Maitland is the leading set for commercial chancery barristers. Our members are consistently recognised for their excellence in commercial and all aspects of chancery practice, for the multi-specialist nature of their expertise, and for their commitment to the highest standards of advocacy.
Chambers offers its members a supportive working environment with high quality work before domestic courts, arbitral tribunals, and foreign courts. Chambers invites applications for tenancy from established practitioners of any level above 6 years’ call specialising in one or more of the areas in which members practise.
Applicants should be able to demonstrate a track record of outstanding achievement in practice, supported by appropriate references. To make a confidential application, or to speak on a confidential basis about making an application, please contact our tenancy committee at tenancy@maitlandchambers.com.
Chambers welcomes applications from people of all backgrounds. We recruit the best candidates, regardless of gender, race or ethnicity, background, religion, physical ability, or sexual orientation.
Those accepted for mini-pupillage will spend one day in Chambers (usually with junior members but sometimes also with KCs) attending court and conferences, and studying sets of papers. There are a limited number of places available for mini-pupillage each year and these are confined to the court terms. They are always heavily over-subscribed, particularly between October and January. We find that mini-pupils obtain the most from the experience if they have completed at least a year of an undergraduate law degree or, for those converting to law, have started the GDL course at the point when they visit Chambers.
In the event that there are more candidates than available places in any mini-pupillage round, each candidate is assessed by reference to their application form. Candidates will need to satisfy Chambers that they can demonstrate the key qualities we are looking for or that they have the potential to demonstrate them in the future. Our four key qualities, in order of importance, are: (1) reasoning and analytical ability, (2) aptitude for advocacy, (3) judgment and (4) interpersonal skills and temperament. There are many different ways in which candidates can provide evidence of these key qualities and we keep an open mind when reading applications. General pointers are given on our main pupillage application page, which can be found here.
Applications for mini-pupillage are considered three times a year, as follows:
Applications must be received by 4:00pm.
The application form is browser-based and we recommend that you prepare and save a draft application in Word (or similar), before copying across to the online application form for final submission. All sections marked with an asterix are compulsory. If you have any questions or issues regarding the form, please email our Pupillage Administrator.
By submitting your application via the form below, you are agreeing to provide us with your details for the use of a mini-pupillage application and to be notified of any pupillage-related events run by Maitland. Your details will not be used for any other purpose. If you do not wish for your details to be used in this way please inform our Pupillage Administrator. For your information, a copy of our current Privacy Statement can be found here.
Maitland operates an Equality and Diversity policy, further details of which can be found by clicking here. We therefore encourage applications for mini-pupillages from people from all sections of society regardless of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief or age.
Our mini-pupillages are unfunded, however, mini-pupils will be able to claim reasonable travel expenses on production of proof of the expense, up to a maximum of £50. In addition, Lincoln's Inn offer a Mini Pupillage Grant Scheme and further details can be found on their website here.
Our continued success as a leading set of Chambers depends on our recruitment of the most talented people, the comprehensive training we give them during pupillage and the opportunities we offer them as junior tenants. We see every pupil as a prospective tenant; and ultimately, we hope, a future KC.
There is no such thing as a “Maitland type”. We look for the qualities which we think are required to excel in our field of practice: a first-class mind; an aptitude for written and oral advocacy; good judgment; sound interpersonal skills; and a level temperament. We believe that those qualities are to be found in candidates from every background; and can be evidenced in many different ways.
We are committed to increasing the diversity of Maitland and adopt a variety of techniques to achieve that objective, while maintaining the fair treatment of all candidates.
Please click here to download our Pupillage Brochure.
If you have any further questions, please contact our Pupillage Adminstrator.
We offer a 12-month pupillage in accordance with the requirements of the Bar Standards Board; and with an emphasis throughout on training in all of the skills required of an excellent commercial and commercial chancery practitioner.
We only offer pupillage to candidates who demonstrate that they have the ability and skills to become tenants at Maitland. We have no limit on the number of tenancies offered in any given year and pupils are never in competition with each other. We have for many years recruited as tenants most, or all, of our pupils. Provided a candidate meets the requisite standard based on their own performance, a tenancy is offered.
From September 2026 a pupillage award of £85,000 is offered to all pupils at Maitland. Up to £30,000 of the award may be drawn down in advance during the course taken to satisfy the vocational component of Bar training or to pay the associated fees. The balance of the award is paid in instalments monthly in advance over the course of the 12 months of pupillage. We also fund the compulsory courses required of pupils by the Bar Standards Board.
Prospective pupils may also be able to obtain awards from the Inns of Court to assist in funding their GDL and/or vocational component of Bar training. Applications for these awards should be made to the Inns.
In light of the emphasis we place on advocacy training (see below), our pupils are not expected to practise during their second six prior to the tenancy decision. After the tenancy decision, pupils who have been offered tenancy may be offered certain work provided their pupil supervisor gives permission.
Maitland is a member of the Pupillage Gateway and applications for pupillage are made in accordance with the Gateway timetable.
