As pupillage interview season gets underway in earnest, we share our experiences of the process in previous cycles, and ten tips for making the most out of your interviews.
Sam:
I made three rounds of applications for pupillage. During that time, I was very lucky, or unlucky, to experience more pupillage interviews than I now care to recall. In my first year, I had one first-round interview and one assessed mini-pupillage. As my CV and confidence improved and my number of applications increased over the next two years, so did my number of interviews. The more interviews I did, the more at ease I became and the more reliably (though not perfectly) I was able to do my best. We hope to accelerate this process for you so that, if you are blessed with your first interview, you are not held back by inexperience. We have listed any pieces of advice best framed as action-points under ten tips below. Here are my broad impressions of the process.
First: Most sets of chambers hold two rounds of interviews before making offers of pupillage. There are thus three filter-points. Which applicants will be selected for a first-round interview on the basis of their form? Which first-round interviewees will be selected for a second-round interview? And which second-round interviewees will be offered pupillage or placed on the reserve list? Some sets of chambers invite applicants for an assessed mini-pupillage as part of the process. This results in a process with more filter-points. Between form, first interview, mini-pupillage, second interview and offers, there are five opportunities to assess an applicant.
Of these points, the first is usually numerically the most challenging. Most sets of chambers invite a small minority of applicants for an interview, perhaps 10%. So, in a sense, if you are invited to an interview, you have cleared the highest hurdle, and deserve to be proud of yourself for that. But your competition will be stiffer at the interview stage.
At the first round, applicants will typically be interviewed by between two and four members of chambers, usually junior barristers. At the second round, it is more common to have a larger panel, maybe as large as seven, and for it to include a silk or two. Sometimes a single panel interviews all the interviewees, but sometimes different barristers interview different applicants.
What happens in a pupillage interview? Unhelpfully, it varies. As a general rule, a first-round interview is a short, conversational, competency-based interview, while a second interview involves an advocacy or legal analysis exercise prepared shortly before the interview. However, every set has its own procedure. Here are some kinds of questions or exercises that might arise in a pupillage interview.
1. Competency question. This will usually address relatively directly a criterion or sub-criterion from the list that the set uses to assess applicants. Some sets helpfully publish this list on their website so that applicants can assess their own prospects and complete their form and interview preparation with the benefit of knowing how they will be assessed. Examples of such questions: “When have you used advocacy skills to persuade someone of something?” or “Tell us about a time you showed integrity.” Motivational questions and questions about an applicant’s knowledge of the set and the bar fall under this category: “Why do you want to be a barrister?” or “Why have you applied to Shoe Lane Chambers?” or “What would you like your practice to be like in ten years’ time?”
2. CV- or form-based question. The panel might want you to expand on some work experience that you mentioned on your application form by asking you what you learned from it, or ask you what your most valuable piece of experience has been. They might ask you to explain why a certain thing is missing from your CV, such as mooting experience, or, if they are feeling mean, they might ask why your exam marks during one year at university were not as good as they could have been.
3. Prepared exercise. You could be sent a question or topic to prepare to discuss shortly before your interview. You might have between 15 and 30 minutes to prepare. Sometimes you are given a choice of topics and sometimes not. This could be a legal problem question, or it might be a law-related discussion subject, e.g. “Should jury verdicts be appealable?” or “Should remedies be discretionary in public law?” or “Should the UK forbid the development of any new airports or runways?” Alternatively, you might be sent a judgment and asked to prepare to summarise it and give your opinion about it.
4. On-the-spot advocacy exercise. Similar to the above, except that you might be given thirty seconds in the interview room to sit with the topic and gather your thoughts, or no time at all.
5. Curveball. Not all sets do this, but sometimes you will be asked something about your personal life or opinions that apparently has nothing to do with working as a barrister. E.g. “What new show would you pitch to Netflix if you had the opportunity?” or “Who is your favourite fictional villain?” Such a question may just be a chance for the barristers to see you in a relaxed state (if only), but usually there will be a quality that they are looking to measure, such as advocacy skills or articulacy while thinking on the spot.
6. Do you have any questions for us? Applicants will very often be asked this question at the end of the interview. Opinions differ as to whether you should make sure to have a question ready, but it is definitely preferable to say no than to ask a question to which the answer is available online.
Lois:
I was extremely lucky to get a pupillage offer at my first attempt. I applied during my GDL year, having taken a rather circuitous route into law. After completing a PhD on medieval bishops, I spent three years working as a policy officer in the non-profit sector. It was only when I was working from home during the first lockdown and contemplating the fact that I would be turning 30 the next year that I decided to take the plunge and pursue a career at the Bar.
