2024 Pupillage competition – now closed.
In 2024 Park Square Barristers advertised for five candidates to undertake pupillage starting September 2024, March 2025 and September 2025.
One of those pupillages will focus on Family and Court of Protection work. The other four pupillages will be common law pupillages which will be flexible, to fit with the practice preferences of the selected candidates.
The pupillage award for those recruited in the 2024 competition will be £27,000 (£12,000 pupillage grant in the first six and £15,000 guaranteed income in the second six months).
The closing date for entries was 7 February 2024.
Details of our pupillage competition in 2025 will be announced in the autumn 2024.
How to apply for pupillage
Park Square Barristers will recruit in accordance with the mandatory gateway timetable:
3 January 2024 – applications open and the pupillage application form will be available to download from our website. Pupillage will also be advertised on the gateway.
7 February 2024 (10am) – application close
February – April 2024 – first and second round interviews will be held
30 April 2024 – candidates who have applied but have not been shortlisted for interview will be notified
10 May 2024 (10am) – offers will be made to successful candidates
Pupillage at Park Square Barristers
Trainee barristers undertake a one-year pupillage as the final stage of their training, usually with a barristers’ chambers such as ours.
You can start a pupillage up to 5 years after completing the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC), and you would normally apply for pupillage about 18 months before you intend to begin. Pupils work under a barrister’s supervision, and the year is split into 2 halves:
- In the ‘first six’, you’ll do research; draft opinions and other documents for the courts; read your supervisor’s paperwork; and observe them in meetings and in court.
- In the ‘second six’, you can undertake court work of your own, still under supervision
Obtaining a pupillage is a very competitive process, wherever you apply. If you are successful in your application to Park Square Barristers, your pupillage will normally start in the autumn of the year after you were accepted. At the end of the pupillage, you will be a fully qualified barrister and you may be offered tenancy at Park Square Barristers.
Park Square Barristers prides itself on the high quality training, support and guidance offered to all pupils to ensure that they have the best possible start in their careers at the bar. Pupillage is offered with a view to tenancy.
A recent article written by one of our past first-six pupils, Mollie Briggs, explaining her route to pupillage and her experience of pupillage at PSQB can be found [here].
The pupillage award for those recruited in the 2024 competition will be £27,000 This consists of £12,000 pupillage grant in the first six and £15,000 guaranteed income in the second six months, although in our experience pupils receipts far exceed this in their second six months, whichever practice area(s) they choose.
Anyone wishing to apply for pupillage at PSQB is encouraged to attend our informal pupillage insight evening on 6th December 2023 where a number of our pupils, junior tenants and members of the pupillage committee will be able to answer any questions candidates may have. Details will be available on our website shortly.
For further details of the Pupillage Gateway click here