Farrar's Building - True Picture

Farrar’s Building pupillage review 2025

The Chambers

“We’ve traditionally been known as a personal injury set, but that would now be the simplest way to describe us,” CEO Paul Cray explains, “our set has evolved in recent years to both retain and continue to grow our strong personal injury focus, and to exponentially develop our other offerings, including clinical negligence, commercial insurance, employment, public law, regulatory and disciplinary, and travel.” Furthermore, as Cray outlines, “we’ve historically had a strong profile in serious crime and continue to retain links to the set’s Welsh heritage. We have a number of silks who still practise criminal law, which includes health & safety and environmental matters.” A similar perspective is offered in the Chambers UK Bar guide, acknowledging the set as one of the best of the best for personal injury in both Wales and England, and for crime in Wales. As is the nature of this sort of work, it means that Farrar’s barristers regularly work with defendant insurer law firms or directly with insurers. 

“... we now routinely see instructions from some of the market-leading claimant firms.” 

Despite historically having worked more on the defendant side, however, Cray explains how “the market recognises us mostly as a defendant set, but our claimant work also continues to develop, particularly on the clinical negligence front, where we now routinely see instructions from some of the market-leading claimant firms. There is no intention to pigeonhole ourselves.” For instance, Nigel Spencer Ley has acted for a claimant in a highly unusual £26 million wrongful life case against their mother’s GP, claiming that the doctor’s lack of proper prenatal care meant that the claimant was born with significant disabilities. Stuart Brady has also represented various rugby players in highly publicised head and brain injury claims against national and international rugby organisations. On the other side of the equation, Frederick Lyon has defended Network Rail Infrastructure in a PTSD claim from an employee who witnessed the aftermath of a fatal train accident. 

Despite a solid footing in its core practices, there is expansion on the horizon at Farrar’s. While personal injury will remain front and centre, the set’s next step will be to focus its other areas of practice: “We’re condensing our other areas of work into core groups where we’ve seen considerable growth,” says Cray, “Around 25 practice areas will become twelve as part of a new website and branding exercise to be completed this year.” Interestingly, Cray also tells us that the set is working on building its international presence, seeking opportunities across its core areas that naturally align with its domestic work.

The Pupillage Experience

Pupillage at Farrar’s is divided into three four-month seats, each with a different supervisor. However, there is still a tidy 50-50 split between the first six and practising second six. Sorcha Dervin, barrister and member of the pupillage committee explains how supervision needs differ across seats: “Pupils generally start with a more senior of member of chambers so they’re exposed to high-value, complex work. The second seat supervisor is again a senior junior, and will remain with the pupil through their transition from first to second six. This offers continuity and a familiar face as pupils start to get on their feet. The final supervisor is typically more junior and will be less hands-on, as pupils will already have started conducting cases in their own right.” 

“They never expected me to turn around work at the same speed they do.” 

Pupils start off the year with plenty of paperwork, typically on live matters. This might include drafting tasks such as research notes, cross-examinations, particulars of claim, opinions and advice notes. To summarise, “you’re essentially a shadow of your supervisor, and you’re very involved. My first supervisor made sure to tell me, ‘these are my papers, this is when they’re due for me and when they’re due for you.’ They never expected me to turn around work at the same speed they do.” More broadly, the early days for one pupil we spoke to were spent on personal injury and clinical negligence matters, yet they appreciated the flexibility of training at a “real common law set. I got to do some insurance coverage work, product liability, boundary disputes, probate and other chancery division matters.”  

Preparation for the practising period starts in the second seat, when pupils accompany first- and second-year tenants as they head to court: “I’d spend around two or three days a week doing that, and those junior members would act as a supervisor for the day,” one former pupil explained, “they were doing cases I could expect to do as a practising pupil – such as smaller value or one-day trials – so by the time I was on my feet, I knew what I was doing.” At the six-month mark, pupils get into the swing of things, and generally spend around four days a week in court for their own matters. Liability disputes are the name of the game here, and while these typically concern road traffic liability, insiders found that their courtroom practice also involved occupiers’ liability, employers’ liability and contractual disputes. This means that the sky is the limit for pupils when it comes to their future practice, as Cray outlines: “There are more opportunities than ever before to get experience across a variety of practice areas from a very early stage. There’s no expectation for people to knuckle down for five years and only then think about what they want to do.” 

