Vacancies

Outer Temple– 12 Months – September 2027

Pupillage Vacancy Information

About Authorised Education and Training Organisation 

WHY US FOR PUPILLAGE?

You will receive a structured, well supported, challenging, and well remunerated pupillage experience.  Outer Temple Chambers (OTC) is one of the leading civil commercial chambers in the country. We undertake a range of the highest quality work that few other London chambers can rival.  

We have a global footprint, with offices in London and Dubai, and members and associates based in not only London and Dubai, but also, e.g., New York, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Our members appear in courts and tribunals up and down the UK and further afield, representing clients from all walks of life, background and geographical location.

We are recognised as market leaders in a wide range of areas, being shortlisted for or winning numerous accolades in recent years including ‘Set of the Year’ for Health & Safety, Chancery, Clinical Negligence, Disciplinary & Regulatory, Sports Law, Financial Services, Employment, Personal Injury, and Technology & Crypto Law at the Legal 500 Bar Awards, and for Commercial Litigation Team of the Year at the LAW Middle East Awards. 

Our key practice areas can broadly be divided into ‘Business Services’ and ‘Health Services’ with the nature of the work undertaken in those areas being set out in detail below.

• Business Services:
  1. Employment & discrimination – we are one of the leading employment sets in the country. Our silks and juniors are leading the biggest equal pay claims currently being litigated and have appeared in successful challenges to public sector pension reforms, by judges, firefighters, doctors and others. We routinely appear in landmark cases, including in the Supreme Court (e.g. the so-called “gay cake” case and the first case to consider the meaning of “unfavourable treatment”) and many notable Court of Appeal cases. Our work includes both statutory Tribunal claims, and High Court claims, and we are particularly known for our ‘cross-over’ work in cases involving both employment law and other areas of expertise, including pensions, financial services and psychiatric injury.
  2. Pensions – we are widely regarded as the go-to set for pensions, employee benefit trusts and other commercial trust cases, with vast experience of providing specialist advisory and adversarial services in this field. We are unique in being able to offer dual-expertise specialists in pensions law and complementary specialisms like banking, financial services, insolvency, employment and criminal regulatory proceedings. Members of the team have consistently been instructed in the leading pension cases of the last decade and regularly act for major industry bodies, including the Pensions Regulator and the Pensions Protection Fund as well as cases with profound implications for all those involved in the pensions industry. Our members also acted for claimants and defendants in professional negligence cases concerning such trusts.
  3. Business crime, regulation & sanctions (BCRS) – BCRS is one of the fastest-growing and diverse areas of Chambers’ practice. Partly, that is due to the upsurge in sanctions work arising from current geo-political issues: our members have advised corporates, governments and individuals on sanctions risks, and have acted in two of the highest profile High Court challenges to sanctions designations so far. But BCRS is far wider than that: we operate in the civil, criminal and regulatory fields (both domestically and internationally) from financial services regulation to health and safety, data protection to fraud, corruption to proceeds of crime, acting for and against regulators and prosecutors such as the FCA and SFO. A number of our members also specialise in investigations: both undertaking them for corporates, governments and international organisations, and defending.
  4. Private client & trusts – we have a strong contingent of barristers specialising in a broad range of private client matters, including all aspects of trusts, wills, probate and inheritance matters, as well as Court of Protection work. Our barristers are members of STEP, ACTAPS and ConTrA. Our additional strength in pensions, insolvency, and professional negligence mean that we are frequently a go-to set where these areas cross over with private client work. Members of the team are renowned around the world, particularly in the Middle East, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man and we have members listed in the Private Client Global Elite.
     
