12 King's Bench Walk - True Picture

12 King's Bench Walk pupillage review 2025

The Chambers  

The culmination of its more than a century’s worth of experience, it’s safe to say 12 KBW has built a bit of a reputation for its personal injury and clinical negligence work. “Personal injury is our spine and has been our spine for many years,” senior practice manager George Boggis tells us. The set has continued to diversify its offering too, expanding on the types of work it specialises in.This has included strengthening its industrial disease work, employment group, and even setting up a standalone sports group. One high-profile example of the latter saw William Audland KC lead the defence of the Rugby Football League and British Amateur Rugby League Association from a group action claim involving ex-rugby players who claim to have suffered dementia and brain injuries as a result of their playing careers. On the employment side, members of chambers are instructed to represent both individuals and employers. Employers can be private or bodies and members of chambers often bring and defend against claims of discrimination, harassment and victimisation. In cases involving the NHS, this often means dealing sensitively but robustly with complicated claims and vulnerable individuals.

“A very specialised pupillage – but even within that umbrella of medical law, there’s breadth...”

Pupils at 12 KBW can therefore benefit from “a very specialised pupillage – but even within that umbrella of medical law, there’s breadth,” one told us.Opportunities extend beyond UK shores too, as international work, travel and particularly aviation is on the rise: “International work dropped following Covid and Brexit, but we are seeing an increase in this area, including aviation claims as the market readjusts." Chambers UK Bar marks 12 KBW a leading set, with a top-tier personal injury: industrial disease ranking across all circuits. There’s also top rankings for personal injury and international personal injury in London.

The Pupillage Experience  

Though pupillage at 12 KBW has remained largely unchanged over the last few years, there has been a slight shift in the set’s approach to supervision. Pupils have three supervisors, the first they sit with for three months, the second for four months, and the third and final supervisor for five months. “That may look a bit unbalanced on paper,” one insider admitted, but the change was made, head of pupillage Andrew Roy KC tells us, “because towards the end of pupillage, pupils are in court an awful lot!” This also brings with it the benefit of not having to change supervisor as soon as they begin doing their own work, “so we’re with our old supervisor for the first month which is a really good thing.”

“…towards the end of pupillage, pupils are in court an awful lot!”

Supervision itself is conducted by anyone from juniors to seniors, generally starting with the most senior down to the most junior, “so by the time you’re doing you own court work, you’re with your most junior supervisor, so they can have a more hands-on approach when or if required.” What’s more, not only is every pupil appointed a junior member as mentor, but when pupillage begins the set runs a session where new starters get to ask juniors questions about the “dos and don’ts” of chambers life. “You expect lots of mistakes,” Roy emphasises, noting that “we’re very aware of the limits of law school” – particularly with regards to the technical aspects of the work. Despite this, “there is no grace period as such,” but “we do expect them to have a month or so to get their feet under the table with their supervisor.”

Insiders told us this structure works, because “in a loose way, all of your written work is assessed by your supervisor because they’re building up a general picture of you.” This is true particularly for a pupil’s first six,when they exclusively do work for their supervisor. After this though, “when you do work for other members that aren’t your supervisor, they’re asked to provide a feedback form.” Supervision is particularly hands-on in the first six, but balances difficult work with a lot of opportunities for pupils to observe seniors at trial and juniors in their day-to-day. The first half of pupillage concludes with a mock trial serving as an advocacy exercise: “This serves the dual role of enabling us to assess advocacy and make sure that pupils are ready to start their second six.” The second six sees pupils put these learnings to work, switching from paperwork to practice, and taking on cases of their own. In this period, they also move to representing the insured, both individuals and companies, where in the first six they act in more of a supporting capacity for their supervisors. In the second six, pupils are typically in court multiple times a week appearing for claimants and defenders, but still take on written work for members of chambers and their supervisors.

