Pupillage Vacancy Information
For pupillage commencing October 2023, Chambers offers each pupil £75,000. This will rise to £80,000 for pupillage commencing in October 2024 or 2025. Part of the award can be advanced, on request, during a prospective pupil's Bar Practice Course (“BPC”) year.
Pupils also retain any amounts earned for small advocacy or other work done in their own right during their second six. The primary purpose of this work is to gain experience; however, in recent years, pupils have often earned in excess of £10,000 (and sometimes substantially more) in respect of such work.
Applicants should also be aware that each Inn offers substantial scholarships to assist prospective barristers in funding their BPC year (and, where applicable, study towards the PGDL). Application for these scholarships is made to the Inns. In the past, many students who subsequently became pupils in Chambers had been awarded scholarships by their Inns.
Chambers will pay the fees for all compulsory courses offered through the Bar Council or the Inns and will usually look favourably on applications for support for other courses, e.g., advanced advocacy courses.
Equality Diversity and Inclusion
In recruiting pupils, we welcome applications from candidates from all backgrounds. We are not looking for someone to fit a particular “mould” and there is no “One Essex Court barrister”. Our members have diverse backgrounds, pathways to the Bar, interests and personalities. For many of our members who were worried that they might not “fit in” elsewhere at the Bar, One Essex Court was a natural choice.
We particularly welcome candidates from backgrounds that are under-represented at the Commercial Bar, including (but non-exhaustively) women, people of minority ethnic origin, people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, people with disabilities and those who are LGBT+.
We are committed to avoiding bias in the recruitment process, whether that be conscious or unconscious. Unconscious bias training is offered to all members involved in the assessment process. Pupillage Gateway application forms are anonymised before marking, and the written assessments are marked on a “CV-blind” basis (i.e. the markers are unaware of the writer’s application form, even on an anonymised basis).
We are happy to make reasonable adjustments for applicants. If you are invited to interview, you will be asked whether you need us to make any reasonable adjustments and we will discuss with you how we can accommodate your needs.
If you have any queries regarding the accessibility of Chambers, or would like to discuss in advance reasonable adjustments to the application process, you are welcome to contact (in confidence) the Secretary to the Pupillage Committee here, who will pass your enquiry to Michelle Menashy, the accessibility officer, who is independent of the recruitment process.
How to Apply
Please follow the "How to Apply" instructions detailed in the October 2023 vacancy in order to apply for this (October 2024) vacancy. The link can be found here:
https://recruitment.pupillagegateway.com/members/modules/job/detail.php?record=249
About AETO and Structure of Pupillage
One Essex Court is offering three commercial pupillages commencing in each of October 2023, October 2024 and October 2025.
For all pupillages commencing October 2023, our award will be £75,000. For all pupillages commencing in October 2024 or October 2025, our award will be £80,000.
One Essex Court is a pre-eminent commercial set of barristers' chambers in London. Members provide specialist legal advice, support and advocacy services worldwide. The work here embraces all aspects of domestic and international trade, business, commerce and finance. The principal areas of practice are arbitration; banking and financial services; civil fraud and investigations; commercial litigation; company and insolvency including restructuring; competition and EU law; employment; energy and natural resources including infrastructure projects; insurance and reinsurance; intellectual property; media, broadcasting and entertainment; professional liability; sports law; tax and revenue law.
Barristers at One Essex Court are recognised specialist counsel in the many diverse fields of commercial law, also regularly accepting nominations as arbitrators, mediators and experts.
One Essex Court is committed to providing the finest training to its pupils, nurturing them to be amongst the very best barristers of their generation. From day one, pupils work with and learn from barristers who are pre-eminent in their field. In recruiting pupils, One Essex Court seeks intellectual excellence, first-rate presentational ability, and a drive and commitment to excellence; our focus is simply on finding those individuals who show the best potential to become excellent barristers.
Pupillage is only offered to those who are thought capable of becoming tenants. Pupils are not in competition with each other, and we are committed to taking on as tenants all pupils who meet the standard.
Our aim is to recruit excellent pupils and help them to become successful and happy members of Chambers. Our primary aim is to teach and to help our pupils to thrive. Although there is by necessity an element of assessment, there is no competition between our pupils. Each pupil will have a different learning curve and we support each one through pupillage to prepare them for their career ahead. All pupils who meet the standard will be offered tenancy.
Pupils sit with three supervisors, spending two periods of three months with their first two supervisors, and the next six months with their third supervisor. Pupil supervisors are generally senior junior barristers and only have one pupil at a time. Pupils work in their supervisor’s room.
Pupils are fully integrated into the life of Chambers and attend all Chambers’ social and client events. Regular events include monthly drinks and Christmas and summer parties.
Throughout their pupillages, pupils are encouraged to do work for other members of Chambers, as well as for their pupil supervisors. This gives pupils exposure to a wider variety of work (and methods of working) and gives pupils the opportunity to become better known throughout Chambers. From the beginning, pupils assist their supervisors with their papers, do legal research, draft opinions, pleadings and skeleton arguments. One Essex Court has traditionally been able to provide opportunities for advocacy in the second six months of pupillage. Chambers believes that it is essential for pupils and junior tenants to develop their court based skills at the earliest possible stage and makes a considerable effort to ensure that pupils gain court and other relevant advocacy experience. This typically includes applications and small trials in the County Court as well as the occasional appearance in the High Court and in other tribunals.
Over the course of pupillage, we ensure that pupils acquire all of the competences expected of barristers at the Commercial Bar, as listed in the Bar Standards Board’s Professional Statement.
Any Other Relevant Information
Mini Pupillage
A mini-pupillage is not a pre-requisite for pupillage for applications made in the academic year 2022/23.
Mentoring
All pupils are paired with a mentor, who is a junior member of chambers (around 5-10 years’ call). The mentor provides consistent, non-judgmental support to their mentee, helps their mentee adjust to life in Chambers and assist them with any concerns that may come up during pupillage. The mentoring relationship is confidential, and the mentor takes a neutral stance in the tenancy decision process regarding their mentee.
Further information
Further information relating to One Essex Court and pupillage can be found at: www.oeclaw.co.uk.
Attached documents