     
  5. Commercial litigation – this spans a wide range of areas, such as fintech and digital assets, banking, financial services, civil fraud, insolvency, professional negligence, company law and sports law. We are instructed in the most cutting-edge areas of law, as demonstrated by being awarded the prestigious Technology, Data and Crypto Set of the Year (2023) by Legal 500. Our banking and financial services work ranges from big ticket financial services litigation to high profile financial services regulatory cases. In the civil fraud and asset recovery space, we have been involved in highly publicised multi-jurisdictional proceedings involving multiple corporate insolvencies; and,
  6. International arbitration – members have substantial experience of international arbitration in all forms of proceedings expedited proceedings and emergency arbitration proceedings, enforcement of awards and satellite litigation arising from arbitration disputes. We have multi-lingual barristers trained under many different common law and civil law systems and regularly work with international clients in the UK and throughout Europe, Middle East, Asia-Pacific, US, Latin America and Caribbean including enforcing or resisting arbitral awards in one or more jurisdictions.
• Health Services
  1. Personal injury – we have been a leading personal injury set for many years (Personal Injury Set of the Year 2023). We act for both claimants and defendants and deal with cases involving injuries of the utmost severity. We are instructed by many of the leading firms nationwide. Silks and senior members of the team often lead junior members in high value and complex cases, including group actions which require teams of counsel to work collaboratively. We have unrivalled expertise in a number of sub-specialist areas, including catastrophic injury claims, cross-border injury litigation, equine and Animals Act claims, industrial disease, military claims, group actions, product liability, sports law and child abuse claims. We also have several counsels appointed by the Attorney General to represent Government in high profile and complex personal injury and healthcare matters.
  2. Clinical negligence – we are well known for our clinical negligence expertise, acting for injured patients, medical professionals, NHS Trusts and private healthcare providers alike. Our cases cover the full clinical spectrum, from catastrophic neo-natal and birth injuries to permanent spinal cord and brain injuries. Members regularly appear at Coroners’ Inquests, representing both bereaved families and healthcare providers. Our expertise in this area complements our related specialisms in medical regulatory and disciplinary work, and in the medical product liability area, where strong clinical knowledge and understanding is critical. The successful candidate will see a wide variety of interesting cases from the outset of their pupillage and can expect to be working on them from the get-go.
  3. Travel and cross-border injury – we are a top tier travel and cross-border set and have been involved in cases raising complex applicable law and jurisdictional issues. This has been an area of law that has evolved significantly since Brexit.  Our members have appeared in many of the leading cases in recent years, up to Supreme Court level. We act for claimants, tour operators, insurers and other providers of travel and tourist services. OTC acts in group and class actions with a foreign element, including product liability and multiple victim accidents. We also have considerable expertise in package travel, aviation and maritime claims.
  4. Group litigation and product liability - we are recognised by Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 as leaders in the fields of group litigation and product liability. We represent claimants and defendants in health-related multiparty litigation. Examples include acting for claimants in metal-on-metal hip implant group litigation, and PIP breast implant litigation; for manufacturers in vaginal mesh litigation, and in relation to Thalidomide claims; for service personnel and the Ministry of Defence in various military group actions (e.g. relating to anti-malarial prescriptions, hearing loss, non-freezing cold injuries, Q Fever, Gulf War Syndrome); and on behalf of Government in relation to claims arising from hormonal pregnancy tests, Covid-19 and the Infected Blood scandal. 
     
     
  5. Public, Court of Protection and Public Inquiries – OTC’s Court of Protection team undertakes complex capacity, serious medical treatment and welfare cases on behalf of the Official Solicitor, NHS Trusts, local authorities and direct access clients. The Public Law team regularly appear in the Administrative Court and specialist Tribunals, with a particular emphasis on local government, healthcare and social welfare matters. OTC members also frequently represent Chairs and Core Participants at Public Inquiries. Recent examples include the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, the Southport Inquiry, the Afghan Inquiry, the Brook House Inquiry and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
  6. Medical disciplinary and regulatory – we have a well-established team of barristers who specialise in medical disciplinary and regulatory law. Previously awarded Professional Discipline Set of the Year, and with our members garnering successive individual awards in this field, we act for both registrants and regulatory bodies, including the GMC, NMC, GDC and HCPC – both at tribunal and on appeal to the High Court. Members also regularly represent their clients in related criminal and civil proceedings in order to ensure continuity of representation throughout.

