Avoid jokes and jargon, embrace business blurb and Blaise Pascal — and spend ages filling out the form
On Wednesday evening a host of barristers gathered at City Law School to offer their pearls of wisdom to a crowd of bar wannabes preparing to submit pupillage applications when the centralised Gateway system opens on 1 April.
The event, which was very comprehensibly live-tweeted by the @CLSPupillageAdvice account, featured contributions from Hardwicke’s Morayo Fagborun Bennett, 9 Bedford Row’s Michael Edmonds, 11 Stone Building’s Gary Lidington and Paul Skinner of Henderson Chambers.
Here are the most useful pieces of advice …
1. Commercial awareness is for wannabe barristers as well as solicitors.
Commercial awareness was a main theme. Show you understand both the business model for your area and the changing legal market.#Pupillage
— @CLSPupillageAdvice (@CLSPupillageAdv) March 19, 2015
… even wannabe criminal barristers.
Applicants for criminal sets need to show that they understand that they are running a business and the language surrounding it. #pupillage
— @CLSPupillageAdvice (@CLSPupillageAdv) March 19, 2015
2. Somehow you must figure out what the hell a ProcureCo is.
Commercial Awareness includes being aware of the changes in the legal landscape; Alternate Business Structures, LLPs & ProcureCo #pupillage
— @CLSPupillageAdvice (@CLSPupillageAdv) March 19, 2015
3. Mooting-obsessed law geeks: make something up about your love of tennis or something.
Where the form asks about your interests, this is your non legal interests out side of law. A chance to differentiate yourself #pupillage
— @CLSPupillageAdvice (@CLSPupillageAdv) March 19, 2015
4. Jokes on your application form have to be really good ones.
Avoid jokes ( we mainly agreed on that). Avoid negativity and criticism in both application forms and at interview . #pupillage
— @CLSPupillageAdvice (@CLSPupillageAdv) March 19, 2015
5. Think of completing a Pupillage Gateway form as like working for free, nine-to-five, for three weeks.
Your form although it looks innocuous may take from 50-100 hours of work.Ensure you get it checked by many including a pedant. #pupillage
— @CLSPupillageAdvice (@CLSPupillageAdv) March 19, 2015
6. Invoke the spirit of great figures from the worlds of philosophy and literature while completing your application form.
Brevity is a skill ‘I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time’ Blaise Pascal #pupillage @GMLidington
— @CLSPupillageAdvice (@CLSPupillageAdv) March 19, 2015
Read George Orwell on (very short essay) ‘Politics and the English Language’. https://t.co/cqDkzmK7yG
— @CLSPupillageAdvice (@CLSPupillageAdv) March 19, 2015
7. You should not write long-answer questions like a journalist …
(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print #pupillage
— @CLSPupillageAdvice (@CLSPupillageAdv) March 19, 2015
8. Nor should you write long-answer questions like an academic.
(ii) Never use a long word where a short one will do. #Pupillage Application Forms
— @CLSPupillageAdvice (@CLSPupillageAdv) March 19, 2015
9. Incomprehensible jargon and Latin: that’s for when you’re qualified.
Never use Latin #Pupillage Application Forms
— @CLSPupillageAdvice (@CLSPupillageAdv) March 19, 2015
10. And finally … get someone to proof read your application (who knows the difference between ‘practise’ and ‘practice’?)
It is almost impossible to check your own spelling (I should know) @LawMindMaps so get others to check it. #Pupillage application Forms
— @CLSPupillageAdvice (@CLSPupillageAdv) March 19, 2015
Something that is often overlooked practice / practise advice /advise #pupillage applications.
— @CLSPupillageAdvice (@CLSPupillageAdv) March 19, 2015