How necessary is a first in order to become a barrister?

All good advice. I spoke to a barrister recently who suggested starting at a law firm and then switching to Chambers after a few years. Do you see many people doing this?

All good advice. I spoke to a barrister recently who suggested starting at a law firm and then switching to Chambers after a few years. Do you see many people doing this?

I agree with Crazy Jamie that you can obtain a pupillage and a tenancy without a First, but also agree with Katana and Jamie that, in practice, you are likely to need a First to get in at a magic circle chambers.

My nephew recently became a member of a good set with a mixed practice. He has a 2.1 in Classics from Oxford and a distinction in the GDL. A young friend is struggling to find a pupillage despite having an Oxford First in Modern History and an LLM from UCL. Another nephew recently got into one of the top activist chambers. His route was: Oxford First in Law, stellar BCL, teaching law at the LSE, advocacy work for a Trade Union.

The typical new entrant to a magic circle set has an Oxbridge First in any subject, possibly a postgraduate law degree, may have been a Kennedy or Fulbright Scholar, might be a Prize Fellow of All Souls and/or have won the Vinerian or the Eldon; and has also done things such as save the white rhino, get black people off death row in Alabama, and devise a workable peace plan for the Middle East. But never mind those people!

Bear in mind that it is now commonplace for barristers to move chambers (this used to be rare), and if you establish a good practice in a decent set you can maybe move to a higher ranked set after a few years.

Maybe get an LLM, and/or do a cool advocacy job for an NGO, and/or work as a case assessor on a legal redress project for an investment bank that's been mis-selling (again), and then apply for pupillage. Do a million FRU cases. Do this because it's worth it, not to polish your CV.

By way of background, I am a barrister with an international commercial litigation practice. I was a member of a magic circle set for many years. I then worked overseas for a while. I am now a member of a set of chambers which is well regarded but isn't magic circle.

I have a First in Modern History from Oxford, obtained many years ago. I did the GDL at what was then a Poly - yaaay! I spent most of the GDL year asleep or in the pub. The pass/fail standard was: can you write your own name? In those ancient times everyone got a Desmond in Bar Finals, and that's what I got (I came 28th in the year: the pass/fail standard was write your own name but not using crayons). Many of us treated the rather rubbishy Bar course at the old Inns of Court School of Law as a crammer, and I bunked off (in fact I was doing FRU cases non stop, or was in the pub) until the last six weeks. I learned how to do barristering through FRU, in my (excellent) pupillage with three very swanky barristers, and in my first years on the job.

Getting a pupillage now is super hard, but a Cambridge 2.1 in Law is a very good start. Good luck!

Hi all, I graduated from Cambridge with a high 2.1 in law in June. I would like to work as a barrister, but looking at the CVs of barristers in London chambers they all seem to have Oxbridge firsts. Is it simply unrealistic to expect to be able to become a barrister with a 2.1?