Selborne Chambers - True Picture

Selborne Chambers pupillage review 2026

The Chambers

“I’ve been here since day one and, even in my wildest dreams, I couldn’t predict that now, 23 years later, we’d have ten silks and 40 odd juniors,” senior clerk Darren Madle relays. “We started off in 2002 with just nine barristers, so we’ve seen a huge amount of growth.” Much of this is down to a series of group hires over the past five years, which have bolstered the set’s commercial, insolvency and private client practices.

All this is part of the reason why Madle is so keen to emphasise: “we’re not just a property set. We don’t want people to pigeonhole us as a place that does just one area of law.” The Chambers UK  Bar  rankings tell a similar story, with Selborne earning a shiny real estate litigation accolade, alongside a recognition in all things commercial chancery. So, for one junior tenant, the appeal was clear: “It’s a real mixture of advocacy by yourself in lower courts, and you’re in and out of county courts and the Insolvency and Companies court. I’ve also been led twice in the Court of Appeal so far – it’s really interesting stuff.”

As an example, on the commercial chancery side, Nicholas Trompeter KC represented Westfield Europe in its million-pound IP and contract dispute with Clearpay. Meanwhile, Ian Clarke KC has acted for a Tui subsidiary in a liability dispute in the Easter Caribbean Supreme Court. Over in traditional chancery, Clifford Darton KC has led a number of will disputes, one of which involves the administration of a £100 million estate.

“We have a huge amount of work in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Sussex…”

It's not just headcount; Selborne has also been expanding the geographic scale of its work. The Cayman Islands, Dubai, Bermuda and Gibraltar are a few examples of areas in which the network is expanding internationally. Closer to home, Madle highlights how: “much of Chambers’ court work is in the Commercial and Business & Property Courts in London. However, we also have a huge amount of work in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Sussex… COVID actually helped the London Bar because we can meet with those firms virtually, and don’t need to charge for travel time.” He also explains that bolstering the junior end of chambers has been a priority: “We make sure to invite paralegals, trainees and newly qualified lawyers for breakfast seminars so that our pupils and junior juniors can get to know their solicitor equivalents. They’ll grow up with each other over the years, and building those relationships means they’ll start sending them work.”

The Pupillage Experience

Though Selborne used to follow a four-seat model, pupillage here now consists of three four-month seats. “The main reason we’ve done that is so that the second seat straddles the transition from the first six to the practising second six,” head of pupillage committee William McCormick KC explains, “It’s a major change, and we thought that the continuity of the second supervisor was more beneficial than a fourth seat.” From a pupil’s perspective, “it meant I could focus on building my own practice and my own cases, and my supervisor was very supportive while I was making that jump.”

“I could learn about the hearing process instead of turning up carrying someone’s briefcase, not knowing what the application was!”

Still, three seats are more than enough to get a spread of chambers’ practices as each supervisor will have a different emphasis. In particular, there’s an effort to sit pupils with a property specialist in their first four months as “most of what pupils do when they first go out on their own is property related, but that early diet of work also includes commercial, insolvency, and trusts and estates work” says McCormick. After that, pupils will gain experience in insolvency and commercial law, though the first six mostly consists of written work.

Some of this is historic work that has been given to previous pupils so they can benchmark their progress, but otherwise it’ll be live work. “I’d work on the same cases as my first supervisor,” a pupil recalled, “He’d get me to draft a skeleton argument at the same time he was drafting it – though not with the same deadline – which meant that I had a firm understanding of the case by the time we’d go to court. I could learn about the hearing process instead of turning up carrying someone’s briefcase, not knowing what the application was!” Aside from this, pupils typically get stuck into drafting pleadings and advice, so: “all of it is work you actually end up doing when you start your own practice,” according to a junior tenant.

Pupils will do work for their supervisors and also some work for members of chambers who “are a bit more difficult to please than others, but they are, quite frankly, the people who are best suited to getting someone to tenant level. If they say a pupil is up to the mark, the vast majority of chambers will agree.” It’s worth noting that this is not meant to be a formal exam of any sort, but pupils will do an advocacy exercise ahead of the second six. Again, this is a progress check more than it is a test so, while it is “challenging,” it’s a way to measure whether pupils are ready to get on their feet. “It’s essentially testing how you hold up with a slightly stroppy and impatient judge,” our pupil interviewee explained.

