The Pupillage Gateway, which is provided for the Bar Council by a third party and which was due to close at 11am on Thursday 7 February 2019, saw a high level of applications. Unfortunately, as a result of several IT issues including some corrupt user accounts, the online application system caused delays for many using the system. Because of the delays being drawn to the attention of the Bar Council the deadline for applications was extended until 13.30 on Thursday 7 February 2019. However, after listening to the concerns of those affected and in the interests of fairness, the Bar Council has looked again at this issue. We have decided to extend the Pupillage Gateway deadline until 11am on Monday 11 February 2019.
The Bar Council is sorry for any inconvenience caused to any applicant or any chambers using the Gateway. We will be asking our third party supplier for an explanation as to why the problem occurred and will be looking for an assurance that nothing of this nature will ever happen again.