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Chambers pupillage awards: the new pay war?

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By Rhys Duncan on

9

Pay boosts reach 50%

Close Up Of Barrister Holding Wig And Brief
The country’s leading chambers are fighting a new pay war to secure the top future barrister talent.

For the second year in a row chambers have brought in significant hikes in pay in order to attract top graduates with their eyes on the bar.

The highest mover this year has been 3PB, raising its pupillage award by a whopping 50% up from £40,000 to £60,000. This is the largest increase both in percentage and money terms.

Not far behind is Blackstone Chambers bumping pay up from £75,000 to £90,000, with Fountain Court Chambers jumping from £80,000 to £90,000. Other big movers include Gatehouse, Henderson, and Wilberforce Chambers all rising £10,000 from £75k to £85k, and Hailsham Chambers and Radcliffe Chambers increasing by the same amount from £70,000 to £80,000.

There have also been a spree of £5,000 boosts, with 4 Stone Buildings, 7KBW, Brick Court Chambers, Essex Court Chambers, and South Square all rising from £75,000 to the commercial bar’s new standard of £80,000.

Regional powerhouse Kings Chambers has increased pay by £5,000 from £70,000 to £75,000, with No5 Chambers taking its award from £55,000 to £60,000.

Applying for pupillage? Check out the Legal Cheek Chambers Most List for an in-depth look at life in over 50 of the UK’s top sets

Whilst some pupillage awards comprise a fixed sum of money, others are split into an initial award and then guaranteed earnings during a pupil’s second, practicing, six months. It is therefore possible for some recruits to earn in excess of their pupillage award, depending on how much of their own work they undertake.

These figures can eclipse what is offered at top solicitors firms in the City, with the highest pay packet for a first year trainee solicitor sitting at £65,000 — barely making it into the top 50 highest paying sets. Whilst the highest newly qualified solicitor pay can reach up to £180,000, even this can be a long way off the bar’s top payers, offering as much as £360,000 in year one of practice.

Hefty pay packets and bumper raises aren’t reaching every area of the bar, however. Many sets, particularly those with a practice focussed on legal aid work (think criminal, immigration, and some areas of family law), are only able to offer the Bar Standards Board minimum award, which currently sits at £23,078 in London, and £21,060 in the regions for a 12-month pupillage.

Pupillage awards: Which chambers pay what? 💷

Chambers Pupillage award
Gough Square Chambers £100,000
Gray’s Inn Tax Chambers £100,000
Blackstone Chambers £90,000
Crown Office Chambers £90,000
Fountain Court Chambers £90,000
4 New Square Chambers £85,000
Atkin Chambers £85,000
Gatehouse Chambers £85,000
Henderson Chambers £85,000
Keating Chambers £85,000
XXIV Old Buildings £85,000
Wilberforce Chambers £85,000
2TG £82,500
3VB £80,000
4 Pump Court £80,000
4 Stone Buildings £80,000
7KBW £80,000
Brick Court Chambers £80,000
Erskine Chambers £80,000
Essex Court Chambers £80,000
Hailsham Chambers £80,000
New Square Chambers £80,000
Outer Temple Chambers £80,000
Radcliffe Chambers £80,000
South Square £80,000
Tanfield Chambers £80,000
11KBW £75,000
12 King’s Bench Walk £75,000
5 Stone Buildings £75,000
Devereux Chambers £75,000
Falcon Chambers £75,000
Francis Taylor Building £75,000
Kings Chambers £75,000
Landmark Chambers £75,000
Monckton Chambers £75,000
Pump Court Tax Chambers £75,000
Quadrant Chambers £75,000
Selborne Chambers £75,000
Serle Court £75,000
Ten Old Square £75,000
Twenty Essex £75,000
39 Essex Chambers £70,000
Cornerstone Barristers £70,000
Serjeants’ Inn Chambers £70,000
5 Essex Chambers £65,000
3PB £60,000
7BR £60,000
No5 Chambers £60,000
42BR Barristers £55,000
Exchange Chambers £30,000
Express Solicitors £27,000
Applying for pupillage? Check out the Legal Cheek Chambers Most List for an in-depth look at life in over 50 of the UK’s top sets

