Pupillage
Our current policy is to offer up to two pupillages each year, each of which is for twelve months. During pupillage, pupils will have the opportunity to experience the full range of chambers’ work and benefit from regular feedback on their work.
Few of our applicants will have studied landlord and tenant law in any depth prior to pupillage, and therefore we require incoming pupils to attend an intensive course at Falcon Chambers given by a leader in the field, currently Professor Martin Dixon of Queens’ College, Cambridge. This is usually held in the last week of September. We also give our pupils a solid grounding in advocacy, in addition to the courses offered by the Inns of Court, by providing structured advocacy training during the course of the year.
You will be allocated to a different pupil supervisor every three months of your pupillage, in order to ensure that you are seen by as many people as possible. You will sit in your pupil supervisor's room and will follow as closely as possible all aspects of their day-to-day practice, including court and paperwork, diary and practice management, marketing and client-facing skills.
As a pupil, you will be expected to read papers before conferences and briefs before court, to write opinions and draft statements of case as if they were your own, and to attend court with members of chambers.
In your second six months, once we are satisfied that you are sufficiently experienced, our clerks will allocate work to you. There is usually a reasonable amount of court work available, though it does vary from year-to-year.
We place a lot of importance on being a friendly, closely integrated group of colleagues, and meet for tea, and on Fridays for lunch in our library. As a pupil in chambers, you will be welcomed to these gatherings.
All future pupils are welcome to work in our library during their BPC year.
“The Bar is a second career for me. I started off life as an academic, working as a research fellow in Cambridge following the completion of my PhD. I am very pleased with the decision to switch careers and, in particular, the decision I made to join Falcon Chambers. Life at the Bar can be pretty hectic and it is great to have somewhere as friendly and supportive as Chambers to come home to at the end of a hard day in court.”Ciara Fairley
“I cannot conceive of having a better job than being a barrister; and I cannot imagine being happier or more fulfilled in another set of Chambers. Much of that is down to the care that we have taken in the past in our selection of bright, enthusiastic students who will be likely to join in and contribute to the very special mix that we have in Falcon Chambers” Guy Fetherstonhaugh Q.C. Joint Head of Falcon Chambers.
“Life as a junior barrister at Falcon Chambers is rewarding and enjoyable. The quality and breath of work which Chambers attracts reflects its status as the premier set in all matters relating to property litigation”.Joseph Ollech
“Pupillage at Falcon Chambers is not approached merely as an assessment of a candidate’s suitability for tenancy, it is also viewed as an opportunity to train pupils for life at the Bar in the fullest sense”.Gavin Bennison
