‘Be James Milner not Neymar when it comes to pupillage applications’, advises Devereux Chambers’ Josh Neaman
As the Pupillage Gateway deadline approaches on 6 February, Legal Cheek Careers catches up with Josh Neaman from Devereux Chambers to explore life at the Bar, share insights on the application process, and offer tips for tackling those challenging interviews.
Could you tell us a little about your route to the Bar and why you wanted to become a barrister?
I did Arabic and Spanish at undergraduate and a career at the Bar was not really on my radar. The tail-end of my degree was affected by Covid, and I started the GDL at City more because I didn’t have a job lined up or any idea what I wanted to do than as part of some grand strategy. I did a lot of mooting early on and found I really enjoyed oral advocacy. It was this that pushed me to apply for pupillage. I struggled to get a single interview when I first applied on the GDL, but I was lucky enough to get an offer from Devereux second time around while on the BVS.
Why did you choose Devereux Chambers, and what is your current practice like?
Devereux is an increasingly rare example of a truly multi-specialist set, with outstanding teams across half-a-dozen distinct practice areas. This was an attraction in itself, and I have continued to maintain a broad practice in my first few months as a tenant.
I was particularly interested in employment and personal injury law. Devereux’s stellar teams in these areas stood out to me. For example, in the last 18 months Robert Weir KC has appeared in the Supreme Court in three of the most important PI cases of recent years — Paul v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, Hassam v Rabot (leading Sam Way), and TUI v Griffiths (leading Stephen Cottrell and Tom Westwell). Griffiths is now shortlisted for LexisNexis Case of the Year — reflecting its far-reaching ramifications for when a party must put its case to a witness.
Since starting tenancy, I have done a lot of work in these areas. I have been instructed in fast-track PI trials in the county court and three or four-day final hearings in the Employment Tribunal. To have such high-quality courtroom experience so early on is a real u.s.p. of chambers. This has been balanced by a regular flow of led work. Members of chambers are incredibly supportive and willing to help nurture the practices of the junior tenants by bringing them in on more complex litigation to which they would not otherwise gain exposure.
Much of the led work I have done has been in tax, another area in which chambers is a market leader. I did not start pupillage with any knowledge of tax law but really enjoyed the work I saw as pupil to Marika Lemos. We have a particular specialism in employment income taxation and IR35, which dovetails well with our Tribunal and High Court employment practice.
How would you advise applicants go about selecting which sets to apply to? What factors should they consider?
Apply to the sets where you can imagine yourself having an enjoyable career and don’t apply to somewhere you don’t want to be. This largely means looking at chambers’ practice areas and seeing whether they interest you.
Think specifically about the work that the most junior tenants do, as this is what your own practice will look like early on. Also remember that chambers’ websites are above all marketing tools, and what they say may be somewhat aspirational. The legal directories and reported cases are often a better guide to a set’s core practice. You can search Westlaw / Lexis / the Tribunal databases for the names of barristers to see the kind of cases they tend to appear in.
You do need some degree of realism. First, getting pupillage is to some extent a numbers game, and you cannot be overly picky. Second, some applications are inevitably more speculative than others. You need to be honest about that and prioritise your time accordingly. I recommend putting in a few “long-shot” applications, but make sure you have finished the others first.
What advice would you give about the written application stage, in particular the specific questions asked by sets?
1. Answer the specific question in front of you. Answer it specifically by reference to you and to the set of chambers asking it. Every word you write should demonstrate why you are best for chambers. If it doesn’t, cut it. Again and again, candidates give answers which could have been written by anybody, for anybody. You are one of hundreds vying for a handful of places at interview. Generic answers will come in the middle of the pack, and that means rejection.
2. Some sets publish the mark schemes they use to score paper applications (see e.g. here, here, here). Also read the back-editions of 5 Essex Chambers‘ pupillage reports (see e.g. 2020, 2021, 2022/23). These will give you a good idea of what sets in general are looking for.
3. Keep it simple. Good written advocacy is direct, clear and concise. It does not require long sentences and flowery language, which detract from the substance of your answer.
4. Eliminate all typos. This might seem obvious, but it is highly unusual to find an application with perfect SPAG. I find the best way to check is by reading your application form out loud.
Just do the simple things really really well. Be James Milner not Neymar.
What kind of experience are chambers looking for, and can this be demonstrated by non-legal employment or volunteering?
Chambers are not looking for candidates who have accumulated a tick-box list of ‘experiences.’ They want the candidates with the greatest potential to excel as tenants. Your experiences — whether legal or non-legal — will bolster your application to the extent you can persuade your reader that they are good evidence of your skills and potential as a barrister and a colleague.
Legal experience is obviously valuable. When thinking about how to direct your efforts in the run-up to application season, the bulk of your time should be directed towards things like mooting, legal essay competitions, or mini pupillages as it should be easy to make the case that the skills these experiences evidence map closely onto the skills of a future tenant. You have to make this case — even the longest list of mini-pupillages will not impress an interview panel if you cannot explain what you learnt from them.
Non-legal experience is equally valuable (and sometimes more so) — providing you can make the same case. Some non-legal work requires skills that obviously transfer well to the Bar. An example might be hospitality work (interpersonal skills, work under pressure). I read about a less obvious link in 5 Essex Chambers’ 2019 report. A final round interview candidate said that their hobbies of knitting and sewing showed they could pay attention to detail while retaining oversight of the bigger picture. In the end, your experiences are what you make of them.
Three final comments. First, the more impressive the work the better (all other things being equal, writing an article in a broadsheet newspaper > writing an article in a student magazine). Second, chambers take into account the stage you are at. A GDL student is not expected to have the same portfolio of experiences as someone who has done an LLM and the BVS. Last, as a very general rule, the longer ago you did something the less heavily you should rely on it in your application.
Do you have any tips for handling rejection?
Remember that you are applying to multiple sets, probably over multiple cycles. You only need one of those many applications to end in an offer in order to secure pupillage, and you are never “all-in” on any single application. Other than that, look after yourself properly. Make time to do other things, whether that is seeing friends, playing sport or just doing nothing. It is a false economy to drop everything else in life to focus on applications. It will make you miserable and will not increase your chances of getting pupillage.
What are the best things to do to prepare for an interview?
The best advice, but also the hardest to implement, is to relax and be yourself.
You are setting yourself up for failure if you don’t:
1. Reread your paper application form and prepare to be challenged on anything you have said.
2. Check what cases chambers has recently been involved in and what recent developments there have been in its practice areas.
Otherwise, interviews are highly individual and there is no right way of doing them. Generic advice has a very high chance of being actively wrong for you.
Personalised feedback is therefore extremely valuable. The Inns of Court run mock interviews for their members. Some universities do the same. After interview, write down what you were asked. Think how you could have better answered the questions. You may find there is overlap between interviews. Ask sets where you have unsuccessfully interviewed if they give feedback.
Please give us your final top tip…
You don’t need a mini pupillage to see courtroom advocacy. You can turn up to your local crown court or county court, sit at the back and watch. The Court of Appeal and Supreme Court both have YouTube channels, so you don’t even need to leave your bedroom.
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