We are not like other chambers and life as a pupil at Hardwicke isn't easy. We expect you to work hard; in return we will ensure you have the breadth and depth of experience needed for a successful career at the Bar.
On this site, you find out more about what we are looking for in a candidate, what we can offer you and what pupillage at Hardwicke is like - told by:
The Pupil's View
- Lynette Calder
I started pupillage at Hardwicke Building in October 2003. As someone who is coming to the Bar as a second career I was particularly attracted to those Chambers who seemed to be looking "outside the box" for candidates. Hardwicke was, from the outset, absolutely clear in all its information for prospective pupils that it was prepared and indeed eager to consider people with a variety of different backgrounds and experience.
Hardwicke does offer mini pupillages which are not assessed but do count toward whether or not you get a first interview. My experience of mini pupillage served to confirm my initial impression that this was a set of Chambers that was strikingly different from many at the Bar. Chambers makes a real effort, not only with pupils but also with mini pupils, to place you with someone appropriate to the interests that you have. I have a commercial and banking background and am interested in fraud, so found myself with one of the senior criminal barristers at Snaresbrook seeing the whole of a short trial which was the follow up to a major three handed fraud he had prosecuted earlier in the year.
Hardwicke does not use OLPAS to recruit and for a candidate with a more unusual background I found this encouraging. I felt that the application form allowed me to explain properly who I was and why I would be good for Chambers. The form is thought provoking and can't be completed by cut and paste but it is extremely important in the selection process and I found that it made me really focus on both why did I want to come to the Bar and why Hardwicke?
There are two rounds of interviews and I was very impressed by the structured approach that Chambers takes to recruitment. It was clear from the outset that the interviewers were working as hard as the interviewees. Although, on what must have been the hottest day of the year, the panel at least had the advantage over us in that they weren't in suits. Since attaining pupillage I have been asked by some of the other interviewees whether the small brown dog who attended on both days was some sort of psychometric test? I can confirm that Mary is actually an extremely important member of the panel and likes to be scratched behind the ears.
This level of attention and care toward recruitment is carried on into pupillage. Chambers makes every effort to provide pupil supervisors and wingers who are doing the type of work that you are interested in - though you can get wingers from different disciplines which makes the experience challenging and even more interesting. Both my supervisors and all my wingers have been extremely conscientious in giving constructive feedback and help in improving my work. There is a "buddy system" whereby pupils are teamed up with one of the junior tenants who can answer all those questions that you don't want to ask your supervisor. It is clear that Hardwicke takes training its pupils very seriously and almost everyone in Chambers is interested in your progress and more than willing to be helpful whether or not they are formally part of the pupillage system.
Four months in, my early impressions of Hardwicke as a forward looking Chambers with a genuine interest and investment in it pupils remains unchanged. I am very pleased to be here.