4 New Square Chambers
4 New Square is a leading commercial barristers chambers acting and advising in a wide variety of disputes both domestically and internationally.
In recent years individual members of 4 New Square have consistently been included as leading practitioners in the two main legal directories (Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners) and 4 New Square has been regularly named as the top set for professional negligence work at the Chambers UK Bar Awards. Jackson & Powell on Professional Liability (the main text in this area) is written and edited by current and former members of chambers.
Chambers attracts a large amount of junior advocacy work in a wide range of fields and are regularly involved in high profile cases, which reflects the emphasis on developing pupils and junior tenants into experienced advocates to equip them for a successful career at the Bar.
Banking and financial services, civil fraud, commercial, commercial chancery, company and insolvency, construction, contentious trusts and probate, costs and litigation funding, disciplinary, energy, IT, insurance and reinsurance, international arbitration, offshore, product liability, professional liability, property damage, public international law, public law and human rights, real property and sports.
Our aim is to recruit four new tenants each year and it is our express intention, wherever possible, to source those tenants from our own 12-month pupils. As it is our hope and ambition that each of our pupils should reach the required objective standard for tenancy, it follows that our general recruitment practice is to select an average of four 12-month pupils each year. We do not stream our pupils and each has an equal prospect of securing a tenancy.
Considering prospective candidates for pupillage or mini-pupillage, we concentrate on four criteria:
• Evidence of the requisite intellectual ability, as distinct from pure legal knowledge. At this stage intellectual ability is usually measured by performance in university and school examinations and at interview and other experience. We may also require applicants to complete a piece of written work during the course of the selection process
• Potential as an advocate both in oral and written advocacy
• Personal qualities such as self-reliance, independence, integrity, reliability and the capacity to work effectively with clients, colleagues and Chambers’ staff
• Motivation to succeed in a career at the Bar, including the steps taken to acquire the personal qualities required of a barrister
The first six months: You will go to court and attend conferences with your pupil supervisor. You will also assist them with their written work: carrying out written advisory and drafting work on their current papers and undertaking detailed research on the law.
The second six months: As well as continuing with work for your pupil supervisor, you will take on an increasing amount of your own court work. Chambers places a strong emphasis on advocacy and supports its pupils in gaining valuable practical experience. You can expect to be in court on your own about once a week up to the tenancy decision and potentially on a more regular basis thereafter. You will be expected to complete four assessed pieces of work for other members of Chambers. There will be training provided throughout pupillage (details of which can be found on our chambers website) and you will be expected to complete three assessed pieces of written work for other members of Chambers and undertake two advocacy assessments.
Mini-pupillages
Mini-pupillages are available to those who have completed at least two years of a university degree.
We offer four mini-pupillage days per year. Two dates in Summer, usually in July & September and two dates in Winter, usually in December & January. On each mini-pupillage day we will welcome up to 20 mini-pupils.
The mini-pupillage day will comprise of:
• Q&A sessions with both senior and junior members of chambers about the work which 4 New Square does, the pupillage application process and life as a pupil and junior tenant.
• A lunch at Lincoln’s Inn with members of chambers.
• The opportunity to engage one-to-one with a member of chambers about their work, life at 4 New Square and who will also supervise a written exercise.
For mini-pupils based outside London we reimburse reasonable domestic travel and accommodation expenses up to £350 on production of receipts.
Mini-pupils are assessed during their time in chambers, and this assessment is considered in respect of any pupillage application that may be submitted in the future.
Mini-pupillages are not a pre-requisite for a pupillage application, but we encourage potential applicants to do a mini-pupillage in chambers. We believe it is a valuable opportunity to get an understanding of the work we do here, to meet members of chambers and to get a feel for the working environment.
Applications must be made on Chambers’ own mini-pupillage application form, which can be found on our website.
As members of chambers are self-employed individuals, many charitable and other good causes are supported on an individual rather than a collective basis. An area which has drawn particularly strong support from chambers over the years has been the promotion of social mobility in the legal profession. Chambers support many social mobility initiatives, such as:
•Bridging the Bar – Chambers are one of the Founding Partners and support their Mini-Pupillage scheme. The schemes aim is to increase diversity at the Bar
• 10,000 Black Interns - aims to help transform the horizons and prospects of young Black people in the United Kingdom
• Sutton Trust Pathways to Law – The programme supports Year 12 and 13 students from non-privileged backgrounds interested in a career in law
• Inner Temple Pegasus Access Scheme – The scheme’s aim is to improve access to the profession and to support high achieving students from under-represented backgrounds by providing the experiences they need to be able to thrive at the Bar
• Social Mobility Foundation - The Foundation provides support for students wishing to consider careers in different areas
• COMBAR Mentoring Scheme - is for under-represented applicants to the Bar (especially the Commercial Bar). The aim is to provide guidance, a degree of realism and support - and ultimately access to discussions / insights which the mentees would otherwise find it very difficult to obtain.
• RARE Contextual Recruitment System – Chambers use this system which in conjunction with their interview system to allow them to see students’ achievements in context by using various indices.
4 New Square was one of the first sets of chambers to be awarded a Wellbeing at the Bar Certificate of Recognition and is signed up to various initiatives such as:
• Mindful Business Charter
• Wellbeing at the Bar