*/
There are only two pieces of advice I want to give in this article. I am assuming in your favour – you’re thinking of becoming a barrister! – that you check spelling and grammar (using the built-in software but also a pedantic friend or family member), justify your text, only use one font (Calibri or Times New Roman), one text size and black text only, have set up a work-appropriate email address and only include a photograph if specifically asked.
Your CV itself, as a document, is likely only to be relevant at the stage of applying for mini-pupillage or perhaps for wider legal work experience such as internships or paralegal roles. When it comes to applying for pupillage, almost all chambers either use the Bar Council’s Gateway form, or have their own standard form. However, this advice will also help you for the content you use for all of those applications.
The first and almost the most important piece of advice is, if you’re reading this while still a student: get a First in your degree or the highest possible mark in whatever postgraduate course you are currently undertaking. It doesn’t matter what the subject is. Just get a First.
The reason for this twofold. First, competition for pupillage is intense. The most difficult stage statistically is getting through the paper sift to interview. My own chambers receives around 200 applications; we interview about 45 candidates at first round and we only achieve that by running a double panel on the interview day. Many chambers will only be able to interview 20-25 candidates at first round. Almost every candidate applying will have at least a 2:1 degree. Excellent exam results are the norm, therefore you need to make yourself stand out. Second, almost all chambers give a heavy weighting to intellectual ability as a key criterion for pupillage and the main easily ascertainable and (to some degree) objective measure of this is your degree result. A-Levels or equivalent results are fairly often taken into account, GCSEs or equivalent much less often, but heavier weight will be given to degree and postgraduate degree results. A First in your undergraduate degree will give you the best chance statistically of getting through to first round interviews by reference to chambers’ mark schemes.
If you are on track for a 2:1, go and see your tutors and lecturers and ask them what you need to do to turn it into a First. If you are thinking that you ‘can’t’ get a First because you’re not good enough, you’re probably wrong: it is usually less of a knowledge/intellect issue than an exam/essay skill issue. Knowing exactly what the markers reward will help you maximise your results for the least possible effort.
If you are reading this at an even earlier stage, before you have started your undergraduate degree, then my advice is to pick for your degree the subject you most enjoy and find the easiest at school. You will be much more likely to get a First in that subject. (I did English Literature for no other reason than that I loved it, but it turned out to be a good life decision because I did well in it.) You can then do the one-year GDL to convert to law. If you got a 2:1 in your undergraduate degree, and are currently doing a postgraduate course, do not despair. If you can get a distinction on the GDL or can show that your marks on your MA or MSc are superlative, you will have proved your exceptional intellectual ability via your postgraduate studies and this will have the same effect of making you stand out at paper sift stage.
If you are in a situation where your A-Level or degree results are poor or worse than you think truly reflects your intellectual ability – due to illness or bereavement or pregnancy or having to work at the same time as studying or any other trauma – then you must explain this in your application. Keep the explanation as short and as simple as possible. If more than one thing happened to you in a particular period try, if you can, to pick the worst and/or the one where it will be clearest why the event affected your academic performance. This may sound like cynical advice, but you must bear in mind that the person reading will likely have marked scores of forms: they need the information to be as clear and concise as possible. Bear in mind too that where candidates list multiple difficulties, inclusion of less serious issues can have the effect of undermining the force of the more serious ones.
The second piece of advice is this: everything you do, everything you’re interested in, will involve skills which are relevant to the skills needed by a barrister and which can and should be included on your CV. You do not, repeat not, have to have specific ‘legal’ experience such as mooting or debating, or paralegal work experience, to write a successful pupillage application. The secret is to stop thinking of the job you had to do to earn money, the drama group you’re in, the student newspaper you write for, the committee you are on, the sport you play or the backpacking trip you went on as something you did just for fun (or because you had to) but by reference to the skills for which chambers are looking. And the good news here is that these skills are not a secret: every chambers now publishes its selection criteria on its website, very often with further detail and examples of what those criteria mean. Those criteria really are what chambers are looking for. The bad news is that there isn’t one weird trick to get pupillage (but in your heart you knew that already). Your actual experience, seen through the lens of the selection criteria, will do it.
