St John's Chambers - True Picture

St John’s Chambers pupillage review 2026

The Chambers

For those who aren’t already in the know, you don’t always have to pack your bags, wave goodbye and head to the capital in search of a rewarding career at the Bar. “St John’s can offer you fantastic work and great people to work alongside,” Richard Khaldi the chief executive of the set tells us, “it’s a relaxed but highly effective culture, with the real ability to take your career from where you are now to where you want to be.”

And, as Khaldi is quick to point out, the set’s Bristol home is “a fantastic place to live and work! Bristol is booming - it’s a big and growing legal market going from strength to strength. We can service the work here and have the advantages from being close to those clients.”

“Bristol is booming, it’s a big and growing market going from strength to strength.”

This year, “looking to consolidate the great gains we have made over recent years,” the set is taking on five pupils. Those who join will undertake a specialist pupillage across one of the core practices: personal injury and clinical negligence, chancery and commercial, or family. The set is awarded the top acknowledgments in the Chambers UK Bar guide in the West for all three, alongside its real estate litigation, construction and company law know-how.

As such, “it’s a deep client base with a broad mix of private and public work with instructions from both regional and national firms,” Khaldi adds. As one former pupil put it: “It allowed me to do the specialist pupillage I wanted to do at an excellent set, where I could have an excellent career in terms of the breadth and quality of the work, but also be in the South West.”

In one headline-catching Chancery case, Alex Troup KC acted for the defendants in a claim against the assets and estate (worth several million) of a deceased farmer in the Court of Appeal, which brought into focus proprietary estoppel (where people can claim rights to a property based on the promises made by a deceased person).

Over in the clinical negligence space, Dr Rachel Segal represented the family of a baby who died a few hours after his birth in an Exeter maternity unit, pressing for an admission at inquest that the death was preventable and the result of incorrect and incomplete midwifery telephone triage advice.

The Pupillage Experience

At St John’s, incoming pupils have the opportunity to express their interests within their specialism: “There is absolutely no expectation that they should have a specific interest, but we will try and cater for any specific interests whilst ensuring that pupils get exposure to the broad range of topics each practice group covers,” explains Brittany Pearce, a pupillage committee member. For instance, pupils in family are assigned one supervisor but have the opportunity to spend time in matrimonial and children’s law. Those in chancery and commercial will have between two and four supervisors across insolvency, commercial, property and estates, to get a feel for the breadth of practice.

Over in personal injury and clinical negligence, pupils typically have two supervisors over the course of pupillage. Throughout, pupils will work alongside members of different seniorities. “You start off doing work for your supervisor,” Pearce explains, then “we encourage all members of the team to set work and pass on feedback.”

In the first six, pupils are largely getting to grips with their supervisor’s practice, shadowing and working alongside them and other team members on live cases: “We would do the task at the same time and then compare,” a junior described. Occasionally members might set historic work as well. “I spent the first six months largely on papers,” a chancery pupil recalled, across “everything within the chancery umbrella – contentious probate trusts work, landlord and tenant, boundary disputes, easements, rights of way.”

Pupils roll up their sleeves with research, drafting items such as opinions and pleadings, and assisting on the preparation for case management, trial or joint settlement meetings. “I attended a hearing for a case that has been running for several years – hearing about it, meeting the parties and helping the claim progress in some way was very interesting and satisfying,” one recalled.

“I felt prepared, but I knew that if I ever need anything, I could go to my colleagues at any time…”

In the run-up to the practising second six, pupils shadow the junior members of their practice. While it can seem daunting, “I felt prepared, but I knew that if I ever need anything, I could go to my colleagues at any time,” a pupil emphasised. During this time, “pupils start out by doing small claims and interim hearings – lower value claims to cut your teeth on,” a junior highlighted; “that has decreased as I have more of a paperwork practice now.”

Pupils will find themselves in court around three times a week, taking on road traffic accident cases involving credit hire and personal injury, or landlord and tenant cases related to possession and bankruptcy hearings. One shared: “We’re doing very serious pieces of work, it felt good to be trusted with that so early on in my career.”