I knew from my time working in policy that I had a broad interest in public law and a particular interest in planning and environmental work. I applied to nine sets, each of which specialised in this area to a greater or lesser extent, and received six invitations to first-round interview. The interview invitations were spread over quite a long period, so don’t panic if you haven’t yet heard back from your favourite sets. They may just be taking their time to shortlist. I ended up being called back for second rounds at some sets before I’d even had my first-round interviews at others.
The first round
My first-round interviews were all with panels of two or three mostly junior barristers. They were each around 20 to 30 minutes long, but the interviewing styles varied widely, as did the type and number of questions I was asked.
My first interview comprised a mixture of competency questions, looking for examples of skills that the chambers had not asked about on its application form, and questions testing candidates’ awareness of current affairs and legal news. I was also asked to talk about a time when I had had to apply a complex area of law and then explain said area of law to the panel. The most disconcerting aspect of this interview was how inscrutable the panel were. I emerged with absolutely no idea how I had done.
Another set filled the time with a ten-minute presentation and follow-up questions on one of a choice of five topics sent to candidates 30 minutes before the interview, followed by only three other questions. The interviewers were extremely friendly and provided lots of positive reinforcement. In fact, the whole thing felt more like having a conversation than doing an interview.
At a third chambers, a panel of three (who had obviously read my form carefully) kicked things off by asking me a charmingly whimsical question about whether I thought eleventh-century bishops would like the modern planning system, before firing tricky questions at me for twenty minutes and pushing back hard on many of my answers. The aim of this interview was clearly to see how candidates coped under pressure, more than trying to elicit any particular ‘right answers’.
Finally, there was the set which asked a series of disarming questions designed to elicit information about what candidates were like as people beyond what they had written on their application forms. They closed the interview by asking me to talk about a book I found emotionally meaningful, so of course every book I had ever read immediately fled my brain. I somehow found myself talking about my love of Lord of the Rings and emerged feeling very glad that I would never have to be cross-examined by the interview panel!
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two sets where I felt that I had given my most predictable, generic and rehearsed answers were also the two that did not call me back for a second round. (Is completing my PhD really the achievement I am most proud of? To be honest, I am still not sure). I guess the moral of the story is to let your personality show a bit. And to talk about hobbits where possible…
The second round
Second round interviews tend to be longer than first rounds, though this isn’t always the case. At the chambers from which I eventually received an offer I was in and out in 20 minutes and convinced I had blown it because I had been told in advance that they were 40-minute slots. It is definitely wise not to second-guess how you have done from the length of the interview.
All four of my second rounds involved some form of advance preparation. Mostly this entailed reading a case or a problem question shortly in advance of the interview and then responding to questions about it, but one set required candidates to carry out a pre-prepared advocacy exercise on an unfamiliar area of law and submit a skeleton argument several days ahead of the interview.
The interview panels stayed fairly small for three of my second rounds, but at one set a panel of nine had the privilege of watching me spectacularly screw up my answer to a legal ethics question. If you are applying before you start the Bar course, I would highly recommend finding someone to practice ethics questions with ahead of time.
On the whole, my second-round interviews involved a lot more legal analysis than my first rounds and also more practical advocacy. Even at sets where I wasn’t asked to prepare for a formal ‘advocacy exercise’ I ended up having to do something akin to one, whether it was presenting submissions for a hypothetical appeal against a judgment given to me ahead of the interview, summarising the argument of my PhD thesis in two minutes, or responding to the question “what is the point of the National Housing Federation?” (my former employer) in one. All these were, in their various ways, testing candidates’ ability to think on their feet and prioritise their strongest arguments.
Across both first and second rounds I also received a number of questions aimed at testing candidates’ understanding of what barristers actually do, from how I would feel about acting for clients whose views and interests did not align with my own or those of my previous employers, to whether I would rather do more court or inquiry work, to what I would find most difficult about a career at the Bar. As Sam mentioned above, it is definitely not essential to ask a question at the end. I didn’t in any of my interviews and I certainly wouldn’t recommend trying to come up with a question just for the sake of it.
Overall, I enjoyed the interview process much more than I expected to. The intellectual challenge and variety of pupillage interviews made a nice change of pace after several years of more conventional job interviews and my interviewers were mostly lovely. I feel that coming to the process as a mature student definitely helped me to feel more at ease and I was relieved to find that my slightly unconventional CV and relative lack of legal work experience didn’t count against me.
