? (Character limit maximum 1200)
