Exams for the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) will be able to be taken remotely, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) has announced. Following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the BSB delayed the exams, from April until August. The move affected the April sitting of centralised examinations (CEB) in civil litigation, criminal litigation and professional […]
Trigger warning: discussion of eating disorder, discussion of suicide attempt. To set the scene, by and large, my experience of applying for pupillage was better than most. And even then, it was pretty soul-destroying. I only applied in one cycle so my (already quite fragile) sense of self-esteem didn’t have to take a repeated battering […]
Update (23 March): Henderson has instead deferred, not cancelled, the current round of pupillage interviews until the summer and autumn, following discussions with the Bar Council. Henderson Chambers has become the first set to bow out of this year’s pupillage recruitment round. Chambers are in the midst of recruiting pupils for its 2021-22 cohort, as […]
Several barristers’ chambers have decided to postpone mini-pupillage schemes, as they operate on a co-location working basis due to coronavirus. Among the chambers to have put pupillage work experience on hold are One Essex Court, 7KBW, 3VB and Brick Court. Meanwhile, Blackstone has taken steps to undertake them remotely. A mini-pupillage gives future barristers a […]
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has postponed planned exams for the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) due to the coronavirus pandemic. The exams were due to take place in April, but in a statement, the BSB said: “In light of yesterday’s government statement about the latest measures to combat the spread of Covid-19 we have […]
All barristers’ chambers will have to advertise and recruit pupils at the same time, following reforms to the process announced by the Bar Standards Board (BSB). The process has long had quirks, allowing some chambers the ability to partially operate outside the Bar Council-operated Pupillage Gateway application system and set their own timetables for applications. […]
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has raised the minimum pupillage award for the second time this year. Between 2011 to 2018 the minimum allowed pupillage award was £12,000. At that point the BSB stepped in to guaranteed the minimum living wage in future for pupils. The most recent minimum came into effect in September and […]
The University of Law (ULaw) is to launch a new course to replace the existing Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC).
The Inns of Court College of Advocacy (ICCA) has applied to the Bar Standards Board (BSB) to be authorised to deliver a new version of the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) from autumn 2020. If approved, the course will be unique in that it will be run as a not-for-profit venture. Speaking to Lawyer 2B, course director […]
The average fee for the Bar Professional Qualification Course (BPTC) has passed £16,000 for the first time. The figure now stands at £16,239 after five of the eight providers of the course raised their prices for 2019/20. The average price is £348 higher than last year. BPP, which runs the BPTC in London, Birmingham, Bristol […]
Exchange Chambers is set to double its number of pupil barristers from 2020. The set, which works out of Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester, currently takes three pupils a year, but has committed to increase that number to at least six, and potentially up to eight. Its pupillage award will remain at £25,000. The set is […]
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has announced the new minimum award for pupil barristers. The new award will apply from 1 September 2019 will be £18,436 per year for pupillages in London and £15,728 outside the capital. Previously, the minimum a chambers could pay its pupils was £12,000, a figure which had been static since 2011. but […]
By my third year of pupillage applications I was becoming disillusioned with the process. Since being called to the Bar I had been working as a self-employed advocate for LPC – in court on a daily basis “cutting my teeth” with advocacy. I knew my pupillage application was strong, but needed to stay motivated. I […]
Nursing and Midwifery Council barrister Matthew Cassells recalls a very different training experience from pupils in chambers.
Study finds that black and minority ethnic pupillage seekers were far less likely to be successful than their white counterparts, even when they had the same academic grades.
To some the traditions of the Bar, such as dining in hall, are sacrosanct. To others, they are simply a barrier. Now, as the profession’s regulator consults over proposals on the future role of the Inns of Court in preparing entrants for life at the Bar, the eating of dinners in an ancient hall as […]