Cloisters to give pupils split scheme

De-merged civil set Cloisters has announced that it will operate a split-pupillage scheme.

The scheme will enable pupils to gain experience in criminal and other practice areas from the beginning of October. Four of Cloisters' pupils will have the opportunity of going to Tooks Court, an in-house team, a law firm and other sets.

The pupils - Thomas Brown, Claire McCann, Charlotte Welch and David Sullivan - will spend a defined amount of time at Tooks Court, where eight of Cloisters' former criminal practitioners are currently practising.

Cloisters spokesman Christopher Quinn says: "We want to make sure that our pupils gain the widest possible training, with greater experience of different courts.

"It won't be just Tooks Court, we'll also be sending them to join the in-house legal team at Sussex County Council. And we're also interested in looking at other sets wanting a reciprocal arrangement of this kind."

Both sets of chambers believe that the split scheme may become a way of providing trainee barristers with an all-round capability, as well as an appreciation of the varying issues that govern both the civil and the criminal sides of the bar.