ELIGIBILITY TO APPLY
We welcome applications both from law and non-law graduates and recognise that training in other disciplines can be good preparation for a career at the Bar. We have in recent years offered pupillages and tenancies to those with law degrees and those who converted to law after their undergraduate degrees in roughly equal numbers.
All candidates must have obtained (or be predicted) a minimum upper second class undergraduate degree or equivalent; and be “on track” to being qualified to start pupillage in September 2026 by completing the vocational component of Bar training before then (by any of the relevant pathways permitted by the Bar Standards Board.
We also accept applications from candidates who are already qualified as legal practitioners in England and Wales or in other jurisdictions. On occasion, it may be possible for such a candidate to be recruited outside the pupillage process; and we are happy to consider any individual case. But for most candidates who have not previously practised as advocates in England and Wales, we regard a Gateway application and a full pupillage thereafter as appropriate, even if from a regulatory point of view the Bar Standards Board would be prepared to waive some or all of the candidate’s pupillage requirements upon transfer to the English Bar.
Unsuccessful applicants for pupillage may apply for a second time in a subsequent year. However, we do not accept further applications from candidates who have applied twice previously.
THE APPLICATION PROCESS
We receive around 100-200 application forms each year through the Gateway from which we select approximately 40 first round interviewees and then approximately 10 second round interviewees. We generally offer up to three places for pupillage per year.
At every stage, candidates are assessed by reference to the four qualities which we think are necessary to excel in our area of practice, namely: (1) reasoning and analytical ability, (2) aptitude for advocacy, (3) judgment and (4) interpersonal skills and temperament. Our process is intended to draw out from each candidate the best available evidence of those qualities.
THE APPLICATION FORM
Candidates are required to complete the standard Gateway application form, together with certain questions added by us. The whole content of your application form will be assessed for evidence of the four qualities for which we recruit. But you may find it helpful to bear in mind the following general pointers:
In addition to the application form, all candidates are also offered the opportunity to provide us with information as to personal and economic background through the Rare Contextual Recruitment System, which is used to contextualise the candidate’s application and in particular their academic results. Provision of this information is entirely voluntary. We use the Rare System as a “screen in” tool, not a “screen out” tool; and under no circumstances are candidates ever marked down either for supplying or for not supplying this information.
Once all forms have been received, they are each anonymised and provided to at least two Members of Chambers to be independently scored for evidence of the four qualities for which we recruit. Scores are then moderated between the readers to enable a shortlist of approximately 40 candidates to be selected for interview. Regrettably, we often find that there are more suitable candidates than there are available first round interview places, and allocate those places to the candidates with the highest scores after moderation.
THE INTERVIEWS
The first round interview lasts for approximately 25 minutes and is held in front of a panel of two or three Members of Chambers. It involves some general questions and a longer discussion of a hypothetical case. That hypothetical case will have been designed to test your general reasoning and analysis, rather than your legal knowledge, and you will be given a short period of time to consider and prepare thoughts on it before your interview.
The second round interview lasts for approximately 30 minutes and focusses on the more detailed study of a hypothetical case (which will, again, be designed to engage your general reasoning abilities rather than any specialist legal knowledge). This case is then discussed with a panel of up to five barristers, including one or more of our KCs. Interviewees are asked to come to Chambers in time to allow themselves 60 minutes of preparation.
The interviews are intended to draw out evidence of the same four fundamental qualities on which we recruit. In relation to the hypothetical cases, a perfect candidate would be able to pick out the issues from the case materials; think through their implications; reach judgments as to the best solution which are both well-reasoned and commercially realistic; explain the issues and their reasoning to the interview panel in clear terms; take on board challenges to that reasoning by the panel; follow through the logic of new points “on their feet”; work out and explain available counter-arguments; have the good judgment to change their views where appropriate (or not, as the case may be) and interact with the panel in an appropriate and engaging manner throughout. But of course we are well aware that the perfect candidate does not exist. Our interviews are intended to be enjoyable but also to involve an intellectual “work out”: most candidates will get into difficulties at some point during their interviews, and how they recover is itself part of the assessment. We enjoy getting to know candidates in this way, as thinkers and future advocates; and we hope that candidates will leave feeling energised and enthused by the experience.
At the end of each interview, candidates will be scored independently by each interviewer on the four qualities for which we recruit, before scores are moderated so that candidates may be ranked.
PUPIL SUPERVISORS
Pupils are assessed over a 40-week period. Pupils usually sit with four pupil supervisors, for four rotations, of 10 weeks each. Pupil supervisors are mid to senior-level juniors and only ever have one pupil at a time. You will generally sit in a room with your pupil supervisor and may sometimes be supervised remotely if a supervisor is working from home. You will accompany them to court and arbitration hearings and mediations/other settlement meetings and (other than for exceptional reasons) attend their conferences, telephone conferences and video conferences. This gives you broad exposure to the major tools of the commercial and commercial chancery barrister’s trade – advocacy (written and oral), drafting pleadings, opinion writing, legal research, preparation of notes on evidence, trial preparation (including witness handling) and negotiation skills.
