Pupillage Vacancy Information
About Authorised Education and Training Organisation
We are the government’s principal legal advisers. Our core purpose is to help the government to govern well, within the rule of law.
We do this by providing legal advice on the development, design and implementation of government policies and decisions, drafting secondary legislation and working with Parliamentary Counsel on primary legislation, and representing the government in court.
We are a non-ministerial government department.
We have more than 3,400 employees, around 2,600 of whom are solicitors or barristers.
We provide a legal service to the majority of central government departments.
Structure of Pupillage
GLD is offering four pupil barrister positions in our London offices to start in September 2027.
The training period will last two years in total. The pupillage period (first 12 months) is likely to comprise of a six-month (non-practising) training seat in the department and a six-month (practising) seat in a set of external barristers’ chambers. The Professional Statement describes the knowledge, skills and attributes that you will need to develop and apply during the pupillage period in order to qualify as a barrister. During the remaining 12 months of the training programme we will provide you with wider experience of GLD’s legal work.
As part of our current smarter working policies, GLD employees are expected to work at least 60% of their contracted hours each month from a GLD office (unless adjustments are agreed for disability or caring responsibilities).
Whilst you can expect to be involved in the wide and interesting range of work in which the department and chambers are involved and you will be offered the advocacy opportunities necessary to complete your pupillage successfully, we use the services of external counsel for nearly all of our court-based advocacy. This means that court-based advocacy opportunities are extremely limited. Those wishing to focus principally on a court-based advocacy career should bear this in mind.
Whilst this can never be guaranteed, after successful completion of the 2-year training period, we hope to be able to offer a permanent qualified lawyer position. This will be subject to meeting the standards applied in our recruitment of qualified lawyers.
Financial and Other Support Available
Funding will be available for the Bar Training Course (BTC) where the course has not started.
A bursary (maintenance grant) is also available for the BTC where the course has not yet started. The bursary will be dependent on where the BTC is to be completed. This will be around £5,400 (National) or £7,600 (London) for those completing the Bar Training Course. You will need to discuss your eligibility for a bursary with us at the offer stage.
We provide our pupil barristers with a laptop and mobile phone and other working from home equipment as required.
There is funding available to meet the costs of compulsory courses during pupillage and reimbursement for pupils’ travel expenses for court attendance. Other arrangements in place to support employees may include, for example, season ticket loan, rental deposit and salary advance schemes.
Equality Diversity and Inclusion
We are looking to recruit high quality legal trainees from a wide range of backgrounds.
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme | Civil Service Careers for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
How to Apply
The application process will open on 5 January 2026 (11a.m) on the Government Legal Profession (GLP) website and Civil Service Jobs. The deadline for applications is Thursday 22 January (11:59pm). For further details, and to apply, please visit the GLP website at www.gov.uk/glp
