Landmark is one of the leading sets in the country and is a centre of excellence for planning, property, environment, public, rating and valuation law. During your pupillage, you will have the opportunity to work with a cross section of Chambers' barristers. This will allow you to experience a wide variety of work and take advantage of Landmark's unique position as a leading specialist set, with significant overlap between its private and public law practices.
The pupillage year is divided into four seats of three months each. During the first three seats, we offer our pupils experience in all of Chambers’ complementary practice areas. For the final seat each pupil is given an opportunity to express a preference as to the practice area in which they are interested in receiving further training, and the pupil recruited to the property pupillage will be encouraged to take a fourth seat with one of the members of our Property Team.
Throughout the year we will encourage you to work for a cross-section of Chambers’ members and we will arrange for our Silks to act as your satellite supervisors on more complex cases. This will allow you to see a wide variety of work and take advantage of Landmark’s unique position as a leading specialist set, with significant overlap between its private law and public law practices. In your second six months you will also be offered opportunities to appear in court on your own account, usually in the County Court or First-Tier Tribunal.
We are committed to providing our pupils with high-quality and constructive training. To that end, you will receive regular feedback from your pupil supervisors and, at the end of the first and third seats, you will be invited to participate in formal feedback sessions with the Chair and Secretaries of our Pupillage Committee. Finally, our pupils participate in, and receive feedback in relation to, three written and one oral advocacy assessment during their pupillage year.
The tenancy decision is taken on individual merit and is usually made after the first three seats of pupillage. Having taken on eight of nine pupils across the past three years, we have an excellent retention rate. However, if we are not able to offer you tenancy at the end of your pupillage, we have a good record of assisting our former pupils in finding third six opportunities or tenancies elsewhere.
You can hear more from Peter Sibley and Charles Bishop, junior tenants who completed pupillage with us in 2022. See the pupillage brochure here.
Click here to find out more about Planning and Environmental Law.
Click here to find out more about Property Law.
Click here to find out more about Public Law.
We offer up to three 12-month pupillages per year: one property pupillage and up to two pupillages for those who have a particular interest in at least one of Landmark’s other practice areas. We offer pupillages to those applicants who we believe have a realistic prospect of achieving a tenancy with us. Importantly, our pupils are not in competition with one another for a tenancy but are assessed solely on their own abilities and performance.
We offer a pupillage award of £75,000 per year per pupil, which will be paid in equal monthly instalments. This includes an optional £30,000 drawdown, which may be used during the year preceding the start of pupillage. Chambers also funds pupils’ attendance at multiple external training events throughout their pupillage year, including the compulsory courses required of pupils by the Bar Standards Board and the Inns of Court.
All pupils are supported by a supervisor, as managed by the Pupillage Committee, which is made up of a cross-section of Chambers’ membership. In addition, pupils may be assigned a Silk for more complex cases. Landmark’s independent, internal mentoring programme ensures that pupils have more informal support that covers technical, pastoral and career areas separate from their supervisor.
Members and pupils are closely supported by an experienced and professional staff team spanning administration, HR, marketing, finance, IT and practice management. Additional resources available to support pupils include access to a comprehensive library of legal texts in Chambers, as well as complimentary access to Chambers’ extensive online knowledge resources including Westlaw and LexisNexis. Pupils will also be trained to use the LEX practice management and diary system.
Landmark participates in the Bar Council’s Pupillage Gateway. All applications must be made through this online system.
Landmark is committed to the furtherance of equality and diversity at the Bar. We take great care in our selection process to identify candidates whom we believe have a realistic prospect of undertaking a successful pupillage with us. The first selection stage involves a careful review of your application by three members of Chambers. Each member makes an independent assessment, with reference to the Chambers’ selection criteria and in line with Landmark’s Equality and Diversity Policy, to decide whether you should go through to the second stage. All application forms are redacted to remove all personally identifiable information as well as equality and diversity data (including age, gender, ethnicity, religion and disability) prior to being viewed by a marker. This policy has been introduced to remove unconscious bias and promote equality in the application process.
The second stage is a one hour written assessment, for which no preparation is required. If your assessment is successful, you will then be invited for an interview, which forms the final stage of the application process. The interview panel will comprise Landmark’s Chief Executive and members of Chambers from a cross-section of seniority.
