The Bar: Changes to your Training
The Bar: Changes to Your Training
The Bar is a fantastic profession: it is an exciting, stimulating and satisfying career. If you are thinking about a career at the Bar, you need to know about recent changes in the market for barristers’ services and reforms to training.
Changes to Market Conditions
The Bar has not been sheltered from the economic down turn and many barristers have seen their incomes squeezed. Others however, particularly civil, commercial and employment litigators, have seen demand for their services rocket and they can’t keep up.
Recent changes brought about by the Legal Services Act and the ways in which the Crown Prosecution Service buys advocacy services have also had a significant impact on the Bar. These changes have led to a reduction in the amount of work and the fees paid, for the Criminal Bar, and the Family Bar now faces similar pressures.
As a result, the number of pupillages available has decreased from 700 five years ago to 450 today while the number studying on Bar Courses has risen from 1400 to 1800. Simple maths shows that Bar students used to have a 50% chance of obtaining a pupillage, but that today these chances have dropped to about 25%.
These are tough odds! But keep reading to learn how you can improve your chances of success.
Reforms to Training
When I was a member of a Bar Standards Board (BSB) working party that reviewed the Bar Vocational Course (BVC), one of our most important findings was that there were students on the course who did not have the abilities and qualities (such as analysing and presenting law and fact) necessary to become a barrister. Considering the expense and time that a BVC course cost students, we felt this was a serious enough issue to recommend a series of reforms to make it tougher to get on the course and to graduate.
All students who wish to enrol on the course from September 2011 will have to sit the Bar Aptitude Test. While there are few details available, it appears that the focus will be on testing your ability to reason and your use of English language. There will, I believe, be a combination of multiple choice questions and short answer questions. No mark will be given, but you must pass the test before you can enrol. It is thought that you will be able to sit the test as many times as you like but that there will only be two opportunities each year. Originally this test was going to be imposed for 2010-2011 Bar students but the BSB have had to delay implementation and undertake further piloting because of concerns raised by the Office of Fair Trading.
From September 2010, the course will get a new name: ‘The Bar Professional Training Course’, and it will become tougher to pass. Three assessments (Criminal Litigation, Civil Litigation and Ethics) are going to be centrally set and sat locally at the same time by all students. The number of attempts allowed at any one assessment will reduce from 3 to 2. The pass mark for most assessments will go up from 50% to 60%.
My own view is that these reforms are a good thing. They should reduce the number of people on the Bar courses and improve their experience and I hope that these changes will lead to a decreasing gap between the number of people on the course and the number of pupillages available.
Maximising Your Chances
You can dramatically improve your own chances of getting a pupillage if you do the following: get a 2i; undertake mooting, debating, advocacy or public speaking; undertake at least 3 mini-pupillages, take on positions of responsibility; make absolutely no mistakes in applications; research as much as possible about the chambers to which you are applying.
Next Steps
Get hold of ‘It’s Your Call’ from the Bar Council (Google them). This excellent guide takes you through the application process. Get in touch with one of the Inns of Court (Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Gray’s Inn Lincoln’s Inn) because they have talks and open days packed with invaluable advice.
If you decide to ‘go for it’ then you will need to apply for a BPTC via ‘BPTC online’. There are four courses in London alone and they all have a common application process. Additionally, Kaplan Law School, the top-rated Nottingham course imported to London, requires all shortlisted applicants to attend a selection day, undertake oral and written advocacy exercises and an interview to ensure they have a fighting chance of getting a pupillage.
If you have any more questions about joining this incredible profession then please feel free to email me: james.wakefield@kaplanlawschool.org.uk.
James Wakefield
BPTC Director
Kaplan Law School
The Bar is a fantastic profession: it is an exciting, stimulating and satisfying career. If you are thinking about a career at the Bar, you need to know about recent changes in the market for barristers’ services and reforms to training.
Changes to Market Conditions
The Bar has not been sheltered from the economic down turn and many barristers have seen their incomes squeezed. Others however, particularly civil, commercial and employment litigators, have seen demand for their services rocket and they can’t keep up.
Recent changes brought about by the Legal Services Act and the ways in which the Crown Prosecution Service buys advocacy services have also had a significant impact on the Bar. These changes have led to a reduction in the amount of work and the fees paid, for the Criminal Bar, and the Family Bar now faces similar pressures.
As a result, the number of pupillages available has decreased from 700 five years ago to 450 today while the number studying on Bar Courses has risen from 1400 to 1800. Simple maths shows that Bar students used to have a 50% chance of obtaining a pupillage, but that today these chances have dropped to about 25%.
These are tough odds! But keep reading to learn how you can improve your chances of success.
Reforms to Training
When I was a member of a Bar Standards Board (BSB) working party that reviewed the Bar Vocational Course (BVC), one of our most important findings was that there were students on the course who did not have the abilities and qualities (such as analysing and presenting law and fact) necessary to become a barrister. Considering the expense and time that a BVC course cost students, we felt this was a serious enough issue to recommend a series of reforms to make it tougher to get on the course and to graduate.
All students who wish to enrol on the course from September 2011 will have to sit the Bar Aptitude Test. While there are few details available, it appears that the focus will be on testing your ability to reason and your use of English language. There will, I believe, be a combination of multiple choice questions and short answer questions. No mark will be given, but you must pass the test before you can enrol. It is thought that you will be able to sit the test as many times as you like but that there will only be two opportunities each year. Originally this test was going to be imposed for 2010-2011 Bar students but the BSB have had to delay implementation and undertake further piloting because of concerns raised by the Office of Fair Trading.
From September 2010, the course will get a new name: ‘The Bar Professional Training Course’, and it will become tougher to pass. Three assessments (Criminal Litigation, Civil Litigation and Ethics) are going to be centrally set and sat locally at the same time by all students. The number of attempts allowed at any one assessment will reduce from 3 to 2. The pass mark for most assessments will go up from 50% to 60%.
My own view is that these reforms are a good thing. They should reduce the number of people on the Bar courses and improve their experience and I hope that these changes will lead to a decreasing gap between the number of people on the course and the number of pupillages available.
Maximising Your Chances
You can dramatically improve your own chances of getting a pupillage if you do the following: get a 2i; undertake mooting, debating, advocacy or public speaking; undertake at least 3 mini-pupillages, take on positions of responsibility; make absolutely no mistakes in applications; research as much as possible about the chambers to which you are applying.
Next Steps
Get hold of ‘It’s Your Call’ from the Bar Council (Google them). This excellent guide takes you through the application process. Get in touch with one of the Inns of Court (Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Gray’s Inn Lincoln’s Inn) because they have talks and open days packed with invaluable advice.
If you decide to ‘go for it’ then you will need to apply for a BPTC via ‘BPTC online’. There are four courses in London alone and they all have a common application process. Additionally, Kaplan Law School, the top-rated Nottingham course imported to London, requires all shortlisted applicants to attend a selection day, undertake oral and written advocacy exercises and an interview to ensure they have a fighting chance of getting a pupillage.
If you have any more questions about joining this incredible profession then please feel free to email me: james.wakefield@kaplanlawschool.org.uk.
James Wakefield
BPTC Director
Kaplan Law School
