187 Chambers

Chambers conducts its recruitment process in accordance with the principles of the Equality Act 2010, the Bar Council Fair Recruitment Guide, and the BSB Handbook Equality Rules. Opportunities are open to all qualified candidates, and we seek to recruit from the largest possible pool of available talent. We welcome applications from those from non-traditional or disadvantaged backgrounds. 

Universities attended and degrees/courses studied

BA Jurisprudence – University of Oxford

Bar Practice Course – ICCA (King’s College London as validating body)

LLM (Law and New Technologies) – Birkbeck, University of London

Tell us about your journey to pupillage and the bar

I’ve wanted to be a barrister since I was old enough to have a sensible opinion about what I wanted to do. There’s a real human interest at the bar, and there’s an opportunity to have an obvious impact on people’s lives, especially at the criminal bar.

Law is one of the ancient professions. I was never religious enough to be a priest, and I’m not good enough at art to be an artist. Law is the third of the three disciplines which separates civilisation from other creatures. There’s something quasi-spiritual about it.

I’ve always liked oral advocacy and presentation, so the opportunity to do that a lot was very appealing to me. I also like working for myself rather than being employed. I find it easier to motivate myself to work long hours when I’m doing it because I want to.

I chose the bar because I liked the idea of carving out a more specialist niche, rather than the more generalist approach that solicitors get to enjoy. I like getting involved in specific parts of cases and particular areas of law.

Why did you choose 187 Chambers?

Immediately after my first interview, I knew that 187 was the one set I wanted an offer from. I felt that I would fit into the culture of chambers; it felt very welcoming and very willing to assist advocates with their learning and development.

It was clear that there were lots of different kinds of people at chambers. It’s certainly not a monoculture. The people are also very fun!

There’s a great opportunity to mix with members of chambers, both at work and at social events. Despite my recent educational history, I came to the bar from a fairly non-traditional route: I went to a state school, and I didn’t have any legal connections, but I’ve been made to feel very welcome here.

I wanted to be a criminal barrister and 187 has a good range of work. It’s not a defence-only set and it’s not a prosecution-heavy set; there are people who do both. There’s also a real willingness to support people who want to explore other areas of practice.

Tell us about your pupillage experience

I had a brilliant pupillage experience right from the off. Early on in my first six I was helping a silk on a trial in Lincoln.

My pupil master was brilliant; we developed a very good rapport. He encouraged me to not only shadow him but also more junior members of chambers. I went to Magistrates Court trials, Youth Court trials and simpler Crown Court matters so that I could get a realistic sense of what second six practice might be like.

Every single person I followed was extremely friendly, welcoming and very good at providing an engaging first six experience. There was obviously a lot of work to be done, but I never felt that I was being overworked.

I was also given opportunities to do noting briefs and other bits of paid work to supplement the pupillage award.

In my second six, I was in the Crown Court right from my first day, and within a few months, I was doing a jury trial.

Second six is, to an extent, dropping you in and seeing how you get on. But in my case, I felt that I was being dropped in with a very supportive set behind me. I knew that if I bumped into any member of chambers in a robing room and had a problem, I could very happily pull them aside and ask them for help.

187 is an 18-month pupillage set so I also did a third six. During this time there was an uptick in the number of jury trials, and the work that I was doing was increasingly basically the same as a junior tenant. It made for a very nice, smooth transition into tenancy.

What was the tenancy selection process like?

187 has a fairly involved tenancy selection process, but I think the result of that is that it’s very fair and transparent. You know what you’ve got to do and what standard you’ve got to meet.

I had to do a written application consisting of references, including members of chambers, solicitors, judges and various people who’d seen me in action. There was also a written test, which was an advice and drafting exercise with an imagined set of facts and imagined set of papers that I had to produce a response to. Then there was an oral exercise, which was different to anything I’d done before. There was a short interview afterwards as well.

The decision is made by the tenancy committee. It was always very clear to me what the standards they were expecting were: good performance in the written exercise, good performance in the advocacy exercise and a holistic assessment of how you’ve done throughout pupillage.

Chambers very much recruit pupils with an eye to tenancy and you don’t feel that you’re in competition with co-applicants. In fact, the inter-pupil relations are fantastic and we all get on very well. Even now that I’m a junior tenant, the current pupils still allow me to tag along. They’re a lovely group.

How have you found the transition from pupillage to tenancy?

As a tenant, you have more flexibility to choose which types of work or cases you want to do.

Chambers want to make sure that you’re comfortable handling the pace of work of a junior tenant – they don’t want to throw you in at the deep end straight away. There’s lots of support available and I’m still able to get involved with training events.

187 are very supportive of both pupils and tenants taking time off and I’ve only ever been encouraged to take more holidays! I know someone who’s taken a whole year off for paternity leave and there’s been no difficulty with that at all.

How would you describe the culture of 187 Chambers?

What I experienced at interview proved to be entirely what 187 is actually like. It’s very welcoming and there are so many different kinds of people. Some of our barristers are in football teams, others are experts on medieval architecture and give walking tours, and one member of chambers even has a sideline as a stuntman in films!

There’s a very good social life in chambers and 187 organise a good range of formal social events. There are also lots of people who just enjoy meeting up for informal drinks after a day in court.

The head of chambers and other senior members are approachable and always welcome questions and ideas. They’re interested in, talk to, and want to give work to more junior members.

Our clerking team are also excellent and very helpful. They’re good at finding you new areas of work if you let them know what you’re interested in.

Do you have any tips for those thinking of applying to 187?

Don’t be afraid to show your personality and interests as well as your professional side. People hear of 187 and expect you’re going to be friendly and maybe a bit fun! And that’s something we’re quite pleased about as a reputation.

Ultimately, especially at the criminal bar, you are doing a job which is very high pressure, and which involves exposure to quite a lot of not wholly pleasant things. Being able to have good colleagues you can be comfortable with and who can take some of the pressure off is very important. If you, not infrequently, get locked in a room with clients who’ve murdered people, you need some light relief occasionally.

A lot of criminal advocacy is in front of a jury, who can be won over by many different types of people and many different styles. Showing your personality and your way of doing things is very important.

What advice would you give to people considering a career at the bar?

Know what the area you’re looking to get into is really looking for.

Think about what can distinguish you as a candidate. Don’t be afraid of non-obviously bar experience, which can actually demonstrate quite a lot about your ability to do well in the given area.

Using the criminal bar as an example, you’re very unlikely to have represented someone in criminal proceedings or to have found yourself substantially engaged in criminal proceedings. But if you’ve stood up for someone’s interests in a difficult situation, you’ve shown empathy and the ability to connect with people.

Make yourself stand out. There are loads of applications and you want to be in some way memorable. It helps if there’s a clear shorthand by which you can be discussed, for example ‘she’s the one who ran that marathon in that time’.

Finding a way to make your application stand out shows you clearly understand how to use advocacy skills to get your point across. Pupillage applications are at base testing a lot of the skills you’ll use in court, such as time management, self-discipline and attention to detail.

If you can demonstrate that you understand what being a barrister looks like and that you’ve done your research, that inspires confidence.