Of course, these areas are not mutually exclusive. Employment or discrimination matters may have a data protection or privacy angle, a pensions theme, or involve complex matters of psychiatric injury. Large-scale commercial litigation will more and more need specialist advice regarding sanctions or other financial crime concerns. Personal injury and clinical negligence claimants may need trusts set up to safeguard the compensation received. Chambers’ broad base of specialisms, and our culture of close collaboration, benefits our clients hugely – but also means our members can have as broad or as focused a practice as they want. 

We have no preference for an undergraduate law degree over the one-year GDL conversion course. We look for the best candidates whatever their background.

Please note that Chambers is also advertising separately for a specialist Health pupillage. You cannot apply for both pupillages.  

We ask applicants for this pupillage to indicate whether they would like to specialise in particular areas of OTC’s work during pupillage, or whether they would rather see a variety of work across a wide range of practice areas (which is likely to include three seats within the Business Team). Expressions of preference do not affect our assessment of pupillage applications but help us to tailor pupillages in accordance with individual preferences so far as possible. 

Additionally, for both types of pupillage we are advertising separately for a September 2026 and September 2027 start date. You are permitted to submit separate applications for those alternative start dates.

Structure of Pupillage 

We are forward-thinking, with a collaborative, collegiate ethos and aim to be open, friendly, and approachable, treating everyone with tolerance and respect. We maintain high standards and are responsive to our clients, staff and pupils.

The award for pupillages commencing in either September 2026 or September 2027 is £80k for the twelve months of pupillage.  At OTC’s discretion a proportion of the award (up to 25%) is available for early drawdown during the BPC year. 

Pupils sit with four pupil supervisors in different areas of work during the pupillage year (with at least three seats likely to be in the Business team, subject to indication of preference (as to which see above)).  Subject to supervisor capacity, we will seek to tailor your pupillage to the areas in which you have indicated particular interest, or alternatively can provide seats covering a broad range of chambers’ specialisms.

During the Second (practising) Six, pupils will undertake their own cases, as well as assisting their pupil supervisors with theirs. No two pupils’ or junior tenants’ experience is the same and pupils have also appeared in a wide range of disputes including insolvency, company, general commercial, civil and Court of Protection matters. That said, there is a large volume of employment work available at the junior end and such work is likely to form a significant part of your own practice in the Second Six. Many of our juniors undertake a significant amount of employment work in at least their first few years of practice.  

Pupil supervisors provide regular feedback and write a report on each pupil’s overall performance - written work, potential as an advocate and general strengths and weaknesses. That report will be discussed with the pupil before being signed off and is discussed with the Head of Pupillage, forming part of a quarterly review cycle.

OTC recognises the crucial importance of advocacy training. In the First Six, pupils undergo a series of both unassessed and assessed advocacy exercises in the form of mock hearings. The emphasis is firmly on constructive feedback and building confidence for the Second Six. We also try to send pupils to marshal with our former Members of OTC who are now full-time judges. A typical diet during the practising six months comprises personal injury and employment matters as well as low value contractual disputes. This provides a great opportunity for our pupils to gain a broad range of advocacy experience as well as the chance to deal with their own clients and opponents.

OTC has a mentoring scheme available to pupils, barristers and staff.  We are keen to promote and support wellbeing and good mental health, recognising that we work in a demanding profession and that pupillage can be a particularly challenging period. 

OTC will cover the cost of all compulsory pupillage courses undertaken; at its discretion it may also subsidise the cost of other pertinent non-mandatory training/events. Our commitment to developing and retaining pupils is evidenced by our high pupillage to tenancy conversion figure.    We see it as important that our pupils don’t feel that they are in competition with each other – tenancy decisions are made on merit, not by competition between pupils and they are therefore encouraged to help and support each other.  We also offer a guaranteed earnings scheme for our junior tenants for the first two years after an offer of tenancy is accepted by way of an interest free loan to top up earnings each month to a set amount.

A ‘True Picture’ account of pupillage at OTC can be viewed in the online Chambers Student guide to the Bar.

