The Bar Council's Pupillage Fair will return in 2025.
This is the perfect opportunity for Authorised Education and Training Organisations (AETOs) and other relevant organisations to connect with hundreds of aspiring barristers face-to-face. The venue offers a large exhibition hall hosting over 100 exhibitor stands.
In 2023, over 900 aspiring barristers, from over 100 universities - in the UK and abroad - came to visit the fair. They attended a range of advice and panel sessions, visited the booths of over 100 exhibiting barristers’ chambers and other organisations, and spoke to hundreds of volunteers from across the profession.
“This was our first year and felt very supported by the Bar Council. We spoke to many people at the Fair. The organisation was excellent.” – exhibitor, Pupillage Fair 2023
In the week leading up to the exhibition, we'll also be hosting a virtual seminar programme. Expert speakers will share what life is like as a barrister working in different areas of practice, and their individual experiences of joining the Bar.
Connect with aspiring barristers as a volunteer at our CV clinic
Are you a practising barrister, keen to share your knowledge with the next generation of practitioners?
Find out more about volunteering to lead CV and application clinic sessions with aspiring barristers.
Exhibitor guidance
The Bar Council Pupillage Fair is the largest recruitment fair run by the Bar, for the Bar of the future.
The Fair has been running for nine years. In this time, it's grown significantly in size, and forms an important part of the Bar Council’s strategic commitment to fair access and to our profession, regardless of background.
It also provides AETOs and other relevant organisations with an opportunity to invest in the future of the profession and improve access to the Bar.
The Pupillage Fair consists of an in-person exhibition, seminar programme and CV Clinic, accompanied by a series of online fringe webinars.
It's held with the support of the Council of the Inns of Court and the Chancery, Commercial, Criminal, Employment Law, Family, Technology and Construction Bar, and Personal Injury Associations.
For exhibitors, the fair:
- provides you with an important opportunity to engage with aspiring barristers, nearly 80% of whom will be seeking to apply for pupillage in the same year.
- promotes access to the profession and represents an unparalleled marketing opportunity for AETOs. This may be why 100% of the exhibitors that we welcomed to the event in 2023 indicated that they would like to return in 2024.
The fair offers attendees the perfect opportunity to improve their understanding of the profession and the various organisations associated with it, by allowing them to meet and ask questions of AETOs, attend panel events designed to showcase specific areas of practice and routes to the profession, and receive feedback on their draft pupillage applications from barristers at the CV Clinic.
The fair is attended by AETOs and associations, universities, and inns.
In 2023, the in-person element of the Pupillage Fair attracted over 900 students from 100+ universities, both in the UK and abroad, and 110 exhibitors, all interacting face-to-face with the next generation of the Bar.
Although the attendees were all at different stages of their studies, nearly 80% were seeking to apply for pupillage in the same year.
Over 70% of our attendees leave the Pupillage Fair feeling more confident about pursuing a career at the Bar.
Located near Liverpool Street station, Convene, 133 Houndsditch is a state-of-the-art conference and exhibition venue.
The Fair will take place across two floors, and with exclusive hire of the space participants will have the complete event experience.
The exhibition element of the Pupilage Fair 2024 will be taking place in-person on Saturday 19 October 2024 at Convene, 133 Houndsditch, Liverpool Street, London, and will include:
- A large exhibition hosting 100+ exhibitor stands, providing AETOs and other relevant organisations with the opportunity to connect with aspiring barristers face-to-face
- An application and CV clinic where aspiring barristers will be able to connect with volunteer barristers to get advice on their CVs or pupillage applications
- A seminar programme with expert speakers sharing their advice on how to get pupillage
A virtual fringe seminar programme will run in the week leading up to the main in-person event on the Saturday.
We recommend a minimum of 2 representatives on the stand throughout the day.
We would further encourage AETOs to send additional representatives to take part in the CV Clinic.
Cost of exhibiting
The exhibitor price will be £850 plus VAT, and includes the following benefits:
- the inclusion of your organisation's name, logo and profile on the Pupillage Fair 2024 programme page of the Bar Council’s website
- 3m x 2m exhibitor space, including a table, two chairs and a black tablecloth
- lunch, teas, and coffees, provided for two representatives in your team (but can be increased, at the discretion of the Bar Council, on request prior to the event taking place)
- an anonymised aggregated report, sent to you after the event, relating to the diversity of all attendees, and the contact details of those who consented to having them shared with exhibitors
Qualifying for a pro bono or discounted stand
The Bar Council remains committed to offering pro bono and discounted stands to AETOs who:
- receive grants from the Council of the Inns of Court Pupillage Matched Funding Scheme
- undertake a significant amount of publicly funded work
- are newly established as pupillage providers
- are located outside of London and would incur significant expenses to attend the fair
If you fall into any of these categories, we invite you to email the Bar Council’s training and events team at [email protected] and set out:
- why you would like to participate in this year’s event, particularly if you have not joined a previous Bar Council Pupillage Fair
- your reasoning for requiring a pro bono or discounted stand
- the amount that you would reasonably be able to pay for a stand
Applications will be assessed within five working days.
The deadline for applications is 17:00, Friday 14 June 2024.
Contact us for more information
