Pupillage Vacancy Information
Members of Falcon Chambers specialise in property-related litigation, which comprises all and any disputes relating to land. Falcon Chambers is consistently ranked by the legal directories as the leading set in this field. The subject matter is wide and varied. Typical cases (at all levels in Chambers) can involve contractual interpretation, statutory interpretation and issues of contract law, tort, trusts, land law, insolvency, professional negligence and public law. Members of Chambers appear in all courts and various different property tribunals and also in private arbitrations. Members have appeared in many of the recent landmark property-related cases in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
Members of Falcon Chambers are authors of many of the leading authoritative legal texts in the field of property law and related subjects.
Junior tenants appear in court frequently on their own account and there is also scope to work as a junior with a more senior member of Chambers. The work is intellectually challenging and rewarding. We are a forward-thinking set and we pride ourselves on being a friendly, closely integrated and approachable group of colleagues. We encourage our pupils to participate in all aspects of Chambers life and to integrate with members of Chambers during their pupillage.
Structure of Pupillage
We aim to offer up to two 12-month pupillages each year to candidates who display high intellectual ability, good communication skills and an interest in property-related work (the full assessment criteria can be found on the Chambers website at: https://www.falcon-chambers.com/join-us/pupillage/how-to-apply)
Pupils in Chambers are expected to demonstrate strong analytical and communication skills and also an ability to work well with others. We welcome applications from anyone who is able to demonstrate the skills we are looking for, irrespective of the school or university they attended and irrespective of their gender, race, age or sexual orientation, in line with Chambers' commitment to furthering equality and diversity at the Bar.
Few of our applicants will have studied our speciality in any depth, and therefore we arrange an intensive course in Chambers to be given by a leader in the field, currently Dr. Martin Dixon of Queens College, Cambridge. This is usually held in the last week of September. We also aim to give our pupils a good grounding in advocacy, in addition to the courses offered by the Inns, by providing structured advocacy training and assessment.
You will be allocated to a different Pupil Supervisor every three months of your pupillage and you will also do work for other members of Chambers, to gain a broad experience of the areas of practice covered within Chambers. You will be expected to read papers before conferences and briefs before court, to write opinions and draft statements of case as if they were your own, and to attend court with members of chambers. There is also scope for undertaking work on your own account during the practising period of pupillage (and any fees earned are received in addition to the pupillage award).
We treat pupillage as a learning experience and whilst a pupil will be assessed during the course of the pupillage, we place emphasis on each pupil's development through observing members of Chambers in practice and constructive feedback from supervisors and others in Chambers. In addition to regular feedback from supervisors, pupils will attend two or three advocacy sessions with members of Chambers and there is an informal performance review at the end of each supervision period with the head of the Recruitment Committee and Chambers Director.
For those who become tenants in Chambers, the learning process does not end and we pride ourselves in the support we offer to junior tenants in the early years of their practices.
Financial and Other Support Available
We offer a pupillage award of £75,000 (of which £24,000 may be drawn down during the year immediately preceding your pupillage). We also cover the costs of all compulsory courses our pupils are required to undertake during their pupillage and any travel costs when attending court outside of London with your supervisor or other members of Chambers.
Equality Diversity and Inclusion
We assess candidates solely on merit, regardless of race, colour, ethnic or national origin, nationality, citizenship, sex, gender re-assignment, sexual orientation, marital or civil partnership status, disability, age, religion or belief, or pregnancy and maternity.
As regards disability, we will make reasonable adjustments to the application process for disabled applicants, and to facilitate pupillage and/or practice as a tenant in the event of a successful application. Please do not hesitate to contact us, at pupillage@falcon-chambers.com, at any time prior to or during the application process, should you wish to discuss reasonable adjustments.
All members of the Recruitment Committee have received training in fair recruitment. Members of Chambers also participate in initiatives to promote accessibility of careers at the Bar to all regardless of their background and protected characteristics, a principle which we seek to reflect in our own application process.
How to Apply
Aspiring barristers are invited to apply to Chambers between 2 January 2025 and 6 February 2025, using the Pupillage Gateway application system to search for the relevant Pupillage Vacancy and selecting ‘Apply for this pupillage’.
In addition to the standardised Bar Council questionnaire, candidates will be asked to respond to the following questions from Chambers:
1. Why do you want to become a barrister specialising in property disputes? (Word limit: 400)
2. Of the skills required for a career at the Bar, which do you think are your strongest and why? Please provide examples of your use of these skills in your answer. (Word limit: 400)
3.Please describe a property-related case decided in the UK courts in the last 12 months which you think is interesting and / or important and explain why (Word limit: 400).
4. Please present an argument, in no more than 500 words, for or against the banning of all access to social media for those under 16.
After consideration of the applications by three members of Chambers, we will invite a number of candidates to a long-list interview of approximately twenty minutes duration with three members of Chambers (which will be between 3rd and 21st March 2025). A number of candidates will then be invited back for the short-list interview of approximately forty minutes duration with at least five members of Chambers (which will be between 1st and 11th April 2025). The purpose of the two interviews is to give candidates the opportunity to demonstrate the skills required to be a pupil in Chambers (which are set out on the Chambers website), through a range of questions and role-play exercises which are designed to test commitment, advocacy, analytical ability and judgment rather than legal knowledge.
