St Philips Chambers - True Picture

St Philips Chambers pupillage review 2025 

The Chambers  

Don’t make the mistake of jumping to the conclusion that you need to find yourself in the capital to have a successful career at the Bar. Case in point, St Philips has put itself front and centre of the bustling Midlands circuit, taking its name from its home city’s 18th century Baroque cathedral. Today, it is one of the biggest sets in the UK, with over 150 members split across Birmingham and Leeds bases. “St Philips is a pre-eminent, multidisciplinary set specialising in practically every area of the law,” Joe Wilson, director of clerking tells us. A quick glance at the set’s Chambers UK Bar rankings will swiftly confirm this too, with ten of the highest accolades covering chancery, commercial dispute resolution, company law, crime, employment, children, matrimonial finance, professional negligence,real estate litigation and restructuring/insolvency. According to Wilson, the set's currently has an “equal split between our core practice groups: business and property, crime (including regulatory), family, employment and personal injury.”

St Philips specialist pupillages offer successful applicants the chance to slot into a focused practice covering each of these four areas – crime & regulatory, employment & personal injury, business & property and family. Each practice group receives instructions from recognisable names, as Wilson highlights: “We work for tier one firms across the Midlands and wider, from DLA Piper, Eversheds, Howard Kennedy, Kingsley Napley and Clyde & Co.” In one recent commercial property case, Michelle Cane successfully secured the dismissal of the £1.1 million claim for unlawful eviction at the Royals Courts of Justice. The claimant had alleged that they were tricked into returning the keys by an employee of the defendant during the Covid-19 pandemic – who then later went on to sub-let the property to their partner without their knowledge or consent. Over on the employment side, Anthony Johnston led by Ed Williams KC represented Coventry University all the way to the Court of Appeal in a case brought by a former BBC journalist who claimed that the university’s failure to promote him was tantamount to discrimination on the basis of disability and indirect age discrimination. 

“Every member becomes a shareholder. We have a proper corporate structure and with that comes a true democracy.” 

The set’s current strategic plan will see chambers through to 2025: “We continue to invest heavily in organic growth; this has been a real success for us since 2018 as we’ve brought in the next generation of talent,” Wilson explains, “the number of pupillages we offer is because we have the space, work and capacity to take them on as tenants.” But, as Wilson adds, while “we’re always going to look for lateral hires,” the message is quality over quantity. After all: “Every member becomes a shareholder. We have a corporate structure and with that comes a true democracy. People have a say in everything, which is fantastic culturally,” Wilson tells us, hinting “we’ve some exciting times ahead.”  

The Pupillage Experience 

Pupils generally spend the first three months of their specialist pupillage with a main supervisor, before shadowing others across different sub specialisms. As Ali Tabari, head of the pupillage committee explains: “This is deliberate, the old days of pupillage by osmosis are dead thankfully. We want to expose candidates to as many corners of their practice as possible. For example, if you do family law, you might shadow someone who does care for the first three months, then private children for one month and divorce finance another.” In the final stretch, pupils spend a month accompanying juniors to court to observe the work they’ll eventually be tackling themselves.  

“…the old days of pupillage by osmosis are dead thankfully. We want to expose candidates to as many corners of their practice as possible.” 

A pupil’s first six“tends to be live work. It’s exciting to compare what you did with the real thing” a pupil praised. “From advices, particulars of claim, letters to experts and preparing for cross examinations to opening speeches – you cover everything you need.” In the build up to their second six, “there’s a lot of effort to expose you to the more everyday aspects such as road traffic accidents. It’s no good if you only see the top-level stuff as you don’t start there.” As advocacy is essential, one junior recalled shadowing in court: “It’s always in back of your mind how to converse with the judge in a direct and simple way. I did exercises throughout with my supervisor acting as either the witness or judge, giving me advice on how to improve.” Marking the end of first six, pupils complete St Philip’s compulsory Midlands Circuit Advocacy Weekend training. 

