7 King's Bench Walk - True Picture

7KBW pupillage review 2026

The Chambers 

If you weren’t already familiar, “hard work and intellectual rigour” is par for the course at the Bar. But, as one at 7KBW put it: “Clients expect high standards, but that doesn’t mean it’s stuffy, or that people are unfriendly or unhelpful!” According to senior clerk Greg Leyden, the set works “exclusively in commercial law,but across a broad range of commercial practices, most of which is international by nature.”

Shipping and insurance hold a key position in in the makeup of their work – which is recognised by top-tier rankings in the Chambers UK Bar guide, but there is also significant strength in areas like commercial dispute resolution and international arbitration: general commercial and insurance.

“Clients expect high standards, but that doesn’t mean it’s stuffy or that people are unfriendly or unhelpful!”

Although “organic growth via careful pupillage recruitment is the main focus” in terms of numbers, the set has seen growth across a number of its practices. Insurance, for example, saw an increase following the breakout of the war in Ukraine, particularly around Russian aviation litigation. Leyden is quick to point out though, that while many might see 7KBW as centred wholly on insurance the set’s portfolio of work tells a very different story.

Alongside the aforementioned general commercial work, Leyden lists everything from insolvency and civil fraud to professional negligence and shareholder disputes. Offshore work is particularly prevalent, with members being instructed by local firms in places like Singapore, Shanghai, Bermuda, the Bahamas and Dubai.

In one of the set’s more significant recent cases, 29 members were instructed by Clifford Chance, HFW and RPC amongst others in the multi-billion dollar Russian Aircraft Lessor Policy Claims case, where aircraft lessors asked for a number of Russian airlines to return nearly 150 aircraft which had not been returned.

On the shipping side, Peter MacDonald Eggers KC, Sandra Healy and Sophie Hepburn represented successful claimants Delos Shipholding in a case where the Capsize bulk carrier, WIN WIN, was claimed to have been parked illegally in Indonesian territorial waters.

READ NOW: 7KBW insiders offer insight into a career at the Commercial Bar and explain how to ready yourself for the ups and downs of practice.

The Pupillage Experience 

A pupil’s twelve months is split more or less equally between four supervisors. James Brocklebank, head of pupillage, tells us that “one important role of the first supervisor is to make the pupil feel comfortable, to help them settle in,” something that was reiterated by a current pupil.

Although pupillage is can involve its fair share of stressful moments, the first three months feature no formal assessments so “it supports you to show your best work.” The “very strict” timeframes supervisors try to limit pupils to is also testament to the set’s approach, as pupils are actively discouraged from working in the evening. In their first seat pupils work solely for their supervisor as, while you might get approached to do a bit of work, “your supervisor is the gatekeeper.”

“It’s important to learn there isn’t one way of being a barrister.”

From the off, there are opportunities for pupils to do work for both their supervisor and other members of chambers, eventually balancing that with assessments in their third seat. Working across four different supervisors, Brocklebank says, is important for ensuring newbies see different practices and ways of practising: “Pupils move to a new supervisor roughly every three months during pupillage. It’s good to have a change of atmosphere. It’s important to learn there isn’t one way of being a barrister.”

Pupils working with a variety of members also ensures they develop the core competencies needed for qualification. The first of those is exposure to court, where pupils will attend the court or arbitrations with their supervisor. Secondly, Brocklebank outlines, there might be “live written work, or a pleading or advice the supervisor is doing at the same time as the pupil. The supervisor will see their work, and they’ll see the supervisor's work. So, the pupil is doing it as if they were you – that can be a good learning process.” Here, for the pupil “you’re getting feedback, but they’re also using your work, so it’s cool to feel like you’re contributing!”

Finally, trainees are given dead work, or work that has been conducted in the past by other members. Again, “that is to ensure pupils get to see a wide range of things for all competencies” one supervisor explained, something that is particularly helpful in instances where pupils are doing a lot of research for a case but still have a few things they need to tick off.

