Fountain Court Chambers - True Picture

Fountain Court pupillage review 2025 

The Chambers 

For anyone who gets the chance to come and drink from the fountain, this set has more than enough commercial work going around to quench your thirst. As deputy senior clerk Sian Huckett clarifies, “we are a commercial set of chambers operating at a very high level both domestically and internationally. We do a whole range of work, including banking and finance, fraud, insurance, aviation, all aspects of professional discipline and regulatory law and, more recently, commercial crime.” The set’s recent development has very much followed wider trends in the world, with both COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war triggering an influx of work for its members. Fountain Court expands as necessary, too, taking on four pupils each year. In terms of practice area expansion, “we have also recruited laterally,” Huckett tells us, “but only when there are exceptional candidates in certain spaces, making it a bit of a no-brainer.” 

“The variety and freedom of being at a set with so many streams of top-quality work...” 

If you were to take a look at the Chambers UK Bar guide, you’d see that these efforts are certainly paying off. In London, the set is recognised as top of the game in commercial dispute resolution, civil fraud, banking & finance, financial services, aviation, travel and professional discipline. Pupils are lucky enough to work across all these areas and it was exactly this range of opportunities that led a pupil to Fountain Court: “The variety and freedom of being at a set with so many streams of top-quality work was compelling.” 

Fountain Court’s been involved in plenty of recent commercial disputes, and Richard Lissack KC recently represented FW Aviation in a contempt of court application relating to proceedings for the recovery of aircraft after failing to make lease payments. In fact, if you’ve been keeping up with recent updates in the commercial bar, it’s likely that you’re already aware of the ongoing litigation surrounding aircraft which are allegedly lost in Russia following the Ukraine crisis. Well, on the banking & finance side of things, several members, including David Railton KC, Ben Lynch KC and Simon Atrill KC, have acted for war risk insurers in a number of high-value claims relating to this ongoing dispute. 

The Pupillage Experience 

Pupils complete four three-month seats with three different supervisors, with their first supervisor returning to supervise again in the fourth. Though this certainly offers an almost poetic, cyclical conclusion to pupillage, it ultimately allows these supervisors to see how pupils have developed over the year. The first two months of pupillage, meanwhile, are “not formally assessed,” according to a current pupil, “so it’s a good time to go to court with your supervisor and help them out with preparations.” 

The rest of pupillage, however, is assessed, with pupils getting live work from both their supervisors and other members of chambers. There is no formal list of exercises that pupils are expected to complete throughout pupillage, meaning that “the day to day really varies, as do the pieces of work that you get as a pupil. On average, each takes up about two to three days, and it seems that there’s an expectation for every pupil to do a couple of substantial tasks that last longer than a week. The more regular assignments are about getting sufficient exposure to different members’ work.” 

“There’s quite a range of cases that float around, so you just have to be open-minded about whatever comes across your desk.” 

Overall, our more junior interviewees explained that they were often tasked with a range of live work, including pleadings, skeleton arguments and research notes, which varied in subject matter: “All commercial disputes come through in one way or another. I’ve done insurance, aviation, banking, general commercial, civil fraud, professional discipline, professional negligence and construction.” Pupils valued this broad experience, and advised, “there’s quite a range of cases that float around, so you just have to be open-minded about whatever comes across your desk.”  Although the work tends to get slightly more complicated as pupils progress into their second six, it’s worth noting that “the difference between the first and second six isn’t as stark as it might be at other chambers as there isn’t any oral advocacy here.” 

Pupils meet with the pupillage committee at regular intervals to keep track of their progress ahead of the tenancy decision. One pupil was pleased that “they were quite transparent about how things were going, what feedback they had been sent, and what advice they had on how I could improve.” The work that pupils do throughout the year is all taken into account as part of the final decision. As immediate past chair of the pupillage committee, Ben Lynch, tells us, “the committee goes through the work very carefully, and then we have a big pupillage meeting to talk through it all in detail.” The committee then decides whether or not to recommend a pupil, and takes this to the rest of chambers for a vote. Last year, all four pupils were offered tenancy. 

“You’re not tested on the number of hours you work…” 

Support is the name of the game at Fountain Court and, for juniors, this can also be found from the clerks once they start taking on their own cases. “You’re probably in touch with your clerks most days,” a junior tenant explained, adding, “they have a good understanding of the work I enjoy and what sort of opportunities appeal to me most.” More generally, however, the set’s culture was described by a pupil as “friendly,” since “people here remember your name and, when they run into you, they ask how you’re doing and how your weekend was.” There’s also a healthy selection of social events, such as chambers tea on a Wednesday and lunch every Friday, which are “both very relaxed events and people are very chatty!” This more easy-going attitude is reflected in the hours pupils are expected to work, which is typically 9am to 6.30pm: “You’re not tested on the number of hours you put in, and there’s no expectation for you to work at the weekends.” 

The Application Process 

The first step of a Fountain Court application process is a mini-pupillage, as “everybody who gets a final pupillage interview will come from a pool of people who have done a mini.” As you might expect, there is an interview required to secure a mini pupillage, but the set typically takes a number of mini pupils under its wing each year. Using the mini-pupillage as a part of the application process allows the set to see prospective pupils in a more practical setting, rather than a somewhat unnatural interview situation. 

The first day of the mini-pupillage is unassessed, and Lynch explains, “you come in on your first day, go to court with someone, go for lunch and meet both junior and more senior members of chambers.” Mini pupils are assessed on day two, however, as Lynch clarifies: “There’s a form we fill out which is not just based on the assessed work, but also on candidates’ CVs and how they generally perform on both the assessed and non-assessed days.” The set also uses this experience to work out whether applicants are the right fit for the set. After all, as Lynch points out, “it’s all well and good being brilliant but, if you want family law, we’re the wrong place!” 

“People often say this is the most enjoyable interview they’ve ever had!” 

After this, prospective pupils make an application via the Pupillage Gateway, and around 20 make it to the set’s final stage interview. This consists of a written problem question and a more informal conversation with a panel of around six members. Lynch tells us that “it’s not based on English law, so you can’t swot up on tort law and be likely to have the answer – it’s made-up facts and made-up law.” The interview is also not intended to be a cause of unnecessary stress, Lynch assures, as “there’s a degree of formality, but it’s a very unstuffy, amicable experience. People often say this is the most enjoyable interview they’ve ever had!” 

While a strong academic background is always advantageous to a career at the Bar, academics aren’t everything. As Lynch outlines: “Our goal is to take the academically best people who won’t become a slave to the work. Everyone we take on has genuine outside interests, which could be crochet, cricket, drama, taekwondo, travel, or whatever. All that matters is that they’re as happy as possible, and a well-rounded person that’s not the workaholic, robotic type.” In fact, Lynch is clear that the sort of people you’re likely to find at Fountain Court are those who are “very bright, but in a nice way. There’s a stereotype of an arrogant barrister who wants to prove to the world that they’re the cleverest thing on two legs, but that isn’t our style at all.” A junior was quick to echo this sentiment, explaining that “the people are obviously very professionally impressive, but most are quite down-to-earth. People have lots of different passions, so it’s a place full of exciting personalities.”