Pupillage Vacancy Information
**Please note** - Hailsham Chambers is offering two pupillages commencing in each of September 2025 and September 2026, i.e. four pupillages in total. Please only make one application. You will be asked to indicate in your application whether you are applying for a pupillage commencing in September 2025 or September 2026, or whether you would like to be considered for both.
About Authorised Education and Training Organisation
At Hailsham Chambers we excel in our key areas of professional negligence, medical law, costs, personal injury and commercial litigation. We win awards for our excellence, including Professional Negligence Set of the Year at the Chambers UK Bar Awards 2024, and are recognised by the legal directories as a leading set in four of our main fields. Our work ethos is to provide the highest standards of advocacy, advice and service, which is complemented by the support given by members to each other across Chambers. We are proud of our history but we are a forward-thinking set.
**Open evening** – we will be having an open evening on 16 January 2025. You will have the chance to come and chat to junior members of chambers, our current pupils, pupil supervisors, clerks and other members of chambers. Please check the Pupillage section of our website for further details, including how to sign up.
**Open evening** – we will be having an open evening on 16 January 2025. You will have the chance to come and chat to junior members of chambers, our current pupils, pupil supervisors, clerks and other members of chambers. Please check the Pupillage section of our website for further details, including how to sign up.
Structure of Pupillage
We provide 12 months’ intensive, high-quality training in a relaxed atmosphere with two supervisors for three months each and a third for the final six. Candidates can expect supervision in two or more areas of Chambers’ specialisation.
After six months, pupils accept instructions and attend court on their own account. However, throughout the second six a great emphasis remains on training. Feedback is considered crucial for the learning process, and a mentor is always available to discuss pupillage confidentially. Our pupils and junior tenants are busy and their billings compare well to solicitor equivalents.
Financial and Other Support Available
Our pupillage award is £80,000 including £20,000 guaranteed earnings in the second six.
Pupils have a junior mentor and pastoral support in addition to support from their supervisor.
Pupils have a junior mentor and pastoral support in addition to support from their supervisor.
Equality Diversity and Inclusion
We are passionate about encouraging applications from a diverse pool of candidates. If you are disabled, please feel free to contact us to discuss any reasonable accommodation or adjustments that we might be able to make in order to facilitate your application. Please contact Jake Coleman at Jake.Coleman@hailshamchambers.com
Hailsham Chambers adheres to and supports the Bar Council's policies on equal opportunity and non-discrimination. Chambers has an Equality and Diversity Policy which will be provided to all pupils at the beginning of pupillage.
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'.
Candidates will be asked to respond to the following questions from Chambers:
1. Why do you believe you will make a good barrister? In your answer, please identify any relevant experiences or skills that you believe may help you in your career.
(Max 300 words)
2. Why do you want to join our chambers? In your answer, please give reasons for your choice of chambers and explain why you are interested in our areas of practice.
(Max 300 words)
3. The following entirely fictitious scenario is based on McClean v Thornhill [2023] EWCA Civ 466 and Miller v Irwin Mitchell LLP [2024] EWCA Civ 53, which you are asked to read. Please note, however, that paragraphs 121-167 of McClean are irrelevant.
You are instructed on behalf of Mr Barnes.
In 2019, Mr Barnes saw a television advertisement for Crooks Crypto Ltd (“Crooks”), offering a cryptocurrency investment product to members of the public (“the Product”). The advertisement stated that:
- the Product was extremely tax efficient because no income tax would be payable on any profits earned;
- the Product was supported by an opinion from a leading tax barrister, Mr Dodgy, who had given his permission for potential investors to view that opinion;
- cryptocurrency investments like the Product were both unregulated and extremely risky. Investors should therefore consult their own advisors and be prepared to lose all of their investment.
Mr Barnes contacted Crooks and obtained a copy of Mr Dodgy’s opinion, which:
- stated that Mr Dodgy had seen the advertisement;
- stated unequivocally that no income tax would be payable in connection with investment in the Product;
- was silent regarding capital gains tax;
- did not contain any disclaimer or limit of liability.
In reliance on Mr Dodgy’s advice, Mr Barnes invested his life savings in the Product.
In 2023, HMRC investigated the Product and determined that no income tax was payable on profits derived from it, however, investors were liable to pay an enhanced rate of capital gains tax on all profits earned from the Product unless they had signed up to a particular HMRC scheme for cryptocurrency investors (“the HMRC Scheme”).
Mr Barnes had not signed up to the HMRC Scheme because he was unaware of it. He was therefore forced to pay four years’ worth of capital gains tax. Mr Barnes went into substantial debt and lost his home to his mortgage provider. Had he known of the HMRC Scheme, he would have signed up to it and would not have had to pay any capital gains tax. Further, Crooks has become insolvent.
How would you argue that Mr Dodgy is liable to Mr Barnes?
Please concentrate on the legal issues rather than exposition of the facts or the authorities. You are asked only to consider the judgments in McClean and Miller. You may refer to other cases, but only if and insofar as they are referred to in those judgments. (Max 500 words)
4. Would you wish to undertake pupillage on a part-time or other flexible basis, rather than full-time over 12 months? (Max 300 words)
5. Please provide details of any extenuating circumstances relevant to your application. (Max 500 words)
