3 Verulam Buildings - True Picture

3 Verulam Buildings pupillage review 2026

The Chambers

“I’m off to Delhi this weekend for Delhi Arbitration Weekend,” 3VB’s director of clerking, Stuart Pullum, tells us, followed by a quick stop in Singapore “where we’re seeing some clients in the region.” Now a jet-setting lifestyle probably isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about a career at the Bar, but 3VB’s core practices of banking finance disputes, civil fraud disputes, international arbitration, and group litigation come with their fair share of travel opportunities.

According to Pullum, the set’s core areas make up around 80% of the work, but cases in areas like art law also crop up every now and then: “Matters tend to fall under complex, high-value business disputes. There’s always a business dispute in there somewhere – a commercial theme that underpins everything.” The set features heavily in the Chambers UK Bar rankings, with top awards in areas like banking and finance, financial services and civil fraud in London. That’s on top of top-tier rankings in cryptoassets and gambling disputes across all circuits.

“Even starting as a junior, you come across interesting, sometimes high-profile cases. You don’t have to wait until you’re senior to do rewarding work.”

On the banking and finance side, 3VB defended Barclays in a £1.6 billion dispute with financier Amanda Staveley (the principal of PCP) relating to Barclays’ £5.8 billion capital raising during the financial crisis. Elsewhere, Ali Malek KC and Ewen McKendrick KC, among others from 3VB, recently advised Chevron in an arbitration that cleared the way for its USD53 billion merger with Hess Corporation — one of the largest oil and gas deals in recent years.

Supreme Court cases also regularly make the members’ pool of work, particularly in relation to business interruption insurance cases. As one pupil at 3VB put it: “The most important reason I joined was the quality of work. Even starting as a junior, you come across interesting, sometimes high-profile cases. You don’t have to wait until you’re senior to do rewarding work.”

Both within and without, the set’s practice has evolved over time, from an increase in offshore work in locations like the BVI, Cayman Islands and particularly the UAE, where “we probably have the strongest footprint of any London commercial set,” to an upsurge in sanctions work and investigations, financial and non-financial. Pullum points to stock drop claims as something of a focus: “We’ve been in every single one of those over the last ten years, both on the defendant and claimant side.”

The Pupillage Experience

Four senior juniors act as supervisors for each of a pupil’s four seats, with the idea being “to give you experience of the different areas in chambers, and to give you exposure to the areas you are interested in.” In addition to their supervisors, who pupils share an office with, newbies are also given a “shadow supervisor” for a year to ensure pupils have continuity and a sounding board throughout pupillage. Shadow supervisors are more junior than supervisors, so “you might get to know them better,” and offer shadowing opportunities in smaller hearings that supervisors might be too senior to have. As head of the pupillage committee Adam Kramer underscores, “we prefer the approach of pupils doing the work their supervisor is doing.” 

“If it’s dead, you’ll see the end product, and if it’s live you’ll see the final product, so there’s always something to compare it to.”

Much of the experience of pupillage revolves around just this – pupils are embedded into their supervisors’ workflow, writing skeletons for hearings, pleadings and research tasks. The idea is that “coming into the third seat, when you’ve earned a little more trust, you might help with first drafts,” so “our work might be a part of the piece the supervisor would send!” While there is always half an eye on the tenancy decision, “as much as possible we look at it as educational,” Kramer stresses, and our interviewees agreed. “I think the feedback I received was always granular and detailed,” a current pupil told us.

Feedback is “largely oral,” where a supervisor will go through the piece: “If it’s dead, you’ll see the end product, and if it’s live you’ll see the final product, so there’s always something to compare it to.” Conversations can vary from how to present the information differently, to more substantive feedback, and “not infrequently the supervisor will say, ‘that’s not a bad draft, but here are some things you might want to add to the document’.”

As well as frequent feedback within the seats, 3VB’s programme incorporates formal feedback sessions at the end of each seat, with pupils speaking with the head of pupillage to review their time in the seat: “You discuss what you were doing, your trajectory, and what you need to work on – so it’s reassuring, but also helpful to know what criteria you need to meet to gain tenancy.” To support pupils’ learning, the set also has a training programme of talks, which includes sessions on things like working with leaders, solicitors or the county courts where people exchange stories and ask questions. Ultimately, mistakes are nothing to be worried about “so long as you are learning,” Kramer stresses.