All you have to do is identify what relevant skills you have used in doing the things you thought you were doing for necessity or fun. Then make sure you explain why/how that activity involved developing those skills, and why they match the chambers’ criteria (in other words why they are in fact transferable skills) on your CV or application form. A simple list of the roles you have had will not meet the requirements here: the reader of your CV will not know that your part-time job as a data controller in fact involved training new joiners or dealing with client complaints and thus involved the necessity for clear, concise explanations and appropriate responses to challenge, probably both orally and in writing unless you tell them – both what the role involved and the skills it involved.
Obviously, you need to be strategic. If your backpacking trip was planned by your parents and involved literally nothing but sitting on a beach, then you might struggle to find evidence in support of your organisational ability under pressure here (great trip, though). If you have evidence to demonstrate you can think quickly on your feet through both committee work and the sport you play, pick the one which is closer to the type of work barristers do as your main point and use the other as secondary support. Or don’t mention it at all, and spend the words explaining your main point properly.
*
In summary: get yourself the highest possible academic grade or grades, and start seeing your jobs and hobbies through the lens of the skills listed in chambers’ selection criteria.
There are only two pieces of advice I want to give in this article. I am assuming in your favour – you’re thinking of becoming a barrister! – that you check spelling and grammar (using the built-in software but also a pedantic friend or family member), justify your text, only use one font (Calibri or Times New Roman), one text size and black text only, have set up a work-appropriate email address and only include a photograph if specifically asked.
Your CV itself, as a document, is likely only to be relevant at the stage of applying for mini-pupillage or perhaps for wider legal work experience such as internships or paralegal roles. When it comes to applying for pupillage, almost all chambers either use the Bar Council’s Gateway form, or have their own standard form. However, this advice will also help you for the content you use for all of those applications.
The first and almost the most important piece of advice is, if you’re reading this while still a student: get a First in your degree or the highest possible mark in whatever postgraduate course you are currently undertaking. It doesn’t matter what the subject is. Just get a First.
The reason for this twofold. First, competition for pupillage is intense. The most difficult stage statistically is getting through the paper sift to interview. My own chambers receives around 200 applications; we interview about 45 candidates at first round and we only achieve that by running a double panel on the interview day. Many chambers will only be able to interview 20-25 candidates at first round. Almost every candidate applying will have at least a 2:1 degree. Excellent exam results are the norm, therefore you need to make yourself stand out. Second, almost all chambers give a heavy weighting to intellectual ability as a key criterion for pupillage and the main easily ascertainable and (to some degree) objective measure of this is your degree result. A-Levels or equivalent results are fairly often taken into account, GCSEs or equivalent much less often, but heavier weight will be given to degree and postgraduate degree results. A First in your undergraduate degree will give you the best chance statistically of getting through to first round interviews by reference to chambers’ mark schemes.
If you are on track for a 2:1, go and see your tutors and lecturers and ask them what you need to do to turn it into a First. If you are thinking that you ‘can’t’ get a First because you’re not good enough, you’re probably wrong: it is usually less of a knowledge/intellect issue than an exam/essay skill issue. Knowing exactly what the markers reward will help you maximise your results for the least possible effort.
If you are reading this at an even earlier stage, before you have started your undergraduate degree, then my advice is to pick for your degree the subject you most enjoy and find the easiest at school. You will be much more likely to get a First in that subject. (I did English Literature for no other reason than that I loved it, but it turned out to be a good life decision because I did well in it.) You can then do the one-year GDL to convert to law. If you got a 2:1 in your undergraduate degree, and are currently doing a postgraduate course, do not despair. If you can get a distinction on the GDL or can show that your marks on your MA or MSc are superlative, you will have proved your exceptional intellectual ability via your postgraduate studies and this will have the same effect of making you stand out at paper sift stage.
