pupillage interview feedback
Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. Im a commercial chancery barrister who has done first round pupillage interviews in the past, and while I agree with much of this, I have a different perspective on a few points. Its also not enough to derail you. Make sure you have properly understood what it is really like to work at that set and/or in that practice area (broadly described:for example my chambers does construction. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. just to make sure they could give you detailed information to help you succeed. When watching the case, do not look at what the senior members of chambers are doing alone, look at what the juniors are doing. I interviewed at Zaid Ibrahim & Co (Kuala Lumpur) in Feb 2023. A guide to pupillage interviews - Features If youre unsure how to answer a question, dont panic. You will be giving a variant of an answer the panel has heard a thousand times before. This just puts unnecessary pressure on you. Reflect on them, learn from them, and move on. In addition to pupillage questions, you may be asked to undertake practical exercises as part of your pupillage interview process. Tip 1: Google and thoroughly research your chambers. There obviously isnt one solution to this kind of question: the real issue is your mind going blank (Im quite sure mine would). All of the above. In other words, you are not expected to identify ten points and read off the leading Supreme Court cases about those points. There is no way I would have gotten silk because I simply had not set the memory track between my brain and my tongue to let the words come out with the ease with which I had them in my head. Part of the Dukes Education family Together we're extraordinary. This cookie, set by Cloudflare, is used to support Cloudflare Bot Management. Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. I feel strongly that the profession needs to change the way it operates and recruits because of the young talent it ultimately passes by, and I feel that making personalised feedback mandatory for candidates who have secured an interview, would be one very small way of changing it for the better. Typically, sets will have first and second round interviews. It can reveal a lot about your character and the characteristics you potentially view as making someone a good barrister. 30 pupillage interview questions (plus example answers) Do you mind if I take a second to think about that question? obviously dont make the silence too long but its totally fine to ask this. Do not be overly formal. Your response to some questions will be deliberately challenged by the interview panel. Pupillage interview panels will not expect you to be strong in every area of the law. And at the criminal Bar, whatever brickbats we throw at the system and the punitive lifestyle the Bar engenders, life is never, ever dull. Pupillage interview preparation. However, in most cases the selection process will include a practical exercise and an interview (usually two). This helps your audience to follow the train of your reasoning which is how we persuade judges. Looking at the profiles of other junior tenants on the chambers website can be a sobering experience. What was good, what was bad? I don't think I'd feel this way if most pupillages didn't start a near 1.5 years after the interview. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Advertisement". Youll do much better if youre appropriately confident. Similarly a candidate with a 2(ii) may score highly in the other category and be shortlisted for interview. But because that is the case, expecting people to be in the same country, let alone close vicinity, that far in . Interpersonal skills: the ability to get on with solicitors, lay clients, colleagues and judges. I genuinely dont think hobbies etc make a difference (except maybe if theyre done to a really high level, and even then, imo they only make a difference on the paper sift). You really need to be familiar with why you want to be there and why they should want you and this is all about preparation. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Chambers will expect you to provide details and develop points; they will be put off by vague and unclear answers. Another thing to keep in mind is that oral advocacy and written advocacy are very different. It does not store any personal data. Tip 4: Some chambers ask you to take part in a mock conference, as if you are advising a client in chambers. Tip 2:Research what barristers say about the set/their practice area. Essential! Two stages for the interview process: 1) Written test - Choose one question from three legal questions and answer it in essay format - Answer must be sent via email within 30 minutes of receiving it 2) Virtual interview - Two interviewers who are partners at the firm . These questions arent asked to catch you out, but rather to assess how you would respond on the spot. Pupillage interview questions tend to fall into several categories, starting with general questions. Knowing that it could really help someone and make their life a bit easier is what keeps me going. Luck is the clincher. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. This is your opportunity to ask questions about how they cover the specific areas of law youre interested in as part of your pupillage, and to ask about the culture and the wider opportunities available to you. We only interview pupillage candidates who have completed, or been offered, a mini-pupillage in Chambers. One set referred to this as "sparkle". Legal Twitter (start with @davidallengreen and @BarristerSecret and go on from there) is constantly discussing law-related current affairs and might help you form a view and see what the counter-arguments are. Tip 2: Play the game and give the Sets you are interviewing at what they want. Be careful with what you put out there. Pupillage - Twenty Essex So make sure you understand what is expected of you so that you perform to that expectation. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Even though it will probably feel very unequal, the interview should be as much an opportunity for you to think about whether you want to be surrounded by the people interviewing you and the ethos of the chambers. This cookies are used to collect analytical information about how visitors use the website. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. That, I was later told, was the clincher. 'I have my first pupillage interview. Any advice?' - Legal Cheek Tip 2: It can be a daunting experience to be presented in front of a panel of barristers asking questions.So it can be helpful to set yourself at ease. For me, this is the only second-round interview I have secured to date and therefore, the feedback I was expecting to receive would have been by far the most useful and as such was the most highly anticipated. Advocacy Panel: it is known as the advocacy panel because this set will favour peppering you with an advocacy . This website is witty, it is erudite, it is hard-hitting, it is focused and it is awesome.. Others will have friends or family in chambers, or relatives in the judiciary. We hope the above helps and we would love to hear from you in the comments below if it does. Developing a mantra. Having had the privilege of seeing life from both sides of the interview table, I thought Id offer my own, largely worthless musings on the things I have learned. 