Essex Court Chambers - True Picture

Essex Court Chambers pupillage review 2025

The Chambers

Walking into Lincoln’s Inn for the first time is, for many, a jaw-dropping moment. After all, it’s the capital’s largest public square, and features a charming mix of greenery and impressive architecture. It is also home to Essex Court Chambers, a set with an equally jaw-dropping reputation as one of the ‘magic circle’ elite of the commercial bar. Its interior is also pretty impressive and, while we don’t advise choosing a set of chambers based solely on its aesthetic beauty, pleasurable surroundings certainly don’t hurt!

Senior clerk Joe Ferrigno reminds us that ECC is a “full-service commercial set covering complex litigation and arbitration,” and explains how the set engages in “sizeable chunks” of commercialdispute resolution, civilfraud, international arbitration and public international law. As such, these practices are awarded top marks from the Chambers UK Barguide, and Ferrigno thus notes the set’s ability to “handle disputes across the full spectrum of the business and financial world.” Case in point: the set offers additional work in shipping, employment, banking and human rights.

“… we’ve been building strength in non-traditional areas, such as cryptocurrency, climate change litigation and insolvency.”

Ferrigno explains that the set is always on the lookout to “diversify our portfolio,” and points to an “exciting, recent trend where we’ve been building strength in non-traditional areas, such as cryptocurrency, climate change litigation and insolvency.” This has been carefully coordinated thanks to a business development programme focusing on organic growth, and has meant that ECC has grown by 20 barristers – both laterally and through pupillage – over the last five years. Essex Court last year took on all seven of its pupils (“the biggest cohort ever,” according to a pupil), highlighting its clear appeal for budding barristers on the quest for high-value and complex matters.

So, as you might expect, the set keeps busy in both litigation and arbitration, and one recent example of the latter saw Ben Juratowitch KC represent the government of Romania against an Austrian petrochemical company over alleged Russian shareholder money laundering. On the litigation side, Anna Dilnot KC was instructed by Deutsche Bank in its dispute with the Central Bank of Venezuela over the South American nation’s gold reserves. Meanwhile, Alison Macdonald KC has been involved in public international law cases at the International Court of Justice, one of which concerned the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. To summarise, in the wise words of one pupil, “a lot of the heavyweights are at Essex Court.”

The Pupillage Experience

Pupillage at Essex Court starts off with a dedicated training and learning period, with no assessments until after Christmas. As head of pupillage Louise Hutton KC explains, “the idea is that the pupil doesn’t need to be worried about everything they’re doing, or think that they’re constantly being assessed.” During this initial period, pupils will sit with one supervisor, which gives newbies the chance to settle and find their feet. As one pupil explained, “the first three months are to ease you into things, and to give you exposure to all the types of documents you’ll be having to draft – like pleadings and skeletons – and introduce you to research.” This is followed by a ‘rota’ system, in which pupils complete three more, roughly five-week-long, seats while rotating through another three supervisors. What’s more, newbies are all assigned a mentor to help them along: “They’re a really good sounding board, and it’s great to have someone else rooting for you.”

“My supervisor had me tapped into all their live cases.”

Although pupils don’t formally get on their feet until tenancy, they undertake a mix of live work during both their first and second six, and can observe their supervisors in court. A junior tenant particularly enjoyed how “my supervisor had me tapped into all their live cases,” adding, “it’s cool that your work can potentially contribute to the final product.” More junior interviewees appreciated spending pupillage alongside their supervisors rather than getting on their feet, explaining that “there’s more to be gained from following your supervisor’s work as it’s more in line with the sort of work you’ll be doing over time. It means that pupillage can be a real training and learning exercise.”

Supervision was described as “very hands-on,” and Hutton explains that those in charge of nurturing newbies are “the people who we think will give pupils the best possible experience, and are going to be good at training.” Pupils also receive feedback on each piece of work they submit, with room for very open discussions with supervisors. More official feedback sessions take place throughout the year, too, meaning that pupils’ progress is transparent throughout. As a junior explained, “they gave me an indication that things were going well and that, should things continue, the tenancy decision would be favourable.”

