2021 The student’s guide to the leading law firms and sets in the UK e-Edition chambers-student.com Connect with us on cbaK Travers Smith is everything you could want from a law firm. First-rate training and market-leading work alongside some of the City’s finest lawyers. Prestigious clients. The opportunity to progress. And all in a supportive, non-hierarchical and inclusive environment. www.traverssmith.com 10 Snow Hill, London EC1A 2AL +44 (0) 20 7295 3000 Chambers Reports Atkin Chambers p.662 Littleton Chambers p.740 2 Bedford Row p.664 Maitland Chambers p.744 Blackstone Chambers p.668 Matrix Chambers p.748 Brick Court Chambers p.672 Monckton Chambers p.752 Cloisters Chambers p.676 4 New Square p.754 Crown Office Chambers p.680 No5 Barristers’ Chambers p.758 Devereux p.683 XXIV Old Buildings p.761 Erskine Chambers p.687 Outer Temple Chambers p.764 One Essex Court p.691 4 Pump Court p.768 5 Essex Court p.694 Pump Court Tax Chambers p.772 Essex Court Chambers p.696 Quadrant Chambers p.776 Falcon Chambers p.700 Queen Elizabeth Building QEB p.780 Farrar’s Building p.703 Radcliffe Chambers p.783 Fountain Court Chambers p.707 Serle Court p.786 Francis Taylor Building p.711 South Square p.790 Hailsham Chambers p.714 St Philips Chambers p.794 1 Hare Court p.718 4 Stone Buildings p.797 Henderson Chambers p.721 Tanfield Chambers p.801 11KBW p.724 2 Temple Gardens p.804 Keating Chambers p.728 3 Verulam Buildings p.808 7 King’s Bench Walk p.732 Wilberforce Chambers p.812 Landmark Chambers p.736 chambersstudent.co.uk Chambers Reports Chambers Reports Choosing where to apply for pupillage is hard. Finding the right fit is vital if you’re going to have a chance of success. How do you make a shortlist or work out if the set is right for you? Welcome to the Chambers Reports. A lot of factual info about barristers’ chambers can be We try to visit as many different types of set as possible, found on their websites: size, practices, location, basic from the grandees of the Chancery Bar to more modest pupillage info. But looking online can only get you so far; publicly-funded get-ups. Our selection strives to include there’s no real substitute for getting off your butt, meet- something to suit most tastes, from commercial and ing barristers and gaining insider knowledge by doing common law to crime, IP, tax and family. mini-pupillages. We should add that the on-the-record nature of our re- But you can’t do a mini at every set, so you need a way of search at the Bar means we can’t – and don’t pretend to – gaining the type of insight you would from a mini in an- give the same warts-and-all, anonymously sourced ‘True other way. To help with this we’ve done some digging on Picture’ treatment to sets as we do to solicitors’ firms. a bunch of sets and come up with the Chambers Reports. You’ll have to find out about any warts yourself. Each one includes details on: For the fourth time this year we’ve included a set outside the type of work a set does; London: St John’s Chambers of Bristol. Their inclusion re- • recent case examples; flects efforts by the regional Bar to establish a greater • what work pupils are given; national presence. Over the past five to ten years sets • how the application process works; in and outside London have become more conscious of • how pupils are assessed; and costs, marketing and self-promotion. Many now have • the set’s working culture. dedicated marketing teams and a marketing manager. • Between them the sets in our Chambers Reports are of- For over ten years now we’ve been schlepping round the fering up around 110 pupillages for 2020. That’s roughly Inns of Court regularly visiting Britain’s best most inter- a quarter of the total 450 or so on offer. You can find a esting barristers’ chambers. At each one we speak with list of all sets offering pupillage on our website. It would pupils, juniors, supervisors, QCs and clerks. This is no be remiss of us not to point out that the number of pupil- small task, so we visit sets every other year and refresh lages on offer has fallen drastically in recent years: the the existing Chambers Report in the intervening year. 2018 figure was down 50% on the 2005 total. The Bar This year’s roll call