One of the leading sets of barristers’ chambers in England, we combine excellence in advocacy and advisory work with a modern, client-focussed service.
“Crown Office Chambers is distinguished by the quality of its members. From its outstanding silks down to its leading juniors, excellence runs through the set.”
One of the leading sets of barristers’ chambers in England, we combine excellence in advocacy and advisory work with a modern, client-focussed service.
“Crown Office Chambers is distinguished by the quality of its members. From its outstanding silks down to its leading juniors, excellence runs through the set.”
With over 100 barristers working in specialist areas, our multi-discipline chambers has strong expertise in commercial and general insurance.
The ‘outstanding’ clerks are ‘commercial and willing to consider cases on innovative fee structures – not something seen at some of the more traditional sets’.
As a strong commercial set, our dedicated staff provide extensive support to help maintain Crown Office as a leading chambers.
Pupillage
Summary
Crown Office Chambers is a leading set with numerous practice areas, principally with a civil or commercial focus. There are over 100 tenants in Chambers, including 27 KCs. Members of Chambers feature regularly in leading cases across all our specialisms.
Chambers is a member of the Pupillage Gateway. Please refer to the Pupillage Gateway website for further information including the recruitment timetable. Applications are now open and will close at 11.59pm on 6th February 2025.
Our work
We are ranked consistently by the principal legal directories in practice areas including commercial litigation; professional negligence; insurance and reinsurance; construction and energy; international arbitration; personal injury; clinical negligence; health and safety; inquests and public inquiries. You can see more details of our work in the Practice Areas and News pages of our website and in the biography pages of individual barristers.
Our members appear regularly across the full spectrum of courts and tribunals, both in UK-based litigation and international arbitration.
Learn more about Pupillage at Crown Office Chambers
Our pupillage
We offer up to three pupillages annually, each with an award of £90,000 comprising £75,000 plus guaranteed earnings of £15,000 in your second Six. A drawdown of up to £20,000 from the pupillage award is available in advance.
All pupillages are offered with a view to tenancy and we emphasise that our pupils are not in competition with one another. All pupils who meet our standards for tenancy will be invited to join Chambers.
During First Six you sit with two different supervisors, each for a three-month period. During Second Six, you sit with a third supervisor for six months and receive regular instructions in your own right throughout that period. Throughout pupillage you will gain exposure to our main practice areas and work with other members in addition to your supervisors, making for a varied and interesting pupillage and a firm foundation for tenancy.
Advocacy is a key focus of Chambers’ expertise and in addition to formal advocacy training, you will obtain substantial advocacy experience during Second Six by attending County Court and other hearings up to 3-4 times per week.
Please click this link to see the BSB Professional Statement for Barristers, including the required competencies you should expect to achieve and demonstrate during your pupillage.
Assessment criteria
We assess applicants for pupillage by reference to the following objective criteria:
- Intellectual ability / analytical skills
- Advocacy potential (oral and written skills including clarity and persuasiveness)
- Potential to be a successful barrister (including: determination, organisational skills, interpersonal skills, sound judgement)
- Interest in Chambers
- Integrity
Our interviews are competency-based and we encourage applicants to use the STAR technique when answering questions. This method helps candidates clearly demonstrate how their experiences align with the selection criteria, competencies, and capabilities required for the role.
Equal opportunities
We invite applications for pupillage from outstanding law and non-law graduates. We particularly encourage applications from underrepresented groups. Applications for pupillage are assessed and determined solely on merit.
Our aim is to recruit candidates of the highest standard by giving fair and equal opportunity to everyone. We have therefore implemented several safeguards into our pupillage recruitment process that are designed to ensure that applicants from non-traditional backgrounds have a fair and effective opportunity.
All Members of Chambers who assist with the recruitment process are required to undertake regular training in fair recruitment, aimed at minimising unconscious bias, provided by an external, independent consultant. We also use this recruitment consultant to advise on the questions posed in our application form and during our interviews.
Through the Pupillage Gateway, we use RARE’s contextual recruitment scheme to assist in sifting the written applications at the first round. This allows us to put a candidate’s achievements into their wider context, so that we can identify real talent that might otherwise have been overlooked.
We also blind mark all applications made to us in the first round. By this we mean that the sifters are not told the applicant’s name, gender, or school (unless the applicant reveals that information in their answers to the specific questions included on the application form).
Crown Office Chambers is also committed to widening access to the Bar and is a signatory to various schemes aimed at doing so. We are a member of the Bar Disability Association Mini-Pupillage Scheme and the 10,000 Black Interns Scheme, both of which provide underrepresented students and graduates with an insight into life at the Bar and guidance in the pursuit of a career at the Bar. Members of Chambers also participate in outreach work including Access to the Bar, Pegasus Access and Support Scheme and Inspiring the Future.
Chambers maintains and follows a written statement on Equality & Diversity and we make reasonable adjustments to assist candidates through recruitment. For more information, please see the Diversity Policy & Data page.
We hope that this page, along with other pages on our website, answers any questions you may have about pupillage with us. If you have any further questions, please contact the Pupillage Secretary at pupillage@crownofficechambers.com.