Ten tips:
- Structure your answers. Barristers are in general obsessed with the number three. Not all answers will lend themselves to this kind of structure, but if you can divide your answer into two, three or four parts, begin your answer by saying “I have two/three/four points”, then say “my first point is” or “firstly” before each one, your answer will not only be much easier for the panel to understand than otherwise, but you will also sound more like the panel’s idea of a barrister yourself. If this becomes a lifelong habit that wins over judges and loses you friends, so be it.
- Keep your answers short and sweet. Applicants’ answers are often too long. You may have a lot of worthwhile things to say, but if you wait to be interrupted by the panel, you may never finish speaking. This is especially the case if it is an unexpected question and you are building the road in front of you as you speak, but even a question like “Why do you want to be a barrister?” only wants a few snappy points or an easy-to-follow narrative. A little practice with a friend or listening back to your own recorded answers can help you to identify when you could be more concise.
- Re-read and annotate your form. Link the achievements you have included on your form to as many competencies as you can think of. You may be asked for examples of times you’ve demonstrated skills which are not explicitly addressed in the questions on the form. Identify anything particularly interesting or unusual that is likely to elicit a question. If you are an expert on eleventh-century bishops or keen on animal law, you are likely to get a lot of questions about this, so it pays to decide in advance how you can best pitch what makes you unique.
- Plan answers to likely questions. You may get some curveball questions (as Sam discussed above) but a lot of questions will be predictable. You will be asked why you want to be a barrister, why a particular area of law, why a particular set? You don’t need to script answers to these questions word for word, but make sure you have clearly identified the key points you will make in response to each. Consider practicing with friends and family members, so that your responses will seem considered without seeming scripted. It’s also well worth writing down what questions you were asked immediately after each interview. It will help you prepare should you encounter them again.
- All experience is useful experience. You may find yourself competing against people with significantly more legal work experience than you, or who have come top of their year on the Bar course, or won a whole host of moots. Try not to panic about this. An unconventional CV is not necessarily a disadvantage. It may help to make you stand out. Apparently unrelated jobs and hobbies can also provide a wealth of relevant examples of times you have demonstrated the skills needed to become a successful barrister. Teaching a class of 30 students means you can work under pressure, convey complex information clearly, and think on your feet.Running your own jewellery-making business on the side shows that you are self-motivated and know how to market yourself effectively. Volunteering at a local homeless shelter demonstrates your integrity and emotional intelligence.
- Present yourself professionally. Expressions like this are laden with cultural assumptions. You should not try to be someone you aren’t or to fit what you think, or what you think others think, is the model of a barrister. Every aspect of your character that distinguishes you from the historically average barrister is something for you and the bar to embrace. What I mean is that you should treat the panel with respect, as in any job interview. This includes dressing as you would on a mini-pupillage or on work experience with solicitors. Suits are essential, unless you are specifically informed otherwise, and should be worn with a shirt and tie, a white blouse, or a dark dress underneath.
- Remember that interviewers are human too. They may have a particularly stressful case coming up next week. They may be relatively junior juniors interviewing for the first time alongside more senior members of chambers and anxious to make a good impression. Many pupillage interviews take place outside of ordinary working hours and that means that the panel are giving up some of their limited free time to interview you. Be polite, appreciative and empathetic. Remember that these will be your future colleagues if you are successful.
- Try to relax. If this is not possible, try to appear relaxed, and you may find that you forget to feel nervous a few minutes in. There is no point pretending that there isn’t a power imbalance in the interview room, but the panel will be trying to identify applicants who could, in a couple of years, inspire confidence in professional and lay clients and hold their own in front of a grumpy judge. Be polite and respectful, but not meek.
- Do not worry if you have a difficult interview. If the panel pushes you to or beyond your limit, it is because they think you are worth pushing. If you spend the whole interview in your comfort zone, you may not have the opportunity to show your best. So if you feel out of your depth at any point, calm yourself by remembering that it is part of the process for everyone who eventually succeeds.
- Give yourself credit. Many sets get hundreds of applications every year. To have got to the interview stage at all is a huge achievement. The interview process can be gruelling and it’s important to take time to celebrate your successes. Similarly, try not to take rejections at any stage too personally. There is always an element of chance. Sometimes a panel has to make a call between two apparently equal applicants, for example on the basis that one of them fits the culture of chambers better, which is very hard for applicants to gauge. It also only takes one super-applicant (an experienced solicitor or well-known academic in a relevant field) to change everyone’s prospects in a given year.
