What can you expect?
The first thing to understand about Pupillage is that, regardless of the Chambers you end up in, Pupillage is a tough time. Of course it will be hard work (probably the steepest learning curve you have ever faced), and if you have never worked full time before that may be a difficult adjustment. However, the hardest part of Pupillage is the insecurity: feeling you cannot afford to put a foot wrong when it is inevitable you will do so at least once, and not being sure what your role really is. Hopefully you will find yourself in an environment where there is some recognition of the inevitable stresses associated with Pupillage and an attempt to keep them to a minimum.
The feeling of perpetual assessment during Pupillage can be hard to handle. It may encourage you to feel more positive about it if you understand how it feels from the other side. We invest a lot in you in both a financial and a non-financial sense, and we want nothing more than to see that investment pay off. It does so if you achieve your potential and secure a tenancy.
So what makes a good pupil; what sorts the stars from the rest? From our side, the question is really whether this person has the array of different skills needed to build a successful career in a set of chambers like ours. A certain level of academic ability, understanding of legal principles and interest in the operation of the law and legal system are, of course, essential and if you have made it into Pupillage they should be a given. A significant dose of common sense, inter-personal skills, self awareness and self confidence without arrogance makes the package you have to offer attractive and promising. For most of us an added ingredient is probably the candidate's attitude which really makes the difference. Is this someone who is open to learning on so many levels, going to survive the process intact, with good humour and going to instil confidence in colleagues, lay and professional clients alike? If so, then we are interested and engaged.
In Pupillage you will not know the right answers all the time. You will not have all the necessary skills beautifully honed at the beginning of your twelve months, nor even by the end. What you need to be able to do during Pupillage is to observe and analyse the skills and techniques of those around you, to understand what they are doing and why. Then you need to determine what will work for you; what will enable you to perform the roles and functions that will be demanded of you. You need to develop the understanding, skills and, critically, the confidence to be able to ask yourself the right questions and know where and how to find the answers. Those questions relate to evidence, procedure and tactics as well as the law itself. Suddenly you will no longer be presented with a procedural problem or a substantive legal problem. Instead you will be given real cases to assess where you have to work out for yourself what the issues and problems are, without signposts, and where your advice and approach (if followed) will have a real impact on people's lives. What we will be hoping to see from you is that you ask those important questions and approach their resolution with an eye on evidence, procedure, tactics and practical reality as well as the law.
What will be expected of you when a member of chambers gives you a case to look at? What should you be doing to get the most out of your Pupillage and to learn the most you can? The answer is the same to both questions: proceed as if it were your own case. Whether the case is for hearing in Court, to be dealt with in conference or there is paperwork to be done, your pupil supervisor will want you to project yourself forward in time to your second six or tenancy. Deal with the preparation of the case as if you were instructed for the client in your own right. If you are given the papers to read before going to court with your pupil supervisor or another member of chambers, work out how you would open the matter, what your strong and weak points would be, how you would approach the various witnesses, when and how you would produce the documentation you might want to put before the court and the authorities you would want to rely on. If the case is for conference decide how you would conduct the conference; what information you would want from the client, what you would need to explain to the client and how you would you do it, and what advice you would be giving about the merits, evidence and how to proceed.
Surviving and staying sane during Pupillage is not easy. A year is a long time if you are on edge and conscious of the concept of continual assessment. So you need to be realistic. Recognise that you will make mistakes, but that the simple fact of a mistake will not be the end of everything you have worked for. Keep learning from your experiences and letting people see that you are thinking about it all and working it through. Try to relax and enjoy it, although don't allow yourself to let go too spectacularly, as most of the people around you in chambers will be asked at some point to make some sort of assessment of you. The only way to strike the balance is to keep that fact at the back rather than the front of your mind.