22-05-2025
City firms keep it in the family with in-house barrister training
Employed barristers working outside chambers form a fifth of the practising profession — and City law firms are increasingly training them in-house.
The Government Legal Department and the Crown Prosecution Service are the largest providers of in-house pupillage, the 12-month training that must be completed to practise as a barrister.
But over the past few years regulators, banks and just short of 40 law firms, ranging from high street practices including AHS Law and GT Stewart to larger ones such as Candey, DWF and Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen, have started to recruit pupils. Some even have in-house advocacy units that mirror the chambers model.
Browne Jacobson was one of the first law firms to train pupils; since 2010 its advocacy team has grown to