Throughout pupillage, 7KBW collates all the feedback from everyone who has worked with the pupils, something they place a heavy emphasis on. “I remember when I was a pupil, I would do a piece of work and it would disappear into the void…” Brocklebank muses, “so I was keen to avoid that!” As such, the feedback process has become “quite rigorous and disciplined.”

Every time a pupil hands in a piece of work, the member they work with is required to give them either oral or written feedback shortly after. All of this goes towards ensuring rookies have solid steps to take up to and during the period of formal assessment. To be clear, “there is no formal period where you are not being assessed, but we understand it is a steep learning curve, particularly at the beginning.” As a result, supervisors consciously give pupils space in their first three months, with structured assessments only coming around the four-month mark.

Overall, pupils do three oral advocacy and five written assessments before the pupillage decision is made at the end of the third seat. With the oral assessments, pupils are given one at the end of the first seat, one in the second seat and one in the third seat. “There are three advocacy assessments during the pupillage year to give pupils a chance to show that growth over time,” with the assessments starting with more factual than legal tasks to make it easier to get on top of the documents.

“It’s about analysis and argument,” so while it’s more of a legal problem by the third advocacy assessment, “we’re really looking for improvement and the raw skills.” The five written assessments are set by five different members of chambers, typically taking the form of something like a pleading. After this, reports are written up and sent to the pupillage committee for the tenancy decision to be made.

After gaining tenancy, new members get swiftly onto working for themselves. Leyden tells us that at the beginning of their fourth seat, “we speak with each individual. The amount they take on once they become tenants is entirely up to them; there are a number of juniors who have gone on to the government panel which gives some really good advocacy experience, and there’s quite a lot of MOD work which is quite interesting…”

On the social side members, clerks and staff alike are all similarly integrated, with a social committee helping to direct proceedings. “In other chambers, there’s more of a company structure, but what distinguishes us is that we remain a relatively informal space,” Brocklebank grins, “so it’s not a particularly corporate environment.” The set puts on regular weekly lunches and a breakfast where people go in to socialise. When asked what three words a pupil would use to describe the culture, “warm, relaxed and stimulating” came to mind - very wholesome!

The Application Process 

Prospective candidates needn’t have necessarily done a mini pupillage at the set and apply via the Pupillage Gateway. Each application is assessed by published criteria on the set’s website. These criteria include intellectual ability, analytical ability, advocacy, temperament and interpersonal skills, and commitment to the commercial bar and to 7KBW.

“…we don’t ask trick or abstract questions. We are always asking questions where candidates can tell us about their experience.”

The first-round interview is conducted remotely for the 60 to 65 interviewees. The whole round lasts around 20 minutes, with applicants being given 10 minutes to prepare for a problem question before a 10-minute-long interview. One current pupil assured us that “it was quite friendly and non-intimidating!” with the questions focused more on how you analyse legal problems than knowledge of the law itself. Brocklebank echoed this, stressing that “at interview, we don’t ask trick or abstract questions. We are always asking questions where candidates can tell us about their experience.”

Whittled down to around 24 candidates, the final round takes place in chambers in the form of an advocacy exercise – an application to appeal to the Supreme Court. After being given a few days preparation, candidates submit a two-page skeleton argument and undergo a mock client conference, where they have to discuss the client’s chances for appeal. So, to summarise, “there are two parts to the final interview. The first is an advocacy exercise that candidates prepare in advance. The second is a question-and-answer session with some standard questions, then more specific ones for individual candidates,” Brocklebank outlines, and the entirety of this stage is intended to test different skills. The pupillage committee then picks their top candidates for pupillage.

“We are concerned that there are groups of people who don’t see the commercial bar as for them,” Brocklebank admits, as, though 7KBW is aware there is room for improvement when it comes to representation at the set, “change moves slowly at the Bar, but it is happening.” Nevertheless, the set continues to make efforts to drive change forward, holding events in chambers for underrepresented groups including gender, race, ethnicity and on educational background, alongside mentoring schemes and support of other organisations “aimed at promoting information and access for people who wouldn’t have thought the bar is the place for them.” Organisations 7KBW is involved with include the 10,000 Interns Foundation, who provide opportunities for individuals of Black heritage, and Bridging the Bar.