Offers of pupillage are made to successful candidates chosen on the basis of their application form, assessment score and performance at interview.
Our mini-pupillages are designed to provide students with valuable insight into the realities of life at the Bar and improve understanding of how our areas of expertise operate in practice. We do not assess our mini-pupils in any way and our placements do not form part of our selection process for pupillage. Further information regarding our mini-pupillage programme may be found here.
Yes. We are aware that applying for pupillage is a very competitive process and that each year the number of applications we receive from strong applicants exceeds the number of pupillages we can offer. Application forms and the written assessment are blind marked, and the assessors will therefore be unaware that you have previously applied to Chambers. However, if you have been interviewed on more than one occasion but have not made our reserve list, it is unlikely that you would be interviewed a third time absent some material change in circumstances.
We are committed to actively improving equality and diversity at all levels at the Bar. We recognise the under-representation of women, black and ethnic minority groups and the LGBTQIA+ community both in Chambers and in the Bar more widely. We wish to recruit the best people from the widest possible group of talent. Equality of opportunity is essential for the maintenance of high standards and the provision of the highest quality service to clients. We have comprehensive and robust policies and procedures in place to ensure that there is no discrimination against prospective pupils, pupils, members, clients, or staff on grounds of gender, race, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion or belief. Chambers’ full equality and diversity policy may be found here.
If you have any questions about the application process, please email: pupillage@landmarkchambers.co.uk
We offer up to three 12-month pupillages per year: one property pupillage and up to two pupillages for those who have a particular interest in at least one of Landmark’s practice areas. We offer pupillages to those applicants whom we believe have a realistic prospect of achieving a tenancy with us.
Importantly, our pupils are not in competition with one another for a tenancy but are assessed solely on their own abilities and performance.
Landmark participates in the Bar Council’s Pupillage Gateway. If you wish to apply to undertake a pupillage in our Chambers, please note the timetable below:
January 2024
Applications may be made through the Pupillage Gateway
February 2024
The Pupillage Gateway application window closes
March 2024
Landmark shortlisting process and first round assessments
April 2024
Landmark interviews
Following a review of all applications, we contact all candidates, either to invite them to sit an assessment or to inform them that their application has been unsuccessful.
If you have any questions about the application process, please email: pupillage@landmarkchambers.co.uk
Privacy Policy
Landmark respects your privacy and seeks to protect your personal data. Our Employee, Mini Pupil and Candidate Data Protection Policy describes how we gather and use your data when you make an application to Chambers. Landmark’s general Privacy Policy can be found here.
Landmark really cares about their pupils, and that’s what makes their pupillage such fantastic preparation for tenancy”.
LIFE AS A PUPIL Edward Arash Abedian
There is no escaping it. Pupillage is a challenging year. What you hope is that you are well supported, exposed to a variety of stimulating work, and provided with enough opportunities to present yourself in the best light. Thankfully, this was my experience of pupillage at Landmark.
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LIFE AS A PUPIL Harley Ronan
There was a very strong emphasis on training pupils at Landmark. In each seat my supervisors were keen to know of any areas I was particularly interested in, and all my supervisors ensured that I gained experience in that work.
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LIFE AS A PUPIL Kimberley Ziya
I am reaching the end of my pupillage at Landmark and about to begin life as a junior tenant. I began the year filled with stories about pupillage being hugely stressful, difficult and exhausting (the list could go on). I pre-emptively warned my family and friends that they might not see much of me over the coming 12 months. However, my experience at Landmark could not have been more different from my expectations.
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LIFE AS A PUPIL Joel Semakula
As with many pandemic pupils, getting enough advocacy experience in the post-lockdown world has been a challenge. However, Chambers provided multiple opportunities to take part in practice hearings and continues to assist me with securing advocacy opportunities, where possible.
LIFE AS A PUPIL Charles Bishop
Pupillage is always going to be a challenge; however looking back on my recent experience of pupillage I am confident that Landmark made the process as comfortable as it is possible to do so, without compromising on the very high standard of training.
To provide our candidates with further information about Landmark’s areas of expertise and pupillage programme, a number of our members have contributed to the videos shown here. Each video covers a range of topics, including the recommendations that we have for making the most out of your pupillage application and building your practice, what everyday life is like as a specialist practitioner, and the most interesting cases that our pupil barristers, junior Counsel and Silks have worked on.
