Hailsham Chambers - True Picture

Hailsham Chambers pupillage review 2026

The Chambers

“I would consider us to be a top-tier set in the areas that we specialise in,” senior clerk Stephen Smith tells us, namely “professional negligence, clinical negligence and costs.” Big talk, but Hailsham has the rankings to back it up. In the latest Chambers UK Bar guide, Hailsham has a top-tier costs litigation ranking across all circuits, as well as strong clinical and professional negligence rankings in London.

Smith reckons that these areas account for the majority of the work coming into Hailsham Chambers in approximately equal proportions, with some “other bits and bobs in between,” such as commercial work, insurance, trusts and personal injury. “The odd case here and there” comes from overseas, often the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar and Hong Kong, making up 1-2% of total cases, he informs us.

While pupils and juniors at Hailsham don’t get involved in costs work under about seven years post-call, Smith would like to highlight how “the costs team has really developed itself. We're going from strength to strength,” including the recent acquisition of two juniors from Kings Chambers.

“You get the chance to combine medicine with law in a very interesting way…”

Focusing back on the clinical negligence side of things, what’s the draw? “You get the chance to combine medicine with law in a very interesting way,” one pupil told us. Professional negligence, by contrast, is “the same thing but applied to different professions, so you get the chance to read these expert reports which highlight the kind of thing that would be expected of all of them. It's actually very interesting to engage with that.”

Negligence is a bit more predictable. About 80% of the professional negligence work is for the defendant insurer. As for clinical negligence, Hailsham works for the firms on the major insurers’ panels, medical defence organisations and private insurers: “There's quite a lot of private work coming from the medical side of things now too because cosmetic surgery, dentistry, all this sort of stuff is leading to legal action. So, they are the bringing in claims on a private insurance basis,” Smith adds.

In one recent clinical negligence case, Alexander Hutton KC represented Circle Healthcare against a claim after a 19-year-old was left severely brain damaged as a result of low blood pressure during a hip resurfacing operation. The private hospital was sued over the negligence of an anaesthetist who had left the country and had indemnity refused. The claimant sought to overturn the established understanding that hospitals were not liable for the negligence of private consultants.

Professional negligence covers a wide range of fields, even legal. For example, William Flenley KC represented a solicitor’s firm who had acted in a development in North London which led to litigation involving other lawyers. The case revolved around whether the loss claimed was caused by the later litigation rather than earlier conduct.

“We're not the biggest of sets, we're up to about 60 now,” says Smith; “we’re at a stage where we need to expand” to an approximate target of 85 barristers in five to ten years, he tells us. What would this mean in practice? Hailsham is looking at “enhancing the areas we’ve got,” such as adding more construction negligence and auditor work under the umbrella of professional negligence, doing more private medical work and growing its chancery trusts work.

The Pupillage Experience

Pupils have three supervisors across three seats. The first two seats last three months and the third and final seat lasts six months, coinciding with a practising second six. Generally, for each of the three-month seats the pupil will have one supervisor who does professional negligence and one who does clinical negligence, so “effectively in your first two seats you've covered professional and clinical negligence,” says Head of Pupillage Heather McMahon. For the third supervisor, “there’s no real restriction on their subject area, it can be a mixture of things, they can be exclusively practising in one area or another,” adds McMahon.

In their first few weeks, pupils are often eased into pupillage by starting with dead work. During this period, they’ll also see live work via their supervisors. Pupils will draft defences, particulars, opinions, advice, applications and skeleton arguments, often ones their supervisor has done fairly recently.

“…brilliant for advocacy experience, witness handling, and knowing how to read the judge.”

Pupils are usually in court one or two times a week during the second six. Pupils also do six to eight pieces of assessed work for various members of chambers during this period, reducing the amount of time that they’ll spend working exclusively for their supervisor.

Speaking about this balance in second six, a former pupil told us that “we loved it because the drafting in chambers tended to be quite meaty, complex cases and novel points of law, and we'd be in the library researching. It was quite academic.” In contrast, their cases in small claims court, generally road traffic accidents, were “nothing as complex.” This time on their feet was “brilliant for advocacy experience, witness handling, and knowing how to read the judge.”