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To this end, I wrote to a few silks, other established practitioners and some juniors at the Bar to see if we could collaborate on an article regarding pupillage interviews. Second, if you can, find out who is going to be on the panel interviewing you. Keep up to date with the legal news and changes affecting the areas in which you intend to specialise. Its very likely that youll be asked some questions about information you have included in your application. That way, you will have a better and deeper understanding of why and how the skills that the set says it is looking for (in their selection criteria) are applicable, and how you can prepare answers which meet those requirements. It sets a unique ID to embed videos to the website. Interested in a future career as a lawyer? Recently, in a series of tweets on the @ExcPupillage account some of my top tips for pupillage interview preparation were shared. So, for every single pupillage interview you have, really think about who is on the receiving end and prepare with that in mind. Can you deal with difficult questions from the panel? Be honest, but ensure that you give clear explanations why you have considered other careers and why you ultimately chose to pursue a career as a barrister. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. Points are awarded for accuracy, not speed. Should minors be charged as adults for heinous crimes? Why then make it so hard to become a barrister? Copyright 2023 Legal Cheek Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Prepare your answers so that they provide more evidence to the panel of the skills that the chambers is looking for, as set out in that chambers selection criteria which pretty much all sets now publish. Do some research on the different types of tasks you might be given at a pupillage interview and practise them too. Mock interviews | Pupillage and how to get it Note from Arooj: other resources include reaching out to organisations such as Bridging the Bar and BME Legal. If you are doing a mini-pupillage or attending an advice session run by the Inns or your Bar Course provider or otherwise have access to a barrister, ask them what the best and worst aspects of their practice area are, what they think are the key skills in practice and if you have an idea about the work, test it out on them first before you use it in an interview. Meditation or breathing exercises. The Times has today published a fine piece on applying for pupillage, reflecting the advice and experience of some survivors of the process, both applicants and interviewers. On 25 May I then received a response which stated that the chambers could not offer any feedback, except to say that "2 of the applicants were a little better and they were successful". It is also acceptable to ask for a minute to compose yourself as a rushed answer looks worse than asking for time to think about your answer. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Aspects of this include how articulate, confident and perceptive you are. The application process begins with a two-day mini pupillage (or if necessary a virtual mini pupillage of one and a half days). I was a disaster. Competition for pupillage is tough, as everyone who passes the application stage knows (seeApplying yourself to pupillagefor more), so being invited to an interview is an achievement in itself. As someone who has been applying for pupillage for over four years, made over 70 applications, and interviewed over nearly 30 times, point #10 is by far the point that resonates with me the most. Impromptu presentations on random subjects; a Dragons Den pitch on something I had two minutes to invent; idiotic Oxbridge-interview questions (If you were a banana, what car would you drive? etc); deliberately confusing written exercises and needlessly aggressive interview styles were, and probably still are, all common features. The question is asked to assess how clearly and concisely you can provide an explanation for something that requires logical thinking in the moment. The __gads cookie, set by Google, is stored under DoubleClick domain and tracks the number of times users see an advert, measures the success of the campaign and calculates its revenue. Check the news for law angles. Here is a short list of competencies for the Bar: Getting into the Bar requires resilience, adaptability and determination. Make sure youve read and watched those for your sets. Some chambers interview panels ask some really awkward questions. First. Thu 30 May 2013 04.00 EDT. This is important because time you go into court, one of you is going to fail because you wont win the case (just take a pause and let the ripple of that realisation drip through). Browse all legal jobs in one place anytime anywhere. At the end of the interview, you may be asked if you have any questions. You will read how your contemporaries spent a year as an intern on an international human rights case, or have written starry and brilliant articles, theses or even books on esoteric and impressively complex aspects of your chosen legal field. Do not come up to a Set which you think specialises in Banking Law but actually does more Clinical Negligence. He completed the bar course with BPP University last year and aspires to become a barrister. Look at Legal500, Chambers and Partners and read into some of the cases the Barristers have been in. Those applying for a specialist pupillage will . The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Used by Microsoft Advertising as a unique ID for visitors. Although you are being interviewed, you are also interviewing. Even though I am now actually a Trainee Solicitor at Clifford Chance, I am a huge believer in making the legal profession accessible for all (be it for aspiring barristers or aspiring solicitors). What do you do, why and what approach do you take? The second is developing a solution which you know helps you to calm down this is different for everyone. I find this poor. It sounds obvious, but nerves in interview upend the most poised performers in your advocacy classes. The Guardian is free to access online. I then practised, aced the interview and got silk. Please note that you must have already secured a pupillage interview to be eligible for this scheme. You must be aware of recent changes in legislation affecting the areas of law in which chambers specialise.Michael Scripps Release Date, Bird That Sounds Like A Squeaky Swing, Articles P