Discovering Higher and Degree Apprenticeships with UWE Bristol, get free advice >>

Solicitor to Barrister - Practical Considerations

Hi all - looking for some advice for a potential round of pupillage applications this winter.

I am currently a 2PQE solicitor at a US firm in the City (where I did my TC), practicing in the Disputes practice (largely international arbitration). I have a first in History from Oxbridge, and decent GDL and LPC results. I like my job, and while I think I would ultimately prefer to be a barrister, do not want to do anything that could risk losing my current role.

I have a couple of practical questions about the application process while working as a solicitor:

1. Will sets still expect me to complete a mini-pupillage at their set (e.g. 20 Essex note it is a requirement, but wondering if anyone has any experience of any set waiving such a requirement)?
2. How do you choose appropriate references? I am now 8 years on from university, so an academic reference will be fairly out of date, but obviously cannot offer any professional references.
3. How did you handle attending interviews? Did sets show some flexibility when scheduling them?

Thanks in advance.

Reply 1

Angellllllll

Hello,
it seems no one has replied you–sorry about that. I am a final year law student so I obviously cannot give practical advice on your current situation but I must ask: how are you now? Such a transition can burden someone mentally, so I hope you are doing okay. Also, why not just do it? Why don't you secretly ask a nice senior at your law firm to write a reference for you? Or worse, simply liaise with the appropriate chambers and tell them that you are unable to give a reference unless a final decision is made on your application. We are all human beings with emotions and ears, after all. I find it hard to fathom that they would not understand, especially as you are a fellow professional like they are. Or maybe you could attend a networking event, and casually chat with someone from the recruitment team (or higher!) and see if you can get an application in.

Also, can I ask why you went on the solicitor route despite wanting to be a barrister? Or is it just recently you discovered it?

From one aspiring barrister to another: chase that dream!

(edited 6 months ago)

Reply 2

Crazy Jamie

Careers Forum Helper

Not sure how I missed this. The short answer is that you wouldn't usually go through pupillage applications in the normal way if you want to transfer to the Bar after working for any length of time as a solicitor. Two years PQE isn't very long for those purposes, so you could go through the pupillage application process, but you obviously have reasons both why that may be a little tricky for you (getting the right experience, wanting to keep applications confidential, potentially issues with attending interviews), and why it's not a bad thing necessarily for you to wait a little longer (i.e. you like your job).

The way most solicitors transfer to the Bar is by making applications to do so independent of the pupillage process. You are still applying for pupillage in most cases (unless you have substantial experience and the requirement for pupillage is waived), but your application is of a very different nature. When sets take on a pupil we are taking on someone who we realise will know very little in real terms, will require substantial training, and who we will need to commit resources to. That's all a perfectly fine trade off for the right candidate of course. But transferring solicitors are different, because you already have substantial experience, do not require as much training, and we don't need to commit the same amount of resources to you. So you're very much convincing sets of different things when applying to transfer as a solicitor. You're highlighting experience and transferable skills that pupillage applicants simply will not have, but you're also going to making a business case for why sets should take you on, which pupillage applicants are not expected to do (and, indeed, don't know how to do realistically).

Against that background, there are two points to make here. The first is that it seems to me that you're probably best going for the more traditional type of transferring here rather than throwing in your lot with the other pupillage applicants. The second is that in order to do that, you will likely need a bit more experience than you have now, both to develop your skills and experience and to properly make that business case. With the best will in the world, it takes time to turn yourself into a good candidate to transfer to the Bar. That is all dependent on you actually developing the right skills to transfer. Not exclusively, because the roles are different, but you must be able to show that your practice as a solicitor has given you the skills to make a good barrister. That is easier in some areas than others. In criminal law and employment, for example, solicitors often have tangible advocacy experience that they can use to easily make that case. In other areas it is more difficult. I have no idea where international arbitration falls on that scale. One thing you can do, though, is to take advantage of the connections and relationships that you're probably already forming with barristers, particularly those at the sort of sets you might want to target. I know you don't want your current firm to get the impression that you're not committed, but most barristers will be happy to have an informal chat about the sort of experience that may be advantageous to you if you were looking to transfer in future, and want you might want to focus on in the mean time. Obviously having that conversation with barristers of a reasonable level of seniority who would know about those things would be preferable, not least because you want to make sure that you are aiming for sets that are a realistic ambition for you, and that will depend on their own recruiting practices.

I hope that helps. I realise you might not be checking this thread given the delay in getting any response, but if you do have any further questions just let me know.

Reply 3

Tibor098

Hey OP I have some experience in this.

I would not ask to waive the requirement to complete a mini - logically I think sets will want to know why you want to switch, and although you may be able to point to your current experience working with barristers and say that "I want to do what they do", it is more convincing if you have done a couple of mini pupillages which will better demonstrate your commitment to the bar. That may mean taking annual leave to do it.

Hopefully your uni teachers will have kept records / notes about you? Also if there's anyone you've worked with who has since left your firm, maybe they can be an appropriate professional referee.

I would ask them to schedule the interviews in the early morning. That means 8am which hopefully will not interrupt the rest of your day unless you're in a trial, in which case you may even ask sets if they are amenable to interviewing you even earlier....