When it comes to grace periods, the message is clear, according to McMahon: “Particularly in the first three months, there is recognition given to the fact that this is a completely new thing. It's a massive learning curve, frankly, and pupils will make mistakes.” When it comes to assessments, “one or two pieces may not be fabulous,” she reassures us, but “we are interested in the trajectory and whether the trajectory and whether the work improves as pupillage progresses.”

So, by the date of the tenancy decision, “the question is really: what does the body of work look like, stepping back and looking at it as a whole? By the end of pupillage, will this person reach the standard that is expected of a junior tenant at Hailsham? And if the answer to that question is yes, they will be offered tenancy.”

Hailsham Chambers runs an advocacy programme with sessions held roughly once a month. Fairly junior members teach pupils the basics of advocacy and take them through the various kinds of advocacy that they should expect to do in the first few years of their career, such as a submission-based advocacy exercise and one that involves handling witnesses.

Feedback on advocacy training is given verbally and on the spot by the acting judge and the member or two of chambers who play the witnesses. Written work is returned with tracked changes or comments alongside a version completed by the supervisor, so the pupil can compare the two. As for the assessed advocacy exercises, pupils receive a printout with the criteria for getting tenancy, each section filled out with comments and marks. “It was very easy to see where you were needing improvement and where you did very well,” said a former pupil.

The tenancy decision is based on a few factors, and the final decision is a vote by all of chambers. Firstly, and most importantly, the pupillage committee receives reports for all three pupil supervisors. While the clerks aren’t formally involved in the decision, they give an informal impression to the committee, “so it's great to have clerks on board as well for that tenancy decision,” hinted a former pupil. The final two advocacy exercises and assessed pieces of work completed during second six also count.

Most tenants are in chambers at least three days a week, so the majority of supervision is in person. Standard working hours for pupils are 9am to 6pm, “it definitely doesn't help you to stay late and look like you're working really hard,” a former pupil explained; “members want to see that you can work hard, but effectively and efficiently, and you don't need to be doing long hours to do that.”

The Application Process

Candidates submit an application form on the Pupillage Gateway. The written application involves a problem question based on Hailsham’s core practice areas: “It's quite helpful actually,” recalled a current pupil, “you get a good sense pretty quickly of whether this is something you actually find interesting, ie, is this the place for me?” Then, around 16 to 18 candidates are invited to a single-round interview in which they respond to a legal problem question.

“We look for judgement, we look for practical awareness, and we look for the determination and resilience to succeed in a career at the Bar.”

What is Hailsham Chambers looking for in applicants? Beyond strong analytical skills, intellectual ability and communication skills, Hailsham really looks for analytical ability and potential as an advocate, “because obviously we recognise that people come to us at different stages of their legal education,” explains McMahon, “We look for judgement, we look for practical awareness, and we look for the determination and resilience to succeed in a career at the Bar.”

“People use these words, they sound a bit trite, but it is really collegiate, everyone's got their doors open and it does make a big difference,” one junior told us. “When I walk down the corridor I say hi to people just because I can see them,” explained a former pupil. A current pupil added: “You're made to feel so welcome and part of a very intelligent, intellectual group of people who really want you to succeed.”

There are plenty of wellbeing initiatives and social events for pupils to get their teeth stuck into. On that note, why not start with Hailsham’s “pizza lunches” where everyone gets together for (you guessed it) pizza at lunchtime. “It's a great opportunity to get together, and it is amazing actually how many people will turn up if you offer free food!” jokes McMahon.

“They certainly have a full social calendar!” summarised one pupil, “pupils are encouraged to take part in that – but there's no pressure either to be present, which is quite nice.” Alongside formally organised parties and celebratory drinks, there are informal trips to the pub and members and staff go out for meals and coffee together. Members sometimes get together for play readings, and recently they sat down to read Romeo and Juliet.