Come the second six, pupils then take the plunge: “From day one, you’re going to be on your feet. There’s something of a buildup, you get an unusually good level of experience as a pupil.” One pupil shared that, “even though I do commercial work, I was in court three days a week for a variety of things. Whether it be first possession hearings, bankruptcy petitions to small claims hearings. I even did a fast-track trial.” Over in employment and personal injury, “there’s lots of small claims and you will be doing preliminary and final hearings. You might have two- or three-day employment hearings, there’s the potential to do that work.” A standout moment for one was “another party was represented by very experienced barristers. It was enjoyable but frightening, because you don’t want to screw up in front of the real grown-ups! But you come away from it feeling like, ‘wow, I’ve done some real work there!’” 

As for the hours? “You’re expected to be in chambers from 9am – 6pm. Naturally, there are occasions where you work beyond, but those instances are rare” a junior confirmed. When it comes to second six, “it’s more flexible as people are in court and can be one end of the country. You may work beyond 6pm, that’s just being a barrister.” 

“I know some places will have a competitive advocacy exercise between pupils, but we’re not interested in all of that.” 

Every three months, pupils receive a review: “It’s like a traffic light system. Really, it’s meant to be a conversation,” Tabari tells us. The review takes into account all the usual things, including the number of pro bono hours in second six – a recently introduced assessment criterion! “Pupils have more than one supervisor, which means we weed out any problems and provides solutions a lot quicker,” Tabari adds, “We’re aiming for ‘it takes a village’, rather than just sticking them with one person and saying, ‘good luck, see you in a year!’” One insider was quick to highlight that “the reviews aren’t scary, there are no surprises.” These broad review categories, which also includes things like involvement in chambers life, are in place of any formalised assessments: “We don’t do any brutal public examinations!” Tabari explains, “I know some places will have a competitive advocacy exercise between pupils, but we’re not interested in all of that. We're expecting to just see progress against the standards that we apply.” 

At the end of the twelve months, the pupillage committee considers each pupils performance throughout the year and make a tenancy recommendation: “It is circulated around chambers,” Tabari outlines, detailing “if we receive fewer than eight negative votes, then the person is assumed to have been voted in. If there are ever enough votes, it’s not the end of the line and there will be a meeting, but it’s not a process we’ve ever come close to touching in the last five years, because of the way that we tackle issues head-on and early.” 

The Application Process 

Prospective candidates apply to one of St Philips’ four specialist pupillage routes: crime & regulatory; employment & personal injury; business & property; and family. Over 200 applicants fill out the initial application form (on St Philips’ website running in conjunction with Pupillage Gateway timeline). “We ask for all the usual information and have five set situational questions designed to elicit evidence of key characteristics for a successful career at the bar,” Tabari outlines, “there’s an academic history sift, and then our markers only receive the answers to those questions (which are double marked). They know nothing about the candidate’s name, background or academic/work history, making the process as meritocratic and blind to biases as possible.” 

“…never has someone’s university been a deciding factor.” 

Top scoring candidates are then invited to interview: “You’re asked the same three questions as everybody else regardless of practice area, with the exception of one question tailored to the practice area you're applying for.” Then only the best candidates proceed to the final round: “Only at this point does the panel know anything about the candidate's background,” Tabari notes. That said, “never has someone’s university been a deciding factor. The whole process determines it.” At this stage, finalists work through a legal problem (with a week to prepare) and answer questions based on competencies and characteristics linked to a flourishing career at St Philips.

Careers at any set can only be supported with the right structures in place. “We like transparency and openness; we want to help people. If you build the right support network and culture, the rest will follow,” Wilson highlights. We heard that staff are trained up on well-being and mental health to be able to spot the signs of stress, and “for example, myself and all my male colleagues are trained on menopause, and some will say why? It’s about breaking down that stigma so practitioners can be open and talk about how it affects them.”

“It’s a big cohort of pupils. You’re genuinely not in competition, allowing you to build friendships that really help you get through what can be a difficult year” one praised. With the Sports and Social Committee, there is plenty to get stuck into from yoga, running and climbing clubs to quiz nights and screenings for the likes of the Euros. “I’ve beaten the clerks at pool,” one was particularly keen to point out, “you can have a joke with them. But most importantly you’re learning from them about how to build a career and getting that advice early on.”