By the time a pupil reaches their second six, this cumulative learning is expected to have shaped them into individuals well capable of getting on their feet. Pupils start working directly with the clerking room to take on smaller matters. Pullum tells us that “we get them to undertake their own advocacy, and every pupil gets that opportunity.” As one pupil explained, “the clerks are good at circulating opportunities, so they will decide if it’s a good match,” typically on small cases in the county courts.

In these kinds of small hearings and trials, “there’s not that same level of complexity,” so it provides a good platform for newbies to find their footing: “You’re not fighting abstract concepts, it’s more: this is the document, here are the facts.” Insiders told us that although the experience is nerve-racking, “it felt great to represent my clients and make an impact!”

Assessments take place across the first three seats and take the form of structured advocacy tasks. Pupils do one in the first seat, one in the second seat, and two in the third seat. For each, pupils will be given case papers, before producing a skeleton and then a presentation of submissions. These typically take the form of “an injunction, an arbitration early determination, a financial dispute, or an insolvency application,” Kramer outlines, but he stresses that while every assessment is marked and goes towards the tenancy decision, ultimately “it’s based on everything.”

This includes the ”hundreds of pages of feedback” compiled over the nine months which all goes in the mix, but there’s generally little worry about the competency of candidates by this stage as “unless there’s a persistent problem that makes us feel 3VB is not the right place for the individual, including because of the demanding complex nature of the work and the fact that our youngest tenants all need to hit the ground running, they all will meet the standard.”

“It’s like being at a business; like working at a modern, up-to-date firm with a modern clerking team,” one junior told us, so “it’s maybe not as old-fashioned as other sets.” When it came to culture, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the international flavour of 3VB was a big part of the set’s identity: “There are a lot of people from places all over the world. Most people here are interested in law as an intellectual discipline as well as practice.” Of course, before you get the wrong idea, “people are just friendly!” Pullum stresses that this friendliness is reflected “across chambers and its staff, so it is very convivial,” demonstrated through shared social events and an open-door policy for both clerks and members.

The Application Process

Anywhere between 200 to 300 applicants apply via the Pupillage Gateway each year, something that the set has no intention of changing anytime soon. Applications are always going to be a little stressful, but a current pupil at the set told us they “actually quite enjoyed it! It was one of the more interesting things to write because the questions required you to think about your interests and why this set in particular.” As well as the typical standard questions probing your interest in the commercial Bar, you get “a question about how one conceived of their ethical duties in the context of the work chambers does.”

The first round takes the form of a mini pupillage which, Kramer explains, “is de facto compulsory, because we want to see everyone in chambers and we want them to see us.” This takes place over two days, with the second day featuring a 20-minute interview where applicants talk about a case they were given in advance to a panel of three members and one silk.

Roughly 24 candidates make it through to the second round, which is also undertaken in front of a panel – this time over half an hour, in front of four members and a silk, and on “a slightly more structured problem. This year’s was on a loan contract dispute.” The exercise changes year on year but candidates will typically do something along the lines of structured advice for a client, all in a closed set of documents given beforehand. “We don’t want to disadvantage those without experience in practice but with the natural abilities,” Kramer explains, so “we give them the same cases to talk about, and get them to argue their case or give advice.”

“…we want people who can adapt the point you’ve made, use it, and slightly adjust their argument.”

“We have, give or take, five pupils every year, who are always amazing and varied,” Kramer tells us, and although most will have a first at either undergraduate or postgraduate level “it’s not a formal requirement.” Ultimately, “we’re looking for that person who can engage in the moment, on their feet – we want people who can adapt the point you’ve made, use it, and slightly adjust their argument.”

Mooting is one place applicants can improve these skills, but Kramer stresses that to really stand out you should “have in mind that it’s not just about showing your knowledgeable in law; it’s about having a flexible brain and asking yourself the question: if the facts change, does this still hold up?”