ADVOCACY TRAINING AND ASSESSMENT
Further, at regular intervals throughout the pupillage assessment period, you will participate in Maitland’s in-house advocacy training and assessment programme. Each individual exercise takes the form of mock hearings, for which you prepare from a set of papers given to you in advance, just as you would in practice. Senior Members of Chambers act as the tribunal, dealing with your application as it would be dealt with if genuinely made in court.
These exercises have a two-fold purpose: they are both part of your assessment process, and are also designed to help you develop the oral advocacy skills you will need as a practitioner in a supportive environment. We believe that success in our profession ultimately depends upon a barrister’s level of accomplishment as a court advocate and, accordingly, we consider the advocacy training and assessment programme a key part of the pupillage process.
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
A further key aspect of your training is in professional ethics. We run a workshop devoted to the barrister’s professional obligations, during which you are asked how you would react to particularly testing scenarios. Again, detailed feedback is provided at this workshop, which is run by senior Members of Chambers who draw upon many years of experience.
LIFE AS A PUPIL AT MAITLAND
We recognise that pupillage is demanding, and we do our best to make it as interesting, enjoyable and rewarding an experience as possible.
Pupils are not expected to work late in the evenings or at weekends, although, due to the nature of practice, there may be times when some longer hours are necessary.
Pupils are welcomed into and encouraged to participate in the social life of Maitland. During pupillage, pupils will often have lunch with their pupil supervisors and other Members of Chambers (juniors’ fish and chips on a Friday is a regular event), and are welcome at Chambers' social events.
Each year, there are two pupil mentors who are Members of Chambers with experience of pupillage (as pupils and/or pupil supervisors). They play no part in the assessment process; and are available to speak to pupils, in confidence in appropriate circumstances, about personal and professional issues which any pupil cannot or does not want to raise with their supervisor.
For an overview of life as a pupil, please click here to read the latest Chambers Student Guide’s report on Maitland.
THE TENANCY DECISION
We take our decision as to whether or not to offer tenancy after around 40 weeks of assessment.
We believe in providing continuous constructive feedback to our pupils on their work, which is done through detailed discussion and an objective grading system (set against the standard we expect of a junior tenant), so you have a clear idea of how well you are progressing, what you do well, what needs improving and (crucially) how to do that. Pupil supervisors provide detailed feedback on individual pieces of work and on the pupil’s progress at the end of each 10-week rotation. The advocacy assessors also provide detailed feedback as soon after each individual advocacy exercise as possible to help you identify existing strengths and areas which require improvement. The objective grading system used by the pupil supervisors is also used by the advocacy assessors.
We invest heavily in our pupils and hope that every pupil will meet the required standard by the time the tenancy decision is made. But inevitably there are times when this does not happen. Maitland is committed to making every effort to find good homes for any of our pupils who are not offered tenancies. The overwhelming majority find tenancies at other good Chambers.
As soon as you become a Member of Chambers, you are likely to have two main types of work: (1) taking responsibility for running your own smaller scale cases, typically in the fields of small contractual disputes, insolvency, company and property litigation; and (2), being led by KCs or senior juniors in heavy disputes, typically in the fields of large scale commercial litigation or arbitration, civil fraud, complex insolvency and asset recovery situations and offshore and trusts work. This combination of independent practice and collaboration with experienced practitioners will develop your skills as both an advocate and a tactician from the outset of your practice.
Our junior tenants are encouraged to develop their expertise across all of Maitland’s main areas of work; but equally are free to specialise if they wish.
As one of the largest of the leading sets in our field, we have the highest levels of administrative support. You will have access to excellent resources and a dedicated team of staff to help you manage and grow your practice.
We also offer exceptional professional support in the early years of practice. You will be welcomed into an open and friendly environment, where members look out for each other and offer a strong network of mutual support. Your colleagues’ doors will always be open, whether you want to discuss a difficult point of law or just drop in for a quick chat.
Whilst barristers are self-employed and earnings therefore vary, our experience is that the earnings of first year tenants at Maitland generally far exceed the pupillage award and compare favourably to first year earnings at other commercial Chambers and city solicitor firms. In any event, Maitland also offers a Cash Flow Assistance Scheme for the benefit of junior tenants who have successfully completed their pupillage. This scheme operates within the first two years of practice and further details can be provided on request. Further, junior tenants do not pay Chambers expenses for their first year of practice.
Maitland has a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, both within our own set of Chambers and across the Bar as a whole. We are proud of that commitment. Further information about various initiatives we have implemented and supported can be found here.
We are also proud of our internal processes for fair recruitment, which reflect (we believe) the very best practice currently in use at the Commercial and Chancery Bar and are kept under regular review.
We welcome applications from people from all sections of society regardless of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief or age and encourage applications from groups presently under-represented at the Commercial and Chancery Bar.
DISABLED CANDIDATES
Chambers makes reasonable adjustments in respect of disabled candidates for pupillage. Relevant details are sought in the course of the application process. Potential applicants who would like to discuss reasonable adjustments in advance of applying are also welcome to contact the Pupillage Adminstrator.
We are not seeking currently applications for Third Six Vacancies.