Pupillage Vacancy Information
About Authorised Education and Training Organisation
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, and many of them regularly accept nominations as arbitrators, mediators and experts.
Structure of Pupillage
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 renowned in their field.
In recruiting pupils, One Essex Court is looking for intellectual excellence, first-rate presentational ability, practicality, maturity and common sense, a reasonably unflappable temperament, integrity, independence of mind and an ability to get on with people. These are in our view the building blocks for a career at the Commercial Bar.
Pupillage is only offered to those who are thought capable of becoming tenants. Each pupil will have a different learning curve and we support each one through pupillage to prepare them for their career ahead. 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 being to recruit excellent pupils and help them to become successful and happy members of Chambers.
Pupils usually 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, Christmas and summer parties and our annual Times Law Awards dinner.
After the first three months of 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 the clerks make 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 seek to 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.
Financial and Other Support Available
Chambers is offering five commercial pupillages commencing in October 2026 (or deferred October 2027), each carrying an award of £90,000. Part of that award can be advanced 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 months of pupillage. The primary purpose of that work is for the pupil to gain experience. In recent years, however, pupils have regularly earned in excess of £40,000 from such work, and sometimes substantially more.
Applicants should also be aware that each of the four Inns of Court offers substantial scholarships to assist prospective barristers in funding their BPC year and, where applicable, their study for the PGDL. Application for these scholarships is made to the Inns. Many students who have become pupils in Chambers historically have been awarded scholarships by their chosen Inn of Court.
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 such as advanced advocacy training sessions.
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, interests and personalities and have taken different pathways to the Bar. 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 without limitation) 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.
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. Your enquiry will be passed to Michelle Menashy, Chambers’ Accessibility Officer, who is independent of the recruitment process.
Any Other Relevant Information
Mentoring
All pupils are paired with a mentor, who is usually 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 plays no role in the tenancy decision.
Further information
Further information relating to One Essex Court and pupillage can be found at: www.oeclaw.co.uk.
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:
- Why do you believe you will make a good barrister? (max 200 words)
- Why do you want to join our Chambers? (max 200 words)
- What recent development in contract law have you found interesting and why? (max 200 words)
- Do you consider that the Court of Appeal’s decision in King Crude Carriers SA & Ors v Ridgebury November LLC & Ors [2024] EWCA Civ 719 was rightly decided or not, and why? (max 300 words)
- In relation to your qualification(s) in Higher Education, please provide a breakdown of your grades showing for each year (a) your individual results in each subject studied and, if applicable, (b) your overall result in each completed year of study, identifying the applicable grade boundaries. If applicable, please provide the same for your PGDL qualification and your BVC/BPC qualification, in each case identifying the applicable grade boundaries. If your degree is from a university outside of England and Wales, please construe your results in terms of first, upper or lower second, identifying any relevant grade boundaries.
- Would you like to be considered for pupillage commencing October 2026 or October 2027?
