The Legal Cheek View
Meet Devereux Chambers at Legal Cheek’s next Virtual Pupillage Fair on 11 December 2025
Made up of nearly 60 barristers, including 13 KCs, Devereux Chambers is a multi-specialist set operating across a range of areas. Whether acting for individuals, major corporations, or government departments, the quality of work is described by one tenant as “unbelievable”. The set’s key strengths lie in employment, tax, and personal injury. Members also take on work in other areas, including education, sports law, insurance and health and safety.
Speaking to juniors at the set, we hear that a broad practice is maintained in the early years. One tells us: “At the junior end of practice at Devereux, barristers work on a variety of cases across all of our practice areas. This leads to enormous variety in the work that we do: no two days are the same.” Working across such a broad range of areas is also fantastic training — some areas will naturally lend themselves to more advocacy, some to more paperwork, meaning a variety of skills can be honed. As one junior puts it: “I can’t imagine a better way to start practicing at the bar.” Another offers this insight: “I carry out a wide range of work, both on my own account and being led. There is none of the bulk litigation which is common at the junior junior end of many other civil sets. There is the opportunity to get involved in both first instance and appellate work (the latter usually led) in a wide range of areas.” All this means that juniors can also explore areas that maybe didn’t initially interest them. Tax doesn’t sound like the most thrilling area, but one tenant tells us: “I’m a tax specialist and tax law changes every year — so it is always interesting”. Maybe we were wrong.
In terms of the cases you take on, work starts off relatively basic, with a sprinkling of more complex stuff that steadily transforms into working towards higher value instructions more regularly. One junior sums it up: “The work has a mix of discrimination work with great human interest and technical tax work which is incredibly difficult and intellectually challenging. Highly stimulating in a variety of ways.” Another highlights the mix of challenging law and the supporting mundane tasks: “Working for a brain injured claimant can involve high-stakes negotiation, but it can also involve tedious number-crunching and costs budgeting.” Baby juniors are handed opportunities to develop advocacy skills — which are “not afforded at all top sets” — through being expected to run their own civil court and employment cases from the get-go. There is also opportunity to be led in large commercial and tax disputes, including “plenty of trips to the Court of Appeal or Supreme Court clinging to the coat-tails of senior members”.
There are certainly plenty of exciting cases taking place in chambers. In just this past year, Joshua Carey and Max Schofield have been successfully battling with a £5 million VAT assessment, whilst Bruce Carr KC and Anna Greenley successfully obtained an interim injunction in relation to the Birmingham “bin strike”. Howard Watkinson and Max Schofield have also been working through VAT exemptions on food in the Court of Appeal, with John Platts-Mills tackling a very different issue in the High Court addressing rugby’s concussion trial. Whether it’s the income tax liability of sports pundits, or VAT on sports drinks, Devereux have it all.
Even with all these big cases going on, Devereux Chambers is notably a friendly and collegiate place. The “lack of egos” is a particular like of one Devereux insider while another tells us simply “we work as a team”. This means there is always someone willing to lend a hand if you get stuck on a tricky point of law. “From the junior end right up to the most senior silk — if you have a question that touches on someone else’s experience or expertise, everyone tries to help,” one junior at the set tells us. Another comments: “I regularly take any knotty problems to other members and inevitably come away with the answer, or with something much closer to the answer.”
With so much hard work going on, it’s inevitable that work-life balance is “not perfect” but it’s pretty good at Devereux. As one tenant puts it: “Clerks are excellent at keeping an eye on workload. There’s no pressure not to take holidays or breaks and there are work/life balance coaches available.” Insiders do report some long hours but these are said to be “a matter of personal choice”. As one barrister says: “I have never felt under pressure to work longer than I want to, either from the clerks or more senior members. You have to work hard (and sometimes long) to maintain a practice anywhere, but at Devereux you feel in control.” The clerks are especially praised for helping the barristers to manage their time. We are also told by one tenant who has recently taken a substantial period of paternity leave that chambers have been very supportive of this.
When there is some downtime, Devereux’s building is perfectly positioned next to The Devereux Pub meaning there is scope for after work drinks. We are told bonds at work are strengthened further by regular lunch in Middle Temple Hall, and sponsored charitable activities such as walks, fun runs, cycling contests, and quiz nights. Flexible working has taken its toll, with many said to “work fully from home now” but insiders say there’s still “always someone to have a drink or a coffee with” and one tells us “my roommate was my best man at my wedding.” We’ve also heard that the “Christmas party is an institution!” (We’ll look out for our invite in the post).
Location-wise, Devereux has an ideal position within Middle Temple. Overlooking Fountain Court (which does contain a fountain) and with a pub next door and the Royal Courts of Justice just across the street, it’s not a surprise this “stunning building” has featured on many period and legal dramas. There are less glowing reviews for the inside space, with the main building “not necessarily set up for modern office life.” Nevertheless, we hear the set is redecorated every year and the rooms are “generously spacious”.
Technology wise, there are conference rooms, permitting hybrid conferences –- especially useful these days. The IT support is said to be “amazing” within chambers, with Jacki Muirhead -– director of operations – getting a particular shoutout. A recent switch in external IT providers has “done wonders” for the previously “patchy” support and at least one member makes “regular use of the camera-enabled conference rooms for remote hearings.”
Devereux Chambers offers two pupillages per year, each coming with an award of £75,000. The assessed part of pupillage is split between three pupil supervisors, and pupils can express a preference for seats, choosing from employment, tax, personal injury/clinical negligence, and commercial. There is also a possibility of a fourth unassessed seat, during which the pupil can gain experience in another practice area, if desired. As a result of working for different members of chambers, pupils “are able to observe, learn from and draw upon the broad spectrum of strengths, skills, and styles held within chambers”, according to one tenant. In the first six, pupils will undertake legal research, work on client papers, draft advice, pleadings and skeleton arguments, and accompany their supervisor to conferences and to court. In the second six, pupils will start to take on their own cases, usually in tribunals and the county court. Throughout pupillage, there will be a number of written and advocacy assessments.
Pupillage at the set is highly praised. One former pupil notes that it is “carefully planned and well executed” albeit with the caveat that “some areas are better taught than others”. One junior tenant who recently went through pupillage at the set describes it as “second to none. It was rare among my cohort of pupils to have supervisors at such a high level of call. That, combined with the willingness of even the most senior silks to involve pupils in, for example, appeals to the Supreme Court, meant that I started practice with an excellent understanding of both the work that I would be doing immediately, and the work that I hope to do when I reach the pinnacle of my career”. Even beyond pupillage, the learning continues. As one senior junior puts it: “Every day is a school day, even after over twenty years of experience.”
Applicants to Devereux Chambers should apply through the Pupillage Gateway. Paper applications are marked and narrowed down to around 40 candidates who are invited to a first round interview. This interview is fairly relaxed and only lasts around 15 minutes. Those scoring highest in the interview, around 10, will be invited to a final round interview where they will be given a legal problem 30 minutes before the interview and asked to prepare. The interview will then take place in front of a panel. Throughout the process, the criteria on which applicants are assessed are: intellect and analysis, a good approach to problem solving, communication and presentation skills, and an aptitude for chambers’ core areas of practice. For the last four years in a row every rookie that the set has taken on has been offered a tenancy — a perfect record!
Devereux Chambers participates in access and social mobility schemes, such as the Pegasus Access Scheme run by the Inner Temple and the Social Mobility Foundation Bar placement scheme, alongside the 10,000 Black Interns Programme. Additional mini-pupillages to the ones typically on offer are available through such schemes.