Barrister : Training

Currently, new barristers must spend at least 12 months in pupillage, usually split into two six-month periods (called sixes) with the same or different chambers. All pupils are assigned a supervisor, who oversees and organises the training and work. Your first 'six' will involve observing and assisting your supervisor and other barristers from chambers. On satisfactory completion of your first six, The Bar Council will issue you with a provisional practising certificate and, in the second six, you will take responsibility for cases of your own. Due to intense competition, third sixes, undertaken by those who fail to become tenants at the first attempt, are becoming increasingly common.

The Bar Council has approved a route to train at the employed Bar. A number of organisations have been approved to offer full pupillage training as a route to qualification (see the Bar Standards Board (BSB) website for more details).

In order to keep abreast of changes in the law and to polish their skills, newly qualified barristers are required to complete 45 hours of continuing professional development (CPD), including at least nine hours of advocacy training and three hours of ethics during their first three years of practice. After that, they must undertake 12 hours of CPD every year. Details of accredited courses are available from the Bar Standards Board.