If you are in a situation where your A-Level or degree results are poor or worse than you think truly reflects your intellectual ability – due to illness or bereavement or pregnancy or having to work at the same time as studying or any other trauma – then you must explain this in your application. Keep the explanation as short and as simple as possible. If more than one thing happened to you in a particular period try, if you can, to pick the worst and/or the one where it will be clearest why the event affected your academic performance. This may sound like cynical advice, but you must bear in mind that the person reading will likely have marked scores of forms: they need the information to be as clear and concise as possible. Bear in mind too that where candidates list multiple difficulties, inclusion of less serious issues can have the effect of undermining the force of the more serious ones.
The second piece of advice is this: everything you do, everything you’re interested in, will involve skills which are relevant to the skills needed by a barrister and which can and should be included on your CV. You do not, repeat not, have to have specific ‘legal’ experience such as mooting or debating, or paralegal work experience, to write a successful pupillage application. The secret is to stop thinking of the job you had to do to earn money, the drama group you’re in, the student newspaper you write for, the committee you are on, the sport you play or the backpacking trip you went on as something you did just for fun (or because you had to) but by reference to the skills for which chambers are looking. And the good news here is that these skills are not a secret: every chambers now publishes its selection criteria on its website, very often with further detail and examples of what those criteria mean. Those criteria really are what chambers are looking for. The bad news is that there isn’t one weird trick to get pupillage (but in your heart you knew that already). Your actual experience, seen through the lens of the selection criteria, will do it.
All you have to do is identify what relevant skills you have used in doing the things you thought you were doing for necessity or fun. Then make sure you explain why/how that activity involved developing those skills, and why they match the chambers’ criteria (in other words why they are in fact transferable skills) on your CV or application form. A simple list of the roles you have had will not meet the requirements here: the reader of your CV will not know that your part-time job as a data controller in fact involved training new joiners or dealing with client complaints and thus involved the necessity for clear, concise explanations and appropriate responses to challenge, probably both orally and in writing unless you tell them – both what the role involved and the skills it involved.
Obviously, you need to be strategic. If your backpacking trip was planned by your parents and involved literally nothing but sitting on a beach, then you might struggle to find evidence in support of your organisational ability under pressure here (great trip, though). If you have evidence to demonstrate you can think quickly on your feet through both committee work and the sport you play, pick the one which is closer to the type of work barristers do as your main point and use the other as secondary support. Or don’t mention it at all, and spend the words explaining your main point properly.
*
In summary: get yourself the highest possible academic grade or grades, and start seeing your jobs and hobbies through the lens of the skills listed in chambers’ selection criteria.
The Chair of the Bar reports back
Clement Cowley, Partner at The Penny Group, explains how global events can influence the performance of pensions and ISAs, and why taking a long-term approach to investing is often the most effective strategy
Mário Barroso, Head of R&D and Method Development at AlphaBiolabs, discusses what family law professionals need to know about hallucinogens, from the main hallucinogenic drugs encountered in family proceedings, to their effects and the testing options available
Harmony Christian Ministries is the latest charity to benefit from a £500 donation from AlphaBiolabs via the company’s Giving Back initiative
By David Green
Mário Barroso, Head of R&D and Method Development at AlphaBiolabs, examines the forensic science underpinning hair drug testing, its evidential scope and limitations, and why it remains the gold standard for evidencing patterns of drug use in family proceedings
Developing a tech start-up demands a different definition of excellence to the Bar, says Saara Idelbi. The co-creator of Advocatr on entrepreneurship, AI advocacy training, and matching the thrill of a killer cross-examination
At the start of her term, Chair of the Bar 2026 Kirsty Brimelow KC set out a series of priorities for the year ahead. One of those priorities was children in the justice system
As the world becomes more digital, Barbara Vinagre Mota examines international research into the mental health consequences of judges’ exposure to graphic and immersive evidence, highlighting the importance of support systems
Reviewed by Daniel Barnett
James McNeill Whistler at Tate Britain until 27 September Rothko in Florence at Palazzo Strozzi until 23 August Reviewed by Stephen Cragg KC