9 Comments

Pupil barrister

IMO only the ‘fixed sum’ should count for what you record the pupillage award is, and not include guaranteed billings: 1. it’s a pupillage *award* (should not rely on performance), 2. in the vast majority of cases, it’s only *billings* that are guaranteed, and not *earnings* (whether you actually see this money is anyone’s guess – for an example, see the Gough Square Chambers pupillage policy), 3. if you’re going to create a ‘leaderboard’ (e.g. the Legal Cheek ‘most list’), ranking awards by the ‘fixed sum’ only is a better metric of what chambers are offering/investing in pupils (currently Gough Square Chambers looks to be taking the lead with this £100k figure – better than Blackstone and Brick Court, etc… – on closer inspection, however, they’re only putting up a £60k award, with £40k guaranteed fee billings, not fees received – a much different picture).

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(10)(0)

baby junior

This is a good point in chambers with a practising second-six. But at I think all of the top-end commercial sets, your second-six is not practising (save possibly for a couple of months at the end of your pupillage once the decision has been made). So e.g., £90k at Fountain Court really is 90k for the whole year (again, with the proviso above). By contrast, £100k at Gough is at least £100k for the whole year. So, on that analysis, you really are comparing apples and apples. By contrast, if you compared the £60k at Gough to £90k at Fountain you would get a skewed image by not taking account of the fact that you will have earnings for your work in your second six at Gough which you would not have at Fountain.

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(1)(0)

Pupil barrister

I take your point, but see my original point (2) – in reality, you won’t be comparing ‘apples to apples’ owing to the fact that the 40k “guaranteed earnings” are guaranteed fees billed, and not guaranteed fees received (i.e. you may never see them in your pupillage year). This is obviously an important point, as a mere guarantee of fees billed is not really too helpful if you’ve just moved to London and have no financial support from family etc…

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(5)(1)

Anon

One top commercial set, One Essex Court, has a (partial) practising second six. According to their website “in recent years, pupils have often earned in excess of £40,000 (and sometimes substantially more) in respect of such work.” That’s in addition to the 90k award…

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(0)(0)

baby junior

The “pay war” in combar pupillages is interesting because it is predominantly an exercise in lower-tier sets trying to signal to the market and to prospective applicants that they are also high-status commercial chambers. The above list demonstrates that there is only a very loose correlation, if any, (in the list above – not generally) between award and earnings in your first five years, or indeed earnings as a silk. Some of the sets offering £85k will have earnings substantially lower than those offering less. Take, for instance, Henderson/Gatehouse (both 85k award) v Pump Tax, Twenty Essex (both 75k) 7KBW, Brick, Erskine, Essex Court (all 80k). Certainly at Essex Court, 20E, 7KBW (pure commercial sets) I would imagine average first year take home salary is c.£300k (it might be higher at Brick/Erskine though I really have no clue); it would be significantly lower at Henderson/Gatehouse.

No serious candidate will weigh a 10k differential during pupillage as anything other than the most extreme tie-breaker between two sets. That is not a dig at Henderson or Gatehouse, both of which are great sets: it is just reflective of the fact that a small number of the top commercial sets capture a very large portion of the high-end commercial work at the London bar and juniors are comp’d accordingly.

tl;dr: awards mean nothing.

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(12)(1)

Northern applicant

Exchange Chambers – THE largest chambers outside of London and self-proclaimed ‘Northern Powerhouse’ – offering a measly £30k (up from £25k last year btw), even for their commercial pupillage, comparable to an employed pupillage at a PI high-street firm like Express Solicitors. How embarrassing.

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(10)(0)

Crimbo

It was £25K back in 2007…

Perhaps inflation doesn’t affect the North as much?

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(1)(0)

manc

Doubt it. Kings, 18 St John, and 23ES are offering £75k, 60k, and £55k respectively next door, so it’s likely just Exchange being stingy. How they expect to attract the best northern candidates with a paralegal salary is beyond me.

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(0)(0)

Suverner

£30k in Northern Pounds is about £80k in the civilised parts of the nation.

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(2)(1)

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