A FORMER PUPIL'S VIEW:

Paradoxically, pupillage is at the same time one of the most desirable and most feared experiences known to Bar students. Happily, once it started, I realised that nobody bites, nobody was waiting in ambush, there was no magnifying glass trained over my head throughout the 12 months. In fact, it's quite the opposite - Chambers actually wants you to succeed and will do everything to ensure that you do....

Financial and Other Support Available 

Pupillage Award

Each pupil will be awarded a grant. The level of award for any given year will be published on Chambers’ website and in the OTC Pupillage Prospectus and will be notified to applicants at interview and in offer letters.

The award for the pupillage year 2026/27 and 2027/28 is £80,000 for the 12 months of pupillage. Unless the pupil opts, prior to pupillage commencing, to receive the award in equal instalments throughout the twelve months of pupillage, the award is paid as follows:

1. two thirds of the award is paid by six equal monthly instalments during the first six months less any drawdown recoupment which is recovered in equal instalments during those six months (see paragraph 12 below); and
2. the remaining one third is paid during the second six pupillage by equal monthly instalments. Any earnings actually received in the 2nd six months from work done on the pupil’s own account will be deducted from the monthly instalments of the award, any such deduction being capped at an amount representing one third of the full award.

The Bar Council has agreed with HMRC that each pupil may choose in which of the two ways1 they should be taxed. The options are as follows:

1. Option 1: the pupillage award in respect of the pupil’s first six months will continue to be tax-free, but the award in respect of the second (or subsequent) six months will be included as normal professional earnings in the year of receipt.
2. Option 2: both the “first six” and the “second six” awards will be taxable in the fiscal year of receipt under the general sweep-up provisions.

At Chambers’ discretion, up to 25% of each award is available for drawdown during a pupil’s Bar Professional Training Course year. Pupils who wish to draw-down part of their pupillage award should contact the HR & Regulatory Manager. Any drawdown taken will be recouped by Chambers in the first six months of pupillage. Should a pupil not commence pupillage with Chambers for any reason, they will be required to reimburse the full amount of the drawdown. Chambers will take into account any exceptional circumstances.

The Director of Operations will discuss payment of the award as part of the induction session for new pupils.

Equality Diversity and Inclusion

If you wish your application to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme, please ensure that you request this under the “Application Questions” section.  To be eligible to you must have – or have had in the last twelve months – a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. This includes those whose impairment has lasted, or is likely to last, for twelve months, or if the impairment is likely to progress or recur. You are also automatically eligible if you are affected by cancer, HIV, Multiple Sclerosis, or severe facial disfigurement. You do not have to be registered as a disabled person to apply under this scheme.

If you would like to contact OTC to enquire about the accessibility of our Chambers prior making an application, please email our Accessibility Officer- Asia Gibbs (email: asia.gibbs@outertemple.com/ phone: 020 7353 6381).

AI Policy

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is strictly prohibited at all stages of the pupillage application and recruitment process.

How to Apply

Aspiring barristers are invited to apply to Chambers between 05 January 2026 and 22 January 2026 using the Pupillage Gateway application system to search for the relevant Pupillage Vacancy and selecting ‘Apply for this pupillage’.

Please note: this advert relates to OTC’s general pupillage. Chambers is advertising separately for its specialist health department pupillage. Please apply for your preferred type of pupillage: you cannot apply for both.

Additionally, for both types of pupillage, we are advertising for both September 2026 and September 2027 start dates. You are permitted to submit separate applications for those alternative start dates.

In addition to the standardised Bar Council questionnaire, 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 (1200-character limit)
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. We are particularly interested in hearing about your views on practice within a chambers with a broad range of practice areas and how you would envisage your practice developing in the first few years of tenancy? (1200-character limit).
3. Would you prefer to specialise in particular areas of OTC’s work during pupillage (and if so, which areas), or would you rather see a broader variety of work across a wide range of practice areas?  Please explain your answer. (1200-character limit)
4. Persuade us of a point of view on a subject of your choice, serious or otherwise. Please note, you need not hold the view yourself. (1500-character limit)
5. Do you wish your application to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme? Yes or No
6. Which pupillage start date(s) are you applying for? (select one option)
   • September 2026
   • September 2027
   • Or both years