New Square Chambers - True Picture

New Square Chambers pupillage review 2025

The Chambers

Whilst there are indeed more practical reasons as to why pupillage at New Square might be for you, the set’s quaint Georgian townhouse setting certainly offers a good starting point. There’s a clear sense of identity that permeates through the picturesque setting too. For head of chambers Nicholas Le Poidevin, “we are a general chancery set with three core practice areas,” namely “trusts and estates, private client, and company commercial – which also encompasses areas such as property and insolvency.” As senior clerk Michelle Greene explains, “probably 30-40% of our work is trusts and estates, 20-25% on property, and the remaining work would be commercial and insolvency.”

“…we are certainly starting to branch out and broaden what we do.”

Trusts & estates – while still the set’s specialism – now forms a smaller percentage of New Square’s work than it used to. As Greene puts it: “We have built a strong reputation for our private client practice, and we are now gaining recognition for our chancery commercial work as well. In particular, we have been actively promoting our barristers in the commercial insolvency space. While we are not yet as widely known in this area, we are steadily expanding our presence and broadening our expertise.” The set receives plenty of relevant nods in the Chambers UK Bar guide too, encompassing commercial and traditional chancery, agriculture & rural affairs, company law, and offshore. On the trusts side, one recent case saw barrister Mark Hubbard act for a major Isle of Man trust services provider in a high-profile liquidation involving over 1000 trusts. On the chancery side, George Laurence KC acted in a public inquiry which was the culmination of over ten years of litigation between a landowner and Cumbria County Council over a map modification order which added 18 new footpaths to the land in question.

Something else that’s worth a mention, particularly for our student readership, is that New Square boasts “a strong collection of published works within chambers,” according to Le Poidevin. This includes Lewin on Trusts, a major legal textbook which covers all aspects of trusts law and “which approximately 90% of practitioners use,” Greene adds. The set also houses authors of “a private client wills book and a guide for executors and administrators” along with authoritative texts on shareholder rights, protectors of trust, and community assets. Google them!

New Square attracts a fair amount of work in the Caribbean, alongside plenty closer to home in “the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man” too.Greene is quick to highlight that “I firmly believe in looking beyond just the magic circle firms,” and whilst the set does dabble in some of the big names, Greene notes that “we work extensively with smaller boutique and high street firms in London and throughout the country.”

The Pupillage Experience

Describing the structure of pupillage at New Square, one junior explained that “we split it broadly into four four-month sections” with “four different supervisors each, for an equal period.” The aim is for pupils to spend time with supervisors across a spread of practices in chambers, to expose each pupil to a bit of everything. For instance, as one former pupil recalled: “My first supervisor was in wills & trusts, my second in company and insolvency, and my third in land & property-related work.” Head of pupillage James Saunders explains that “the fourth seat is a little bit more up for grabs. We’ll find someone for that who does something a bit more unique.” Throughout the first six, as Saunders explains, “we aim to insulate our pupils for the first month or two, by which I mean they’ll only do work for their supervisors directly because that’s when they’re starting to find their feet.” After all, it’s a steep learning curve transitioning from “whatever they’ve been doing previously to – how do I get to grips with research? How do I write the kinds of documents I’m being asked to write?”

The general consensus was that by the time pupils get their teeth into these kinds of documents, it’s exclusively on live work: “We’re not given artificial tasks or historic work that previous people have done.” Of course, Saunders clarifies, “we don’t expose pupils to work for other people – at least not in the substantive sense. Pupilsmight go to hearings and attend conferences, but they won’t be doing advices for the wider membership from day one.” Yet for Saunders, what separates pupillage at New Square from other chancery sets is a real, “genuinely practicing second six. They’ll often be in court!” Another positive is that pupils aren’t made to suffer through a formal assessment process: “We don’t even do any form of mock advocacy assessment,” one pupil told us, “no written examination at all.” Instead, “everything you do throughout the year is considered.”

“…that doesn’t mean that everything has to be perfect! I think what chambers is looking for is being able to work on feedback.”

Of course, “that doesn’t mean that everything has to be perfect! I think what chambers is looking for is being able to work on feedback” they suggested, “I got feedback – both written and oral - on every single piece of work I did.” This feedback is delivered via a form where supervisors will enter their comments alongside In fact, they continued, “little tick boxes saying, ‘below standard expected’, ‘meeting’, or ‘exceeding.’ So as you’re progressing along, you know whether or not you’re hitting what’s expected.” This means that pupils can rest assured that there won’t be any surprises when it comes to the tenancy decision, which is made around June/July. Saunders explains that “the pupillage committee will write a report that has with it a recommendation that they’re either offered tenancy or not.” With members afforded an equal vote, a simple majority is required, before tenancy is officially offered to “usually one, but up to two” budding barristers.

When the topic of social life comes up, “people think it means they’ll have to be going to the pub every Wednesday or whatever,” one pupil explained, “and whilst there is that and people that want to do that,there’s honestly so much more beyond it!” New Square boasts a yearly Christmas party and more informal lunches, along with a Chambers Tea on Tuesdays at 4pm “with tea and cake in a room where people can just come in and have a chat.” This is supplemented by a number of networking and business development events which pupils are encouraged to attend. One former pupil was quick to highlight that this had helped create “an open space” where “you feel happy to go talk to someone about something you’re struggling with, even if it’s not work-related.” All pupils have a mentor in addition to a supervisor who is there for pastoral support.

The Application Process

Saunders makes clear that “we’re on the Gateway system – as everyone has been for a while now!” The written application was described as “fairly conventional” with the sorts of questions you might expect, along the lines of “why do you want to be a member of New Square, or why do you want to be a chancery barrister?” Then, Saunders tells us, “we tend to have a question geared towards diversity & inclusion and its role in the wider bar.” The initial round of questioning finishes with a “legal question – generic enough so that people who have not done law degrees can answer it as well as those who have studied law” in which candidates are given 1000 words to produce a response. Last year’s, Saunders explains, was: “Should there be a limitation period to challenge the validity of a will?” This anonymised paper sift, Saunders notes, typically sees between 150-200 applicants, before the candidates are whittled down to “no more than 40” who will subsequently advance to the first-round interview stage in front of a panel of two or three members of chambers.

The first-round interview process consists predominantly of “a legal comprehension exercise” in which – 10-15 minutes beforehand – the candidates receive an obscure piece of legislation that they will then face questions on. The advice on deck is to also expect some questions relating to “work history, interests, and abilities” as per their CV application, Saunders tells us. Around 12 candidates are then put through to the second round, which consists of a pre-prepared oral advocacy exercise. As Saunders outlines, “there’s normally a panel comprising of five of us across differing seniorities in chambers, where we do 20-30 minutes of the candidate presenting their case and we’ll then argue back and forth.” Sometimes, “we have an ethics question in the final round” too, so be prepared!

Feeling daunted? Saunders is quick to reassure prospective candidates that “it’s not a long and complicated process.” As a blanket rule, we heard the process is less about testing knowledge and more about testing skills and potential. As Saunders puts it: “You can come straight out of university and be a brilliant legal mind, but part of our job is to apply some judgment. Whether that’s in terms of how the world works, how people think, how people behave, what their motivators and de-motivators are, and how that all influences the advice you’re going to give and the way that you try and persuade people.”So, how does chambers measure that? Well, according to Saunders, it’s about real experience of the world around you: “Even if people haven’t done something legal between university and applying for the job, any form of exposure to the real world is incredibly helpful.”