of 44 sets includes 22 new features – at least at the junior end – is a leaner, meaner profession and 22 refreshed ones from our 2019 edition. than it was ten years ago. “ It’s not just the case that there are a All this means that competition for pupillages has be- group of good, intelligent people who come even more incredibly fierce. So it’s more impor- get pupillages, and then a group of tant than ever to be able to explain why you want to do a pupillage at the particular set you are applying to. For people who aren’t any good who don’t this you need to gain a full understanding of the areas it get pupillage. Even for the good people practises in, how its pupillage is structured, and what ap- it’s getting tougher and tougher to gain proach it takes to marketing and promotion. The Cham- pupillage and many are not succeeding.” bers Reports can help you gain this understanding. Quinn Clarke, director of education at Gray’s Inn 659 The Bar chambersstudent.co.uk Chambers Reports Chambers QCs/juniors Pupillages Applications Pupillage award UK Bar Core practice area(s) rankings Atkin Chambers 19/32 2 120 £72,500 5 Construction, commercial £15,000 + 2 Bedford Row 18/56 Up to 4 200 5 Crime £15,000* Blackstone Chambers 55/58 Up to 4 350 £70,000 17 Public law, commercial Brick Court Chambers 43/48 5 174 £65,000 13 Commercial Cloisters 15/36 2 215 £54,000 3 Common law, employment Crown Office 24/78 Up to 3 Undisclosed £65,000 10 Common law, commercial Chambers Public law, tax, com- Devereux 12/46 2 Undisclosed £60,000 8 mercial Erskine Chambers 11/20 2 Undisclosed £65,000 5 Chancery, commercial Essex Court Cham- 41/56 Up to 4 184 £65,000 12 Commercial bers One Essex Court 45/65 5 175 £70,000 7 Commercial, IP 5 Essex Court 5/39 Up to 2 300 £55,000 3 Public law, common law Falcon Chambers 13/33 Up to 2 100 £65,000 2 Property £27,500 + Farrar’s Building 7/41 2 Undisclosed 2 Common law £27,500* Fountain Court 42/29 Up to 4 150 £70,000 11 Commercial Chambers £55,000 + Francis Taylor Building 22/36 2 94 6 Public law £10,000* Hailsham Chambers 9/45 2 69 £45,000 + £5,000 4 Common law 1 Hare Court 14/27 2 Undisclosed £35,000 1 Family law Henderson Chambers 14/36 Up to 2 > 100 £70,000 5 Commercial, public law 11KBW 20/43 Up to 3 150 £65,000 9 Public law, employment Keating Chambers 30/33 3 Undisclosed £70,000 5 Construction, commercial 7 King’s Bench Walk 23/40 Up to 4 177 £65,000 6 Commercial, shipping Landmark Chambers 35/61 3 250 £65,000 10 Public law Littleton Chambers 13/39 Up to 2 120-140 £67,500 4 Employment, commercial Maitland Chambers 25/47 3 93 £65,000 11 Chancery, commercial Matrix Chambers 35/57 2 250 £50,000 19 Public law, crime Monckton Chambers 21/44 2 132 £65,000 11 Public law £55,000 + 4 New Square 31/53 2 136 10 Commercial £10,000* £25,000 + Commercial, public law, No5 Chambers 31/228 Up to 6 286 13 £25,000* property, crime XXIV Old Buildings 13/33 Up to 3 120 £65,000 9 Chancery, commercial Outer Temple Cham- £40,000 + 25/66 2 260 9 Common law, commercial bers £20,000* 4 Pump Court 27/45 2 86 £70,000 11 Commercial Pump Court Tax 12/23 2 53 £67,500 3 Tax Chambers Quadrant Chambers 25/44 3 70 £65,000 5 Commercial, shipping Queen Elizabeth 7/28 2 142 £35,000 1 Family Building Radcliffe Chambers 11/52 2 140 £60,000 + earnings 8 Chancery Serle Court 28/40 Up to 3 112 £65,000 10 Chancery, commercial South Square 17/26 2-3 119 £65,000 6 Insolvency, commercial £20,000 + Commercial, public law, St Philips Chambers 10/130 5 190 9 £20,000* family, crime 4 Stone Buildings 8/29 2 117 £65,000 8 Chancery Tanfield Chambers 7/52 2 100 £60,000 1 Property £55,000 + 2 Temple Gardens 14/48 1-2 279 8 Common law, commercial £15,000* 3 Verulam Buildings 28/55 Up to 4 >130 £70,000 10 Commercial, banking Wilberforce Chambers 37/42 Up to 3 136 £65,000 12 Chancery, commercial The Bar * sets visited in 2020 ** guaranteed second six earnings 660 Chambers Reports chambersstudent.co.uk Pupillage deadlines Most sets recruit 18 months in advance – i.e. they are re- cruiting in the academic year 2020/21 for pupillages to start in 2022/23. Around half of pupillages can be applied for via the Pupil- lage Gateway, a dedicated portal for pupillage applica- tion run by the Bar Council.