Aspiring barrister: ‘Should I take a £17k pay cut for CV-boosting role?’

£17k is quite the drop, but if you can afford to do it, do it.

Relevant legal work always helps but don’t neglect to highlight the skills etc you’ve developed in your lit role.

I met a number of pupils recently. Apparently chambers now have work schemes that act as platforms into pupillage. You may want to explore ..

Consider shadowing

Why do you believe chambers will consider the new paralegal role be more “relevant” to the existing one?

In addition to the additional types of employment experience mentioned, you could seek publication of academic legal writing in the areas you are interested in practising. The closer the publication’s area of focus to your desired practice area, the better, but even publication in a generic publication such as Counsel will increase your chance of obtaining pupillage, provided you write it well

As someone who marks applications, it sounds like your paper application already has some strength. However, your soft/interview skills might benefit from some more focus. There are various opportunities via the Inns or BPC providers that offer mock interviews, and it might be worth exploring those, as they are likely to provide more value than taking a £17k pay cut.

Whilst having some relevant legal experience is helpful, it isn’t determinative. What you do have are core skills that can be applied to any area of law—this is what you should be evidencing and highlighting.

If you want to explore PI / Civil more generally, you can do this without taking a £17k pay cut. Keep yourself updated with cases/commercial awareness, explore marshalling opportunities, attend seminars/webinars and attend events via the Inns that relate to this areas. During your interview/application you can then highlight this and discuss how you are developing this interest/knowledge – without taking a pay cut!

Do you know people at the bar who can at least help you with understanding the requirements and any unwritten rules / tips / ideas? You want a pupillage at a mixed civil or PI practice, so identify the sets you want to target, really know where you want. Then, see if they’re running junior training events with networking. Start showing up & getting out there & approach barristers at these events and ASK for advice! Keep showing up, perhaps also get known by the solicitors who attend – ask about ie any professional networks and try to get in at those. Ask to be on a junior committee or two, push yourself forward – can you take the minutes? You then get an ‘in’ with the Chair & so on. Make your existing experience work for you! Keep going, don’t expect overnight success.

Go to Oxford or Cambridge. We all know what the real reason is why applicants who get through multiple interviews never get pupillage. If the chambers you’re looking at is Oxbridge head to toe, as nearly all the ones in London are, and you’re not, then you’ve got your answer.

Apparently the bar values any degree from Oxbridge more than X years of actual work experience in firms.