A barrister is a qualified legal professional who offers specialist advice whilst representing, advocating and defending clients in court or at a tribunal.

Examples of courts a barrister may work in include:

• The Crown Court, High Court, The Court of Appeal and The Supreme Court.

You'll usually specialise in a particular area of law such as:

• chancery law (estates and trusts)

• commercial law

• common law (includes family, housing and personal injury law)

• criminal law

• entertainment law

• environmental law

• sports law.

What Does a Barrister Do?

Knowing about the job role is crucial for those curious about how to become a barrister. It is a diverse and highly challenging career that requires a high level of adaptability. On a daily basis, barristers will generally be required to do the following:

• Conduct legal research

• Negotiate contracts and other business / personal matters

• Meet consulting with and advising clients

• Prepare proceedings and documents for court, including legal arguments

• Represent clients at court and tribunal hearings, which may include cross-examining witnesses and

• Present complex legal arguments

• Mediate and negotiating settlements between disputing parties such as a husband and wife or employer and employee

Barristers tend to be self-employed and work within offices known as ‘chambers.’ Chambers usually specialise in certain areas of the law. As such, when carrying out your research into chambers for pupillage and mini pupillage applications, it is important to check their specific practice areas to ensure that these tie in with your particular interests.

In chambers, barristers work alongside other self-employed barristers, sharing the administration and day-to-day costs of running the chambers. It’s a flexible way of working, however, it’s important to note that with this comes limited access to benefits such as sick and holiday pay.

Barristers are also sometimes employed ‘in-house’ by large organisations such as banks, firms of solicitors and even the Government, as part of the Government Legal Service.

Taken from: https://www.thelawyerportal.com/free-guides/how-to-become-a-barrister/

In order to qualify as a barrister you must undertake three components of training:

• academic

• vocational

• pupillage or work-based learning.

To complete the academic component of training, you'll need to get a minimum 2:2 undergraduate degree. If your degree is in a subject other than law, or if you took your law degree more than five years' ago, you'll need to complete a law conversion course, which is commonly called the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL).

Some course providers offer an integrated academic and vocational course, which combines both the academic and vocational elements of the training.

In order to start the vocational component of training, you'll need to pass the Bar Course Aptitude Test (BCAT), which tests your aptitude for critical thinking and reasoning. You must also join one of the four Inns of Court:

• Gray's Inn

• The Inner Temple

• Lincoln's Inn

• Middle Temple

The Inns provide educational and social support for barristers and student barristers, including libraries, dining halls and common rooms. The choice of Inn does not affect the areas of legal practice open to you, or the choice of chambers for pupillage or tenancy applications, but if you have received a scholarship, you will be required to join the Inn that provided it. The student officer at each Inn will supply more information. A limited number of scholarships are also available from the four Inns of Court.

The aim of the vocational component of training is to provide you with the specialist skills, knowledge, attitudes and competence needed to become a barrister. Until recently, this was achieved by taking the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC). From September 2020, however, the BPTC has been replaced by a number of new Bar courses. The names of these courses may vary but they will all satisfy the vocational component. Look out for names such as:

• Bar Course

• Bar/Barrister Training Course (BTC)

• Bar Practice Course (BPC)

• Bar Vocational Course (BVC)

• Bar Vocational Studies (BVS).

For a list of organisations providing the vocational component of Bar training, see Authorised Education and Training Organisations (AETOs).

Courses may vary in format and could include:

• a course in one part - full time over one year (or part-time equivalent)

• a course in two parts - either face-to-face teaching for both parts or self-study for one part

• a longer course - combining the vocational component with an undergraduate degree in law.

• For more information, see Bar courses.

After the vocational component of training, intending barristers must complete a pupillage (work-based component) in order to practise. The pupillage is divided into two parts:

1. the non-practising six months - the 'first six'

2. and the practising six months - the 'second six'.

You should apply for a pupillage before starting a Bar course via the Pupillage Gateway, operated by The Bar Council. Applicants may apply to up to 20 chambers or Authorised Training Organisations (ATO). For application and interview/assessment dates, see the Pupillage Gateway.

Competition is fierce, in terms of both academic standards and personal qualities. Visit the National Pupillage Fair, a recruitment fair run by The Bar council, to meet employers.

New training requirements to become a barrister will be coming into effect over the next couple of years. The aim is to make training more flexible and affordable, and therefore more accessible to more people, while maintaining the same high standards needed to practise as a barrister. There will be more approved training pathways offered, which are likely to be available from late 2020.

To become an advocate you need a Scottish law degree and the Scottish Diploma in Legal Practice. It is then necessary to undertake a period of training (usually 21 consecutive calendar months) in a solicitor's office approved by the Faculty of Advocates.

After you've been formally admitted by the Faculty as an 'intrant' (trainee advocate) and passed certain examinations, there comes a further eight to nine-month period of practical training ('devilling') with an experienced advocate (a 'devilmaster') and finally a competency assessment, which includes written and oral advocacy skills.

Law graduates wishing to practise as a barrister in Northern Ireland should apply for the one-year barrister-of-law course at the Institute of Professional Legal Studies. After being called to the Bar, trainees must undertake a 12-month pupillage with a Master. For more information see The Bar of Northern Ireland.

Taken from: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/barrister 2021

The majority of barristers are self-employed and typically become tenants in a set of chambers. They are independent practitioners gaining work through the offices of the clerk to chambers or through personal contacts with solicitors. Their clients are primarily solicitors.

There are around 15,000 barristers working in England and Wales. The 20% working in employed practice do so for a range of employers and organisations, including the:

• Government Legal Department (GLD)

• CPS

• armed forces legal services

• local government

• private companies.

Look for job vacancies at:

• LawCareers.Net

• Pupillage Gateway

• the barrister - online magazine that lists tenancy vacancies

• The Training Contract & Pupillage Guide - lists chambers with pupillages and information on recruiting chambers.

Recruitment agencies rarely handle vacancies.