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Mini Pupillage Experience

I've been on a handful of mini pupillages now and the experience has generally been pretty consistent. I join my supervisors in meetings, court hearings, read up and discuss their live cases, and go out for lunch / other social events together.

That said, it has still only been a handful so I'm not sure if I've really had the breadth of experience. The latest set I'm with has me sat next to the secretary and essentially seems to adopt a "seen but not heard" approach. I've been to court with them several times but generally am not expected to engage and merely sit as an observer then make my way back to chambers alone. I've also spoken to my supervisor perhaps 3 times in the last 10 days as any interaction seems to require needing to go through his secretary, i.e. they do not have an open door policy.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Is this sort of culture prevalent amongst chambers?

Reply 1

Blayze

I'm a bit confused about the specifics of your situation - is it the same 10 day mini-pupillage or are you amalgamating all of them?

Regardless, your experience sounds pretty similar to standard in terms of activities, but not in terms of engagement; when we have minis, they normally attend get a timetable and attend court a few times, go to social events, and then sit with their mini-pupil supervisor for the remaining time. Hopefully, after court members will discuss the case with them a bit; in conferences and court you're "seen but not heard", but other times you should definitely be heard.

My minis sit with me while looking at the work, and I (and others in the sets I did my own minis) were very much open door. I also (because I didn't get this as a mini and think it would be useful) normally have a chat about some of the factors about being self-employed and the economic side too.

Reply 2

Crazy Jamie

Careers Forum Helper

That more recent experience is unusual, but I can certainly believe it happens. Most sets will not have a set way that they expect barristers to act with mini pupils. There is going to be some element of a culture within a set, but there will always be those within individual sets who just find it inconvenient to have mini pupils and won't really engage with them. As I say, I do think nowadays that will be a small minority of barristers. I would also expect clerks to have a decent idea of which barristers are more receptive and more engaging for mini pupils, and will look to allocate mini pupils to those barristers.

Certainly for my part a mini pupillage is a very open process. I'll want to understand a little bit about the background of the mini pupil so that I can get an idea what they may want from the mini pupillage, but other than that I'll do my best to ensure that they understand what it is they're going to see and, later on in the day, what they have seen. And like Blayze, if it's appropriate I'll talk a little more broadly about the job itself, the work/life balance and other factors like managing finances. And throughout all of that, I always encourage mini pupils to ask any and all questions they have. Mini pupillages are something you need to have on pupillage application forms, but they are also individual opportunities to access actual living, breathing and working barristers. Not every barrister is going to be helpful (even if they intend to be), but it's a great source of insight and information from those who are actually doing the job.

So basically, yes, others will have had a similar experience. But I don't expect to be prevalent at all. Most sets and most barristers should offer a better experience than that.