When it came to hours, “the expectation is that we will work from 8.30am till 5pm,” a pupil told us, “but there is quite a transition between that and second six. The nature of going to court is that there is more last-minute stuff.” However, “that is why you’re not in court every day, so you can prep for those hearings and make sure you’re still keeping a work/life balance too,” a junior pointed out. 

“We don’t expect pupils to be sure-footed and get everything entirely right – it is always a learning curve.”

Pupils have quarterly reviews with their supervisor and a member of the pupillage committee: “There were never any shocks or surprises in terms of where I had done well or where I needed to develop further,” an insider shared, “it is a continuous conversation.” It’s something Pearce echoes: “We don’t expect pupils to be sure-footed and get everything entirely right - it is always a learning curve. Our training is designed to get them ready to be on their feet by the time they start their second six and for tenancy.”

While there are no formal assessments, pupils are assessed throughout on the work they do for their supervisors and other members of chambers. The tenancy decision is made on the basis of the supervisor reports – “a detailed overview of the work, the pupil’s growth and progress” – views of members who have had work completed by the pupil, as well as references from clients and judges. “After the team makes a decision, the pupil then applies more generally to chambers as a whole,” Pearce outlines, “the final decision is a chambers-wide vote. If a pupil has the support of their practice group, you would generally expect the support of chambers as a whole to follow.”

“It’s genuinely very supportive and warm, but with a shared ambition to be a strong chambers in the Western Circuit,” a source told us, “that leads to a lot of support between colleagues, with senior colleagues very willing to support juniors.” This extends to the clerks too. On the social side, the set has its annual summer and Christmas parties, practice group lunches, and chambers tea every Thursday afternoon: “People set aside the time to relax and socialise, especially as a pupil at the early stages.” Some practice groups also arrange short trips away together. Pupils also have the support of a buddy, typically a junior tenant to lean on as well.

The Application Process

Following the Pupillage Gateway timetable, St John’s accepts applications directly for its specialist pupillages through its own bespoke form. Anonymised at the paper sift stage, markers (who have received fair recruitment training) receive “no information about their name, university, age, sex or race, to ensure that we’re entirely unbiased,” Pearce explains. The pupillage policy is published on the set’s website. “What we’re really looking for is determination, resilience and motivation,” Pearce shares; “we’re looking for candidates to come in who really want to push not only themselves forward but the set forward as well.”

From there, around 18 of the top applicants are invited to the first-round interview. The focus at this stage is getting an insight into candidates’ analytical, oral and written advocacy abilities. A panel of three ask candidates competency-based questions, and there is a discussion about a legal problem or case sent in advance: “This year it was a Supreme Court decision based on statutory interpretation,” Pearce explains; “we asked them to identify the main points and arguments, and argue for the other side to really test their understanding and to see how they reacted to interventions.”

Following this, around nine candidates progress to the second-round interview. Typically, there is either a hearing or mock trial before a practice group team. With materials received ahead of time, candidates “send a skeleton argument in so that we can mark it,” Pearce explains. For example, in family it might be an application for a non-molestation order. The panel then asks further questions about the set problem and some more competency questions. Candidates are able to request feedback after the first round but will automatically receive it after the second round.

After all of that it is time to relax with a cuppa. With no impact on the recruitment process, candidates are invited to enjoy some tea and cake “to sit with a number of junior tenants to ask questions but also get a feel for us as a set,” Pearce highlights; “we’re trying to show them the sort of atmosphere that you would be invited to join.”

“Can you create those arguments and put them forward in a public setting? Barristers, at the end of the day, are advocates.”

It’s always helpful for aspiring barristers to hear some top tips. And so, Khaldi shares, “grab as many opportunities as you can to be an advocate. If that’s mooting competitions, great, if it is public speaking, great. You need to be creating those arguments and putting them forward in a public setting. At the end of the day barristers are advocates so you should take any opportunity to be on your feet.”

A pupil highlighted: “We’re very interested in real people who have a real personality and will be good to work with as colleagues for a long time. The form ends with a non-law related question: I answered my question about Shakespeare, so don’t think you have to try and squeeze something that sounds legal, just because you think that is what they secretly want.”