Welcome to the Bar Group page! As you may already know, I am Ollie Bacon, your current Bar Group Chair. It is my job to promote the career options at the Bar and to support people in finding the experience necessary to successfully become a Barrister.
18th January 2006
Dear Barlings!
Your favourite time of the year is once again upon you! Yes, that’s right – its time to start applying for Mini-pupillages at the sets of chambers that you might be interested in. Firstly, a quick pointer on finding that perfect set. Unfortunately snobbery and the old-boy net are as bad as ever at the Bar so the best methods of finding work experience with judges or barristers are one of the following:
1.) Check with Parents, Friends Parents and personal tutors for anyone that might have a useful contract that you could write to.
2.) Flick through Chambers & Partners guide in the library – it will give the degree of every Barrister practising in England and Wales and the chambers that they belong to, if you find someone from Exeter in an interesting practise, just be cheeky and write to them. (Alternatively write to the clerk of sets where there is a barrister in the set with the same surname, often the clerks get confused and give you a mini-pupillage just because they think you might be related to the barrister.)
3.) Have bags and bags of talent, be universally wanted and loved and just apply to anywhere you feel on the strength of your CV. (Warning – this is tough)
But remember barlings, you must apply now for mini-pupillages for summer 2006. Unless there is a form on the Chambers website, simply send a covering letter explaining who you are and what you want and a copy of your CV to the Senior Clerk in Chambers (Please Please do not write to the head of chambers).
One final note, for all 2nd and 3rd years that have so far not joined an Inns of Court. Middle Temple offers the best Scholarship opportunities for Exeter Students, if you want further information on selecting an Inn, please speak to me individually. Hopefully The Middle Temple lunch in February will still go ahead. A Dinner and Dining night at Lincolns Inn has also been suggested for 7th Feb and the 14th March 2006.
More importantly however I would like as many students as possible to attend the Pupillage Careers fair at the Inns of Court on Saturday 4th March 2006 (which is week 8 of next term) its very important that you sign up nice and early and guarantee yourself a place. To sign up simply click on the link below and fill in your details. The Exeter delegation should be travelling up on the morning of the 4th by train; a request has been put into the Guild to see if any additional funding for transport costs could be provided.
http://doctorjob.com/law/fair/Interested.asp
This article below will briefly report on the last two Bar Group events; firstly the trip to Lincoln’s Inn on the 24th of February and secondly the Bar Group Lecture on Wednesday the 2nd of March.
Lincolns’ Inn Trip
The Bar Group trip to the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn is a definite must for anyone even considering a career at the Bar. For those who are not familiar with the Inns of Court, Lincolns, Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray’s Inn are effectively the 4 Barrister societies. Every barrister must join an Inn before starting the Bar Vocational Course. Lincolns is the oldest (and by far the richest) of the 4 Inns dating back to 1422. The Trip involved 10 students attending a series of lectures on ‘life at the bar’ followed by dinner at the Inn. At dinner the students were clustered around certain Benchers (senior members of the Inn). This allowed the keen students to ask questions to the Benchers, and the keen Benchers to chat-up with the young ladies from Southampton University. The Criminal Judge sitting next to you will then tell you the hilarious story about how he gave a one legged pirate a life sentence after coming to England as a political asylum seeker from Wales.
The trip was an excellent taste of the options available as a Barrister and an even better opportunity to drink copious amounts of Gin on the train home. Bar Group Trips to the Inns will resume in October.
Bar Group Lecture
Wednesday the 2nd of March saw Ruth Vincent and Tom Bradnock from Colleton Chambers, Exeter and Declan O’Callaghan from 36 Bedford Row, London give a short talk on Pupillages and the Bar Vocational Course. The lectures were followed by alcohol and informal chat about how wonderful it is being a Barrister. Declan explained the importance in making your CV stand out, and gave certain tips on what makes a successful Pupillage application. Declan and myself will shortly be discussing how to reincarnate the ‘old boy net’ of Barristers that was established by Declan whilst he was BLS President (a long long time ago). Hopefully this will result in some marshalling experience and afew mini-pupillages for those that are interested.
Oliver Bacon
Not strictly true.