Life as a Pupil
Life as a pupil - By Rebecca Drake
During pupillage I sat with four supervisors in each of Chambers' main practice specialisms - common law first, then public law, followed by construction and commercial law, and finally environment and planning.
The type of work varied enormously with each supervisor. During my construction and commercial seat my supervisor was involved in a four week-long trial, so I was in court every day for a month, with numerous conferences before that. In the three other seats I was probably in court a couple of times a week, interspersed with conferences and meetings. Most cases I went to were in the High Court or the Court of Appeal, but I also went to the House of Lords for a case in which my supervisor was involved.
As a pupil I sat in my supervisor's room and accompanied him or her to court, conferences and meetings. As far as written work was concerned, I carried out the same work as my supervisor either contemporaneously or subsequently. The advantage of this was first, that my supervisors tended not to give me tight deadlines, and secondly, that they could give me constructive feedback straight after I had completed each piece of work. My supervisor would read through it, mark it with suggestions for improvement, then show me his or her version of the work so I could compare it. Although this seemed daunting at first - to be comparing notes with someone of perhaps 20 years' call! - I was surprised by how quickly I improved.
Once my second six started I was in court on my own once or twice a week, with the rest of the time being involved with my supervisor's work. Court work tended to be small claims RTAs, credit hire, and contractual disputes, but I was instructed in more fast track cases towards the end of my second six, and even appeared in the High Court as a junior. We also kept our earnings from our second six (with no Chambers contributions) in addition to our pupillage award which was a nice surprise!
Chambers does its best to make pupillage as enjoyable as possible for pupils. There is a very strict 9 to 6 policy; any pupils who try to stay longer are always sent home! With the exception of two or three assessed pieces of work towards the end of the second six, pupils only carry out work for their supervisors, so supervisors can ensure that pupils do not become overburdened with too much work at once. There is also no quota system in place, so as many pupils as are good enough are taken on as tenants each year.
Thirty Nine Essex Street organises lots of events, to all of which pupils are invited, whether the more indulgent events such as the Christmas dinner and party, Garden party, and clerks' and pupils' dinner, or the more gruelling events, such as Trailwalker, a sponsored 100km run! Informally I also had many opportunities to get to know everyone in Chambers - whether it was celebratory drinks in Daly's with my supervisor and clients after they had won a case which I had helped in, lunch in Inner Temple with the junior tenants, end of week drinks in the pub, or a celebratory meal in The Ivy!
Throughout the year everyone in Chambers was extremely welcoming and friendly - not only the other barristers, but also the clerks and the staff. Although there is tremendous camaraderie at the Bar generally, I found this to be especially true at Thirty Nine Essex Street. There is an open door policy at Chambers and everyone, from the head of chambers, down to the most junior tenant, made us feel incredibly welcome and was more than ready to help us with any questions we had. Although pupillage can seem stressful at times, particularly towards the time of the tenancy decision, I learnt an enormous amount and thoroughly enjoyed the year.