On the assessment front, pupils at ECC are required to complete a number of written and oral advocacy exercises relating to conference skills, appeals on points of law, and witness handling. A pupil interviewee appreciated that, although these are important, they “weren’t things I agonised about in the days and weeks leading up to them.” Instead, this source found that “it was a pretty casual environment as we receive feedback throughout pupillage, and that made it far less stressful and intimidating.” Supervisor reports also form a huge part of the tenancy decision and, though it’s naturally a nerve-wracking part of pupillage, one pupil was comforted by the fact that “the people who decide our fate are those who’ve actually seen us through the process.” As Hutton explains, “chambers has for a long time had a system whereby only people who have seen the pupils’ work have an input. We don’t think it’s fair for pupils to worry about someone they’ve bumped into on the stairs having a say in the decision!”

“People here try really hard to make sure that pupils don’t feel like a weird, ‘other’ part of chambers.”

Pupils at ECC can expect to stick to standard hours of 9am to 6pm, with “no feeling that face time or working late for the sake of it will be rewarded.” Though certain pieces of work may naturally demand longer hours, interviewees still felt that work-life balance remained on point. For many, this was an indication of the firm’s culture, and the set is reportedly “an easy place to be! People here try really hard to make sure that pupils don’t feel like a weird, ‘other’ part of chambers.” There’s a mix of characters at the set as well, meaning that, according to a pupil, “it’s a bit of a melting pot. You have people who are more outgoing, and others who are more reserved.” And a quick word of advice for the lucky few? “Just ride the wave! Do what you can, and you won’t even recognise the lawyer you are by the end of it. You’ll see such a big difference compared to your earlier work, so let yourself get swept along.”

The Application Process

The path to pupillage at Essex Court begins with an online application through the Pupillage Gateway, consisting of questions that are unique to the set. Hutton explains the next steps: “There’s an assessment of the initial written application to consider who’s going to go further in the process, before we then ask the top selection of candidates to do a short written task.” One pupil reported that this “comprises a straightforward legal problem with a tight word limit,” where the set is “just looking to see if you can identify the issues, structure something sensible, and arrive at a logical conclusion.” Hutton offers further clarification, explaining that “we introduced this a few years ago because we’re aware that there are two parts to our job: oral and written advocacy. The interview itself isn’t exactly the same as the oral advocacy barristers do, so we wanted to make sure we weren’t unfairly excluding people who don’t perform so well at interview, but would still be good at the job. That’s the intention of the written exercise.”

The written task is subsequently marked by a couple of members of chambers and, following this, around 30 applicants are invited to an interview with a five-member panel. “We have the same people interviewing everyone so there’s a consistent approach to it,” Hutton explains, adding that it is “very heavily based on a legal problem we set.” A pupil recalled their own experience: “You’re given a problem about 45 minutes before the interview which you have to digest before presenting your analysis to the panel.” Here, applicants should show that they are able to “spot issues and absorb quite a lot of information in a short period of time, while also thinking on their feet and reasoning logically.” Hutton adds that “it’s not designed to be a test of legal knowledge. It involves a made-up contract or legal code, so it’s not meant to be about how much law you know, but how you apply the code we give you.”

“Think of things that you have done which can demonstrate oral and written advocacy skills.”

So, do you have what it takes to make it at Essex Court? According to Hutton, “the things we look for at each stage are intellectual ability, promise in oral advocacy, and written communication skills,” as well as “tenacity, self-motivation, organisational skills, judgement and integrity.” Hutton also explains that, while most applicants will understandably not have court experience, finding alternative ways to show that you have the transferrable skills to thrive as a barrister is key: “Think of things that you have done which can demonstrate oral and written advocacy skills. Some may have done debating or mooting at university but, even if you haven’t, sales experience or general evidence of persuading people to do something is helpful, too.” However, rest assured, there are no personality prerequisites to securing pupillage at ECC, as Hutton clarifies that “the set doesn’t have any single, defining characteristic. We have a very diverse mix of people in every sense of the word, because we’re keen on finding people who are really interested in and good at the job.”