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"Serle Court is a friendly, inclusive chambers which welcomes excellent advocates and thinkers from all backgrounds."
Elizabeth Jones KC, Head of Chambers

Pupillage

Welcome to Serle Court’s pupillage page. We are a friendly, inclusive group of people who think it important to balance excellence in our work with enjoying our lives and spending time with our families. We welcome excellent advocates and thinkers, and warmly encourage candidates who feel disadvantaged by gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, race, disability, age, social or university background or any other factors to apply for pupillage. We hope you will want to join us - Elizabeth Jones KC, Head of Chambers.

We believe that a pupillage at Serle Court provides the best possible foundation for commercial and chancery practice: 12 months spent working with leaders in the field on cases across the spectrum of business law, in a warm and supportive environment, with a real prospect of tenancy.

Pupils are encouraged to help and support one another as future colleagues in tenancy. Although we provide advocacy training for our pupils, we do not require them to undertake competitive advocacy exercises against each other or to complete the same set of pieces of work. Pupils are not competing against one another, but are evaluated on their own merits. We have a strong record of offering tenancy to most of our recent pupils, and pupils who have not stayed at Serle Court have gone on to obtain tenancy elsewhere.

How pupillage works

Each pupil is assigned to 4 supervisors, each with a different area of practice, in the course of the year. Pupils spend the whole of the 12-month period of pupillage shadowing members of chambers, rather than taking on work in their own name, to ensure they are as well qualified for starting in practice as soon as possible. Although pupils do not get an opportunity to practise advocacy in court, we ensure that advocacy exercises, conducted in front of a senior member of chambers, and other assessments designed to improve practical skills, take place. Supervisors provide frequent feedback and monitor their pupils’ progress to ensure that the work they are given fulfils their training needs.

We strive to make pupils feel a part of chambers from the time that they accept their offers of pupillage. They are invited to chambers events, both formal and informal, and encouraged to get to know both members and staff.

We recruit up to 3 pupils a year with a view to offering tenancy if they are good enough. 15 of our last 18 pupils have stayed on as tenants; of the others, those that wished to practise at the Bar are successful tenants elsewhere.

Funding for your legal training and pupillage can come from two main sources: a Pupillage Award from Chambers, and scholarships from the Inns of Court.

Most Inns of Court scholarships are means-tested, so that the largest scholarships go to those in the greatest financial need. More detail on the Inns scholarships can be found on the Bar Council website. There are scholarships to cover both the PGDL and the Bar Course. For example, Lincoln’s Inn now awards up to £12,000 for the PGDL and up to £25,000 for the Bar Course.

The Serle Court Pupillage Award is £75,000, and up to £25,000 of that can be drawn down during the preceding year, in addition to any Inns scholarship you may receive. Thus, an incoming Serle Court pupil who also receives an Inns scholarship will receive funding comparable to that offered by City law firms for the vocational year. A Pupillage Award is tax-free in respect of the first six months, making the post-tax value of the Pupillage Award substantially higher than an equivalent salary.

What we look for

Serle Court looks for highly motivated individuals with outstanding analytical ability, a practical approach, sound judgment, an ability to develop good client relationships and the potential to become an excellent advocate. Serle Court has a reputation for ‘consistent high quality’ and members who are ‘highly intelligent, user-friendly, approachable and supportive’ and seeks these characteristics in its pupils. We have created a matrix of the attributes that we consider make an excellent barrister; we strive for these qualities in ourselves, seek to develop them in our pupils, and look for their presence or potential in those who apply to us for pupillage. Chambers generally requires a degree classification of a good 2:1 as a minimum. We aim to recruit 3 pupils each year with a view to offering tenancies to all who meet our standards.

We encourage (but do not require) those interested in applying for pupillage with us to apply for a one-day mini-pupillage so that they can see what chambers is like for themselves. Mini-pupillages last for one day and are unfunded, but we will reimburse your expenses in attending. Nor are mini-pupillages formally assessed. More details about mini-pupillages, including the application form, can be found here.

The selection process

Full details of the selection process are set out in our Pupillage Policy.

All Pupillage applications are anonymised, reviewed separately by at least 2 members of chambers, and assessed in accordance with our selection criteria. The extra questions set by Chambers to be answered on the Gateway application form are marked in accordance with the marking scheme available here. In the past, this process has led to about 30 candidates being invited to a first interview of about 35 minutes conducted by panels of 3 members of Chambers. To ensure we are treating everyone as fairly as possible in our recruitment process, anyone applying to Serle Court is now required to complete a short online situational judgement multiple choice test, created by business psychology consultants. The situational judgement test is intended to help identify able candidates who may not necessarily perform so well on the formal parts of a traditional application. It also is another way of getting to know how applicants would respond in workplace scenarios and allows applicants to showcase those of their abilities that may not be naturally captured by our application form. No applicants will be disadvantaged in any way if they perform poorly on the test.

From those candidates interviewed in the first round, around ten will be invited to a second interview. The second interview is also conducted by a panel of three members of chambers. These interviews will centre upon a mock client conference. Candidates will be given 40 minutes to consider a short problem question and prepare to deliver advice in a conference to members of chambers playing the role of clients/solicitors. The mock client conference itself will last around 30 minutes.

Please note that neither interview is intended to assess candidates’ legal knowledge, and the questions are designed to be capable of being answered just as well by someone with one term of legal education as by someone who has completed a whole law degree.

Timetable for applications

Serle Court participates in the Bar Council online centralised application scheme, the Pupillage Gateway. Every application for pupillage at Serle Court must be made through the Gateway and within its timetable.

Our pupillage offer

The pupillage award for those commencing pupillage in 2024 will be £75,000, £25,000 of which may be drawn down in the Bar Training Course year. New tenants pay no rent in their first year of practice and no chambers expenses until their earnings exceed £50,000 per annum. They also have the benefit of an income guarantee of £120,000 over the first two years of practice to assist with cash flow.

Equality and Diversity

Our recruitment process and the remuneration package we offer are intended to ensure that we attract the best pupils in each year. We welcome applications from non-law graduates and our application form and interviews are intended to ensure that neither they nor women, those from ethnic minorities, disabled persons or those underrepresented in the legal sector are disadvantaged. We are wholeheartedly committed to the Bar Council’s Equality and Diversity Code.

SerleShareMinis

Serle Court’s newly-launched a pupillage and mini-pupillage SerleShare series called 'SerleShareMinis' - a useful guide for students looking to apply for pupillage. 

The first post in this series is our ‘Top 10 Pupillage Application Tips’. Click to read here.

Further information  

If you have any queries that are not answered, please do not hesitate to call us or email us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Download Files 

Pupillage Brochure
Pupillage Policy
Matrix of Attributes
Marking Scheme

  • Click here to read the Chambers Student review on Serle Court.
  • Click here to read the Legal Cheek review on Serle Court. 


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SHORTLISTED: Set of the Year

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SHORTLISTED: Best Chambers for Colleague Supportiveness

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SHORTLISTED: Best Chambers for Quality of Work

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Commercial Litigation Set of the Year

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Chancery Set of the Year

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SILVER: Best Social Media Marketing

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