How to become a barrister

There’s no shying away from the fact that a career at the Bar is competitive. You’re going to need exceptional academics, a high level of confidence (or at least a penchant for public speaking) and lots of grit and determination to succeed as a barrister.

But if you want it enough, a career at the bar can be highly rewarding. You could find yourself standing up in court on media-worthy cases, drafting advice for multinational corporations on headline-making deals, or even giving middle-of-the-night counsel at the police station.

The profession has been slowly diversifying in recent years. But, in terms of educational background, attending the universities of Oxford, Cambridge or other Russell Group institutions are still likely to stand you in good stead when applying for a pupillage.

And that’s not all; your grades – including those from your first-year assignments and exams – need to be high. Most sets will expect you to have achieved, or be on track to achieve, a high 2:1 or a first in your undergraduate degree to even be considered.

That’s not to say that you should be discouraged from applying if you didn’t attend a top-ranking university, but you may have to be more prepared to demonstrate how you stand out from the crowd. This could be by obtaining a first-class degree, taking on a senior role in your university’s law society, or by winning prestigious mooting or essay-writing competitions.

Don’t forget non-legal experience too. Your part-time job, voluntary work or extra curricular activities can also demonstrate that you possess the skills and qualities required of a barrister. Be creative!

If your undergraduate degree was in a non-law subject, you will need to undertake the year-long Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) course. Whilst the GDL has been replaced by the SQE1 for solicitors , the course is still a requirement for those hoping to become barristers. The GDL covers the seven foundations of legal knowledge and brings you up to speed with those who undertook law degrees at undergraduate level.

Following your law undergraduate degree (or the GDL if you’re a non-law student), you’ll move on to the vocational stage of your training.

Once you’ve started your training, you can start to apply for pupillage. You can continue applying after completing your studies.

The old Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) route has been replaced by four different routes to qualifying as a barrister.

The new courses have different names according to the provider but look out for courses called something like Barrister Training Course, Bar Vocational Studies, or Bar Practice Course.

The new vocational course options are as follows:

1. A one-part postgraduate course which can be undertaken on a full or part-time basis. This course is similar to the old BPTC.
2. A two-part postgraduate course, also similar to the old BPTC but split in two. Students can choose to undertake and pay for the first part of the course before deciding whether to go on to do the second part. The benefit of this system is that students can wait and see if they pass the first part before committing and paying for the (more expensive) second part. The course can be taught face-to-face for its entirety or could involve an element of self study.
3. A longer course which combines the academic and vocational elements. The Bar course would be integrated into the undergraduate law degree.

After completing the relevant course, you’ll need to start applying for pupillage (if you haven’t already). Check out our pupillage profiles here.

Cost is an extremely important factor to bear in mind. With the new Bar training courses costing up to £18,000 a year, enrolling is not to be taken lightly. If you manage to secure a pupillage before starting your vocational training, some chambers will advance a proportion of the pupillage award to help you pay for the course. But this is not guaranteed.

The Bar Standards Board reported that there were 2,378 enrolments onto Bar Courses in the period from July 2023-June 2024, in comparison with 638 registered pupillages advertised at last count in 2022.

Add this to the fact that there will also be a backlog of BPTC graduates from previous years also applying for the same pupillages, and you get an idea of just how competitive the market is.

According to Bar Council figures, there were 2,979 applications for pupillage through the pupillage gateway in 2023. This figure does not include applications made outside of the pupillage gateway.

See our Bar Table to see which chambers offer pupillages.