Although pupils’ progress across the year is taken into account in end-of-seat reports, each supervisor also assigns a piece of assessed written work. It’s typically a slightly more complex piece of work, and could be something like particulars of claim, advice or a schedule of loss. This might be taken from a historic piece of work done by the supervisor, and pupils usually get a designated week for it. This meant that interviewees “felt well-supported. Any assessments will be nerve-wracking, but I wasn’t unnecessarily stressed.” Extended feedback from these exercises is added to each of the three feedback forms, where supervisors discuss pupils’ work, development and areas for improvement. Pupils can also add their own comments to this report, and typically get to discuss any feedback with their supervisors. 

Supervisors’ reports contribute to the final tenancy decision, alongside a tenancy interview at the start of the third seat. Two weeks ahead of the interview, pupils receive a mock advocacy exercise, and have time to prepare a skeleton argument to present to a panel of four to five members. As Dervin explains, “pupils present their submissions as if they’re in court and the tenancy panel plays judge.” This task is followed by a more general chat about how prospective tenants found pupillage, and where they’d like their practice to go. As one source who’d been through the experience relayed, “they asked about the workload and how I handled any particularly difficult cases. So, despite the similarities, it still felt different from my pupillage interview as I’d known the interviewers for a year. It definitely wasn’t as difficult as it could have been!” After this, the tenancy committee makes a decision on whether to take on the pupil. 

“Whether it’s food, music, books or even rock climbing, you can always find common ground.” 

During their down time, pupils are welcome to attend a variety of social events. This includes a monthly wine club in the basement, an annual summer picnic and a Christmas party. We also heard that one-off trips to the pub are common, as are running club meet-ups, lunches and afternoon teas. According to interviewees, this is reflective of the set’s general “friendly and approachable culture. When I tell barristers at other sets that I’m from Farrar’s, they’ll often say, ‘oh, you guys are really nice!’” This rings true for juniors, who noted that “it’s so easy talking to people here, even if you’re meeting them for the first time. Whether it’s food, music, books or even rock climbing, you can always find common ground.” This reportedly extends across levels, with support from senior members highlighted as a key benefit of pupillage at Farrar’s. “I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve not been able to get a hold of someone to ask for help, even outside of working hours,” said one junior, “I can tell they’re as invested in my career as I am.” There are also a few WhatsApp group chats where pupils can ask any burning questions, and the clerks are open to chat about short- or long-term plans. “There’s endless support here,” says Cray, “it’s a difficult career to start off in because you’re self-employed and might feel like you should already know everything, so it’s important for us to recognise that some might struggle to ask questions. We have a very open culture with various support networks that our members really value.”

The Application Process

The pupillage application starts on the Gateway, with a form asking candidates why they want to be a barrister and why Farrar’s Building. There is also an additional question to test applicants’ written advocacy style and skills, which “is never just a legal problem, and could be something a bit more rogue. I was asked, ‘if you could travel back to any time period, which would you pick and why?’ I’ve seen questions on dinner party guests and emojis as well!” After an initial sift, 40 make it to a first-round interview, which is 10-15 minutes long and is about getting to know candidates, and testing their advocacy ability and interest in the set’s practice areas. So, as Dervin outlines, “it generally comprises some questions arising from the application form, a situational judgement test, and a debate question where candidates argue for or against a proposition. That’s usually something topical related to our practice areas, and we ask their opinion on it and whether they’ve read anything interesting on the subject matter.” 

“We do a lot of advocacy here and want to see candidates who are genuinely interested in an advocacy-focused practice.” 

Eight people make it to the final interview, where they will receive a mock exercise around two weeks in advance. This will include a bundle of papers – “around 100 pages in length,” says Dervin – and candidates are asked to prepare and submit a skeleton argument a week ahead of the interview. At interview, the panel plays judge and conducts an advocacy exercise, with questions to test points raised in candidates’ arguments. “It’s to see how well they can think on their feet,” Dervin adds, “so I would advise candidates to demonstrate an interest in our practice areas and in advocacy. We do a lot of advocacy here and want to see candidates who are genuinely interested in an advocacy-focused practice.” Aside from this, juniors more generally advise prospective pupils to “be yourself, and don’t pretend to be something else. Farrar’s will accept you for who you are.”