Pupillage Vacancy Information
About Authorised Education and Training Organisation
At Kings Chambers we believe that our clients' interests are best served by strong dedicated teams in an uncompromising attitude to quality and client service. Kings Chambers is committed to providing clients with high quality specialist legal services through barristers with the highest reputation for advocacy, knowledge and professional standards. We are a large specialist set with a national and international reputation practising from Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham in the following specific practice areas:
Administrative & Public Law, Arbitration, Chancery, Civil Law, Civil Liberties & Human Rights, Commercial Dispute Resolution, Common Law, Construction & Engineering, Court of Protection, Employment, Insolvency / Restructuring, Intellectual Property, International, Licensing, Personal Injury, Planning & Environment, Professional Negligence, Revenue and Sports.
We believe that regular, positive recruitment of exceptional candidates has been the key to our success. We are committed to continuing development in all areas of practice in chambers and the recruitment of ambitious and outstanding individuals who seek a successful career at the Bar. A pupillage at Kings Chambers provides the best possible foundation for a career at the bar.
Structure of Pupillage
Our pupils spend 12 months working with leaders in their chosen field on cases, in a warm and supportive environment, with a real prospect of tenancy.
Each pupil is assigned to 2 supervisors in the course of the year. Pupils spend the first six-month period of pupillage shadowing members of chambers whilst undertaking specialist learning and training and the second six taking on work in their own name. Supervisors provide frequent feedback and monitor their pupils’ progress to ensure that the work they are given fulfils their training needs. Pupils undergo a monthly assessment process with their supervisor and chambers Director of Pupillage Training.
We strive to make pupils feel a part of chambers from the time that they accept their offers of pupillage. They are invited to chambers events, both formal and informal, and encouraged to get to know both members and staff.
There is a tenancy available for every pupil that we are satisfied meets our standard of excellence at the end of their pupillage.
Pupillage will normally be based in Manchester.
Financial and Other Support Available
Our recruitment process and the remuneration package we offer are intended to ensure that we attract the best pupils in each year. We are wholeheartedly committed to the Bar Council’s Equality and Diversity Code.
Our application process is designed to ensure fairness, and we are wholeheartedly committed to the Bar Council’s Equality and Diversity Code. All personal information is redacted from Pupillage application forms prior to being provided to the reviewing panel.
We monitor diversity by anonymised forms in which applicants are requested (but not required) to complete alongside their application. These forms are kept separate from the application forms and are only used for monitoring purposes.
Equality Diversity and Inclusion
Our recruitment process and the remuneration package we offer are intended to ensure that we attract the best pupils in each year. We are wholeheartedly committed to the Bar Council’s Equality and Diversity Code.
Our application process is designed to ensure fairness, and we are wholeheartedly committed to the Bar Council’s Equality and Diversity Code. All personal information is redacted from Pupillage application forms prior to being provided to the reviewing panel. We monitor diversity by anonymised forms in which applicants are requested (but not required) to complete alongside their application. These forms are kept separate from the application forms and are only used for monitoring purposes.
Any enquiries relating to accessibility in chambers should be made to our HR Business Partner, Jacqueline Marland - jmarland@kingschambers.com
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’.
We invite applications from those committed to a career at the bar who can, with outstanding analytical ability, sound judgment, have the potential to become excellent advocates and a capacity to establish and maintain good relationships with clients. We require a degree classification of a good 2:1 as a minimum, albeit we will consider extenuating circumstances.
We encourage those interested in applying for a pupillage to apply for our Mini Pupillage Programme so that they can see what chambers is like for themselves. Details of the programme we run can be found on our website
We expect to conduct first round interviews on the 13th & 14th March 2025 and second interviews on the 3rd & 4th April 2025.
Our selection criteria will be published on our website, and we recommend considering these carefully when preparing your application.
We are recruiting one pupil for each of the following departments:
- Business and Property
- Court of Protection
- Personal Injury & Clinical Negligence
- Planning
You may apply to one department only.
Planning Pupillage
We are seeking to recruit a pupil for our Planning team to start in September 2026.
The Planning team has been providing excellence in planning for over 70 years. Chambers was founded as a response to the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act by C N Glidewell, and has an unrivalled reputation for the highest standards of advice and advocacy.
Kings Chambers has produced some of the leading barristers in the field of planning; in recent years that has included figures of the eminence of Charles Cross, Sir Iain Glidewell (a former Lord Justice of Appeal), Sir Douglas Brown (formerly The Hon Mr Justice Douglas Brown), The Hon Mrs Justice Patterson and The Hon Mr Justice Gilbart.
Paul G Tucker KC is former Deputy and Chair of PEBA (Planning and Environment Bar Association) and members of Kings Chambers’ planning team sit as committee members for PEBA.
Female members of the team are actively involved in Women in Planning.
Kings Chambers’ Planning barristers act for developers, housebuilders, land promoters, local planning authorities and other public bodies and private individuals and regularly appear at planning appeals including public inquiries and informal hearings and in all types of court proceedings including legal challenges or judicial reviews in the Planning Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. They also represent clients in criminal matters relating to planning and highways in magistrates courts and the Crown Court.
There are presently eight King’s Counsel and 18 junior counsel who regularly act in planning cases. Together they contribute to the recognition of chambers as a pre-eminent planning set.
Candidates will be asked to respond to the following questions:
- Please indicate if you have a preferred location for your second six months (Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds). As noted, whilst we cannot guarantee to accommodate a preference for Leeds or Birmingham, we will consider such requests where practicable. If you do not have a preference, please indicate “none”.
Word Limit: 100 - Why are you interested in Planning Law?
Word limit: 250 - What are the most important challenges facing the Bar and how should we prepare to address them?
Word Limit 250 - Why do you believe you will make a good barrister?
Word limit: 250 - Please read the judgment in London Borough of Lambeth (Appellant) v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and others Respondents) [2019] UKSC 33 https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2018-0099-judgment.pdf and argue that it was wrongly decided
Word limit: 500
