Maitland Chambers - True Picture

Maitland Chambers pupillage review 2026

The Chambers

When considering a career at the Bar, it can be difficult to know exactly which area of work to pursue. So why not let one of Maitland’s pupils make a pitch in favour of their set’s particular specialism? “The kind of work we do is really interesting because you've got this blend between traditional chancery, which tends to be property, land, wills, probate, that kind of stuff, and then the more modern stuff, which is property in the more fiscal sense,” one told us.

“…you've got this blend between traditional chancery, which tends to be property, land, wills, probate, that kind of stuff, and then the more modern stuff…”

As senior clerk Robert Penson elaborates: “Our core practice areas within chambers are commercial litigation and arbitration, insolvency & asset recovery, company & partnership offshore and trusts.” That’s alongside strengths in areas like offshore, trusts, asset recovery, real estate and crypto. To put some figures on it, Penson estimates that commercial Chancery, commercial litigation and arbitration make up about 50% of the work coming into chambers and another 20% insolvency. What’s more, Penson estimates that 20-30% of cases come from abroad, in particular the Middle East, Hong Kong and the Caribbean.

The Chambers UK Bar guide awards the set top marks in chancery: commercial, cryptoassets and charities. It also ranks highly in areas like offshore, fraud: civil, partnership, real estate litigation and restructuring/insolvency. One junior was quick to highlight that, regardless of the practice area, “you've got people who are just really at the top of their game, doing fantastic work. The cases are just extraordinary.”

To offer just a few examples, on the commercial Chancery side, Matthew Collings KC acted in the first case in the Court of Appeal concerning applications by office holders and trustees for blessings for significant transactions – in this case, the sale of Blackpool Football Club. Elsewhere, Darragh Connell represented one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges – Bitkub – in a crypto fraud claim. The judgement was the first time the English High Court determined that USD Tether constituted property.

The Pupillage Experience

Pupillage begins in September and lasts 52 weeks, the first 40 of which are assessed. That assessed period is divided into four ten-week chunks, each under a different supervisor. Pupils usually sit in their supervisor’s room and follow their cases, including shadowing them in court. “The first seat is more of an introductory one,” explained a pupil, “you're getting your feet under the table, but by the second seat it really matters that you're starting to cover all the things that are required for the BSB and for chambers.” There’s a general sense that “it's all about learning what you need to do and improving,” ability to act on feedback being one of the criteria used to make the tenancy decision (but more on that in a bit).

“…it's all about learning what you need to do and improving…”

“We try to give the pupils a good mix of supervisors: different personality types, different practices. We try to make sure that they're a representative mix of chambers,” James Kinman, director of pupil selection, tells us. Pupils complete a mix of dead, very recently dead and live work. Typically, pupils will do once piece of work for their supervisor per week, so about ten for each supervisor. Particulars and defences “tend to be the two things that you get the most,” according to a current pupil. This comes alongside the likes of replies to a defence, requests for further information, opinions and sometimes research notes.

Supervisors’ comments on completed assignments “can be really extensive, sometimes a page of notes and commentary on what could have been improved,” a pupil informed us. Often dead work is something the supervisor worked on a few years ago, so pupils will have the opportunity to compare their version to their supervisor’s work as part of the feedback process. There will also be a sit-down feedback session, “so it's very interactive,” a pupil told us. Pupils’ work is usually returned with a grade from A to E, where “an A is what we'd expect of a new tenant,” Kinman explains. As a result of all this, an insider reckoned that “by the time of the tenancy decision, we were pretty clear what our standing was in chambers and whether we were likely to get tenancy.”

From January to June, there’s an advocacy assessment every month, meaning there are five in total. “Various members of chambers will take turns to play the judge, and then there are always three assessors who are on the pupillage committee who sit in all of the assessments.” The best advice? “There's a very strong emphasis as well on the written skeletons, so preparation in writing is important as well as the oral advocacy.”

“We grade them on how well they're doing and give them lots of constructive feedback in the hopes that when they're doing it for real, they'll feel like they're well prepared rather than being thrown into the deep end for the first time.”

As pupillage at Maitland is non-practising, these advocacy exercises “are incredibly important, certainly in terms of ensuring that when you're actually on your feet, you know what you're doing.” This is echoed by Kinman: “We grade them on how well they're doing and give them lots of constructive feedback in the hopes that when they're doing it for real, they'll feel like they're well prepared rather than being thrown into the deep end for the first time.”

On all assessed work, pupils are given a single grade and detailed feedback. These are used to measure pupils’ reasoning and analysis, advocacy skills, judgement, and presentation skills, as well as their ability to complete the basic tasks of a barrister. At the end of each seat, there’s a final summary meeting where the pupil receives overall marks and feedback on their work during that seat.

The marks and feedback given for written exercises and advocacy exercises completed throughout pupillage are taken into account for the tenancydecision in the form of written reports from each supervisor. This comes alongside a discussion between the four supervisors and three advocacy assessors. These members – aside from the director of pupillage training and head of the pupillage committee who are in attendance as non-voting members – have the final vote on whether a pupil should be given tenancy. “We're very keen to take on absolutely everyone that we think is of the standard,” says Kinman.

During the final 12 weeks the pupil usually sits in their last supervisor’s office, “but you are in some way discharged from being officially supervised at this point,” in the words of a former pupil. Instead, they receive work from other members of chambers “to see what they’re doing and so therefore get an even broader sense of what kind of work is going on in chambers.”

While there’s plenty of work to keep pupils busy, “chambers were very keen that we should understand that the hours were 9am to 6pm, and that was the requirement.”

The Application Process

Two rounds of interviews follow initial applications via the Pupillage Gateway. Typically, chambers invites about 40 interviewees to the first round and ten to the second. The first-round interview includes a couple of competency-based questions on topics like when candidates have overcome adversity or worked in a team: “We're grading them on advocacy, how they think, judgment and interpersonal skills. This is partly by asking them to describe situations in which they have demonstrated these skills and partly through a problem question,” says Kinman. This is usually a short extract from a contract or a bit of legislation.

The second-round interview is a different yet “more substantial version of the problem question” of the first round, Kinman tells us. For these problem questions, applicants are assessed on how well they can argue for and against certain propositions based on materials they’re given beforehand: “We are very careful when setting those questions to try not to test people's legal knowledge, because we understand that candidates are at all sorts of different stages of their education and we want the best people, not those who happen to know the most,” says Kinman.

Maitland organises a social lunch for second-round candidates. “We came into chambers and we had some food, got to meet some junior members, ask our questions and get to know one another,” reminisced one pupil, “it was a really, really nice process. It was part of the reason that I was so keen to come to Maitland because I just found the application process so painless and enjoyable.” There’s also an hour where they meet the clerks.

For successful candidates, “chambers’ culture is surprisingly fun and funny,” shared a pupil, “it’s incredibly social. They've just had so many parties for us!” These include welcome drinks at the beginning of pupillage, client parties, a Christmas party, a summer party and drinks to celebrate pupils becoming tenants, “any opportunity to get together and have fun and party is always taken!”

On a weekly basis, there are drinks in the clerks’ room on a Friday evening, a trip to the pub (known informally as ‘PubCo’) and fish and chip Fridays. There’s also the chance to catch up with colleagues every day over afternoon tea: “If you're looking for a friendly set that is forward-thinking and has really interesting work, I would recommend Maitland.”