So, when the second six hits, pupils jump straight into their own practice. Our more junior interviewees noted that they felt prepared for the experience as they had the chance to observe possessions and winding up petitions (“the bread and butter at the junior end,” a pupil explained) in court before getting on their feet. Pupils will typically be in court two or three times a week – that’s certainly not the case at every commercial chancery set, so McCormick clarifies that “we make sure to emphasise our court practice during the recruitment process.”

The tenancy decision typically takes place in July, and all the work pupils have done in the first nine months of pupillage is considered. This includes feedback from supervisors and other members of chambers, as well as notes from clerks and even solicitors they’ve worked with. A formal record is kept of pupils’ progress to keep track of what is going well and what can be improved, meaning that, for McCormick, “the most rewarding outcome isn’t a pupil who’s been brilliant throughout, but someone who wasn’t doing well at the start and improved.” So, even though the tenancy decision nerves can’t be escaped, a junior tenant recalled, “I felt comfortable in the lead-up to the decision. Feedback had been very transparent, thorough and upfront, so there were no surprises.” A pupil agreed, noting how: “even if you’ve dropped the ball, missed the mark or got it wrong, feedback is entirely constructive. They won’t withhold praise when praise is due, either.”

“I found myself in a tux cycling to the venue on a lime bike with the head of chambers!”

We heard that this supportive approach is reflective of the Selborne culture as a whole. One pupil described the place as “very unstuffy,” telling us about how “chambers occasionally does grander affairs, such as a retirement dinner I went to in King’s Cross. It was one of the funnier moments of pupillage – I found myself in a tux cycling to the venue on a lime bike with the head of chambers!” In keeping with the biking theme, there’s also a charity cycle ride from London to Brighton, as well as ski trips, after-work drinks and a monthly chambers lunch. Day to day, people keep their office doors open, and “if a member sees your light on late, they’ll politely but firmly say, ‘I hope you’re thinking of going home soon.’ Presenteeism is looked down upon enormously, and I’m always reminded that pupillage is a marathon, not a sprint.”

The Application Process

Selborne recruits via the Gateway and receives around 100 applications per year. Around 20 make it past the initial paper sift and are invited to a first-stage interview with a five-member panel. “We mark communication skills, interpersonal skills, advocacy, resilience and motivation,” says McCormick, “We don’t bother with academic background as that is cleared during the sift.” Candidates are asked the standard competency questions and are also given a legal problem half an hour before the interview.

Here, they are tested on their ability to argue a point and respond to questioning, rather than their legal knowledge or any ‘correct’ answer. “It was quite difficult but enjoyable,” a pupil reminisced, “The hypothetical question is meant to simulate what it would be like if a judge in the county court were trying to challenge the strengths of your case.”

Those who make it through to a second-stage interview are first invited to chambers for an informal, off-the-record Q&A session with a junior tenant and members of the clerking team. “They can get a feel for the people at the bottom end of chambers, ask questions, take a look at our premises and eat some of our food,” McCormick explains. “It’s something we brought in following feedback from people who turned down a pupillage offer from us.”

The second interview follows a similar format with both general questions and a problem question, which this year focused on whether the cab-rank rule should be retained. After this, offers are made with the intention of taking on two pupils who “we’re confident we can offer tenancy to. We’re not interested in letting them fight it out for a limited number of places,” McCormick assures.

“Be clear about why you’re applying to us and why we should regard you as a long-term prospect.”

McCormick’s primary piece of advice here is to avoid generic applications: “I understand why pupillage applications have to be cut and pasted to some extent, but it really does make a difference when we can see that someone understands what we’re about. Be clear about why you’re applying to us and why we should regard you as a long-term prospect.” When it comes to interviews, however, a pupil was quick to advise, “treat any problem questions as court hearings. Try your best to be unflustered, stay laser-focused on the question and recognise that they’re pushing you to get the best out of you.”