PUPILLAGE AND PUPILLAGE AWARDS
Chambers has a wide range of work to be seen in pupillage. Pupils are trained in our major areas of practice: employment law, personal injury and clinical negligence and commercial law including insurance and reinsurance. We believe that we are an extremely friendly and forward-looking set of Chambers, supported by an efficient administrative team and the latest computerised accounting and diary systems.
APPLICATION
Chambers offers two twelve month pupillages per year, each with substantial funding. We participate in the OLPAS scheme and applications for pupillage should be made through OLPAS (www.olpas.co.uk) only, unless there is some exceptional reason for not doing so. Candidates applying for a third six months’ pupillage should note that the deadline for applications has now passed.
SELECTION
Pupils are selected on merit and a high standard (normally at least a 2:1) is expected. We select the top 10-15% of candidates for first interviews and shortlist about ten for a further interview. At the second interview we ask the candidates to discuss legal case studies which will be provided to them approximately 30 minutes before the interview. Following the second interview we normally recruit two pupils.
PUPILLAGE - HOW IT WORKS
Pupils will spend two three-month periods with two different pupil supervisors in their first six months, and will then spend the remainder of their pupillage with a third pupil supervisor. Both pupils will see the same areas of work to ensure there is parity of assessment. Pupils will work in their supervisor’s room and will have the opportunity of working on their supervisor’s papers (undertaking legal research, drafting advices, pleadings and skeleton arguments), attending their conferences and accompanying them to Court.In addition, pupils will see the work of other members of Chambers (in conference or in Court) to ensure that a broad range of work is experienced and to enable pupils to be involved in cases that may be of some general public interest or importance or of particular interest to that pupil. Pupils are also encouraged to do work for members of Chambers other than their pupil supervisors so that as many people as possible are able to see their work and so that pupils can get feedback from a wider variety of practitioners, each of whom will doubtless have differences of approach and practice.
As part of the training and assessment process, pupils will be set one or two formal written pieces of work in each of our three main practice areas. Pupils will also normally be required to complete two advocacy assessments before judges.
In their second six months, pupils will begin to undertake work in their own right (with the assistance and support of their pupil supervisors and other members of Chambers). Typically this will involve interim applications, case management and preliminary hearings and low value trials in the Employment Tribunal and County Court. All pupils are also encouraged to join the Free Representation Unit as soon as they start their pupillage (if they have not already done so) as this provides valuable advocacy and case management experience from an early stage.
RECRUITMENT
We expect to recruit one or two new tenants about every 12 months and it is our policy generally to recruit new junior tenants from among our pupils whenever possible. In most years we recruit 1 or 2 new tenants from our pupils. We aim to make a decision about tenancy in July each year or at the end of the six month period in the case of a pupil doing a third six months’ pupillage.AWARDS
Each pupillage will carry an award of £35,000. The first tranche (£10,000) is payable in the BVC year and will be paid in two instalments, the first in January and the second in May. Following commencement of the pupillage, the second tranche (£12,500) will be payable by monthly instalments for the first six months, and the third tranche (£12,500) by way of a guaranteed sum paid monthly for the second six months. The guarantee operates to ensure a cash income during the second six months. Any money actually received by the pupil during the second six months will be offset against the guaranteed sum. The total a pupil will receive from Chambers during this period will therefore be the guaranteed sum less monies earned and received by the pupil. Any money received after the end of the second six month period is not taken into account.Should the award-holder fail Bar Finals or for any other reason fail to take up his/her pupillage (or should he/she choose not to complete the full term of the pupillage) all parts of the award already paid will be liable to be repaid on demand. Pupils in receipt of these awards will not receive any other payment for any work that they do during pupillage for their pupil supervisors or any other members of Chambers.
MINI-PUPILLAGES AND OPEN DAY
Completed forms should be returned by email to pupillage@devchambers.co.uk or post to Mini-Pupillages, Devereux Chambers, Devereux Court, London WC2R 3JH.
Due to the high volume of applications, candidates are requested to select only one of the mini-pupillage seasons or the student open day in their application. School pupils are not eligible for mini-pupillages or the student open day and priority will be given to students who have at least reached the 2nd year of their law degree or have confirmed places on a law conversion course. Applications must be received by the designated dates, after which time candidates will be informed in writing of the outcome of their application.
| Mini-pupillage Seasons |
|---|
| 15 March - 31 May (applications by 7 March) |
| 1 June - 31 August (applications by 31 March) |
| 1 September - 31 December (applications by 30 June) |
| 1 January - 31 March (applications by 31 October). |
| Student Open Day |
| Date in March - to be confirmed (applications by mid-February) |
Devereux Chambers considers all applications on an equal basis and does not discriminate on grounds of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief or age. Information provided in the equal opportunities monitoring form will be kept separately from your application form and will not be considered during the selection process.