Work “is always assessed” throughout the year, “but we have one piece of formal written assessment and that’s the only piece that everyone will do at the same time.” Pupils get six weeks to hand in three documents based on one set of papers, which is usually based on a real case from a member of chambers.

“From the second six onwards, supervisors take on more of an advisory role than a strict assessing role and that continues into newly qualified life.”

The tenancy decision is made based not only on the assessments themselves, but also on the feedback given by the supervisors and members the pupil has worked for throughout the year. On top of this, any member of chambers can submit a form regarding the pupil’s performance, and their file is marked across four categories: intellectual ability, judgement, presentation skills, and dedication. The pupillage committee then decide on whether the pupil qualifies for membership – a decision that happens on a fixed date in July. From that point onwards, “you’re basically treated as a tenant, so it doesn’t feel like a massive change. From the second six onwards, supervisors take on more of an advisory role than a strict assessing role and that continues into newly qualified life.” It’s for this reason - along with the fact that in your first year of practice all your work is checked over by another member of chambers - that insiders were particularly positive about 12 KBW’s approach to transitioning from pupillage to tenancy: “The supervision continues,” so in places “where there are trickier cases, you can get someone to look over your work and say, ‘well, have you considered X, Y, Z?’ With their years of experience you couldn’t possibly hope to have at your level, the learning doesn’t stop.”

Drawing on the experience of other members is integral to pupillage at 12 KBW, so much so that pupils are expected to go in every day, and supervisors make an effort to do the same: “You learn so much just by existing! That passive learning, hearing someone on the phone, meeting up informally, is really important.” Pupils aren’t expected to stay in chambers 24/7 however, quite the contrary. Hours broadly sit within the bounds of 9am to 6pm, at least in the first six, where “if you’re here beyond then you would be told to leave!” With court travel those hours do get a little more flexible in the second six, but they were still considered reasonable amongst insiders. “You do work hard here, let’s not kid ourselves,” one pupil cautioned, adding that “there are a lot of Court of Appeal or Supreme Court cases, and those people only get those by working hard – but it’s work hard play hard.” A good example of this is the mock trial day where members of chambers play the witnesses, “so that’s quite a lot of fun!” after which everyone goes down to 12 KBW’s haunt, Tempios, which is apparently, “also good fun.”

The Application Process  

12 KBW’s application process consists of three stages: a written application submitted through the Pupillage Gateway, a first-round interview and a second-round interview. The set’s assessment of the written application marks candidates against academic ability, written communication skills, legal experience or aptitude, work or life experience and achievements, their reasons for applying to 12 KBW and general intellectual ability. “There were more written answers than some chambers,” one pupil outlined, which included three personal injury focused questions “in addition to the more generic ones. It was up there in terms of how long it took, but it gave me the opportunity to apply myself – there was certainly no scope for copy and pasting.” In 2024 - out of 91 applicants - 32 were put through to first-round interviews.

The first-round interview consists of picking one of three cases, with candidates then given a five-to-seven-minute permission to appeal presentation, which is made to a panel of four members of chambers: “You don’t provide a written skeleton or anything, it’s just an oral application.” Candidates are to expect the panel to intervene while they are at it too, performing the role of the judge. Around 15 candidates make it through to the second round of interviews, which is a more “typical” interview. “They ask you a series of ethical questions, scenario questions, and questions about yourself,” so “there’s nothing unexpected there.” Five questions of equal weighting are given at this stage, which test resilience, analytical thinking, integrity, interest in and commitment to 12 KBW, and communication skills. Three pupillage places are typically on offer each year.

Head of pupillage, Andrew Roy KC, highlights that the use of the Rare Contextual Recruitment System throughout the process should reassure applicants that fairness is central to 12 KBW’s approach. The scientific method ensures that each applicant’s achievements are viewed in context of their background and has the aim of flagging any socio-economic disadvantages an applicant may have faced in their path to application. In addition, every stage is marked against objective criteria that applicants can check on the website, “so in terms of scoring systems, we are very transparent – there’s no smoke and mirrors here!”