Emily McCurrie is the Commercial Chancery/Northern Circuit Caseworker at the Bar's pro bono charity, Advocate. She is set to commence pupillage at Exchange Chambers in January 2025, having received two offers during the 2023 application cycle. In the second of our Pro Bono Week blogs, Emily discusses her experience with Advocate and how this helped her secure pupillage.
The route to obtaining pupillage can be challenging and requires both dedication and resilience. It often feels like a game of chance, which means that applications must be of the highest quality to stand out and succeed. My time working at Advocate has been instrumental in allowing me to obtain pupillage. In this blog post, I’ll share my experience and explain why it played a crucial role in helping me to secure pupillage.
Like many successful applicants, I secured pupillage after several attempts - three, to be exact. During my successful application round, I was working at Advocate, the pro bono charity. My role at Advocate is twofold: I am responsible for processing, assessing and finding assistance for all deserving applications in Commercial Chancery cases across England and Wales and I serve as a Northern Circuit representative, acting as a key point of contact and collaborating with chambers and committees on the Circuit to promote pro bono uptake.
Securing pupillage while in this role speaks for itself, but to explore further, I’ll outline three key ways I found this experience contributed to my success: the exposure to the law in practice, the barristers and legal professionals I have met, and the opportunity to work with a wide range of applicants, clients and people in legal difficulties.
Exposure to areas of law
Advocate receives applications from individuals seeking assistance across all areas of law and all courts and tribunals in England and Wales. Having responsibility for the Commercial Chancery cases which Advocate receives has expanded my knowledge across a diverse range of legal issues.
This was incredibly helpful for pupillage interviews. Interviews often include complex legal problems and challenges, so having an understanding of these beforehand enabled me to work through them efficiently to highlight the issues and find the answers.
The exposure was also valuable in improving my understanding of the career in practice. By working as the Commercial Chancery Caseworker, I have developed my knowledge of both the practicalities of legal proceedings, and what matters look like outside of academic studies. Practice can be very different to what you learn at university, and it is often the case that this cannot be learnt until pupillage. I was fortunate to gain such understanding prior to my applications, which reassured interview panels that I was aware of what pupillage could look like (and was prepared for it).
Connections and networking
My role engaging with chambers and committees across the Northern Circuit to encourage barristers to take on more pro-bono work has been immensely valuable.
Firstly, it has enabled me to build up an excellent network of connections, from whom I have learnt an incredible amount. Through this work, I am fully immersed in the Bar that I applied to practice on. The barristers I have met have been incredibly helpful and supportive, from checking applications, giving advice, through to talking about the career as a whole. I leant on this support when making my applications and feel as though I can continue doing so throughout my career.
Secondly, engaging with barristers and members of the judiciary on the Northern Circuit has cemented my confidence. Pupillage interviews are intimidating, but my experience of regularly working with barristers allowed me to relax and treat it like a professional conversation. These experiences allowed me to give a true account of myself and was only possible because I felt comfortable with the panels that interviewed me.
Engagement with litigants and future clients
The Bar is a profession dedicated to serving the public, and a key motivation behind my career choice is my desire to help others. In my role at Advocate, I do exactly that. Engaging directly with applicants daily and talking about these experiences in my applications and interviews, played a crucial role in my success.
I frequently work with often vulnerable or occasionally challenging applicants, where I have to understand their cases and present concise summaries and bundles for the benefit of assisting barristers. Managing expectations is also crucial, as Advocate relies on the generous voluntary support of barristers, and as such, assistance is never guaranteed. Strong (and concise) written skills, excellent people skills and empathy, and the ability to manage expectations are all fundamental skills required of a barrister.
Developing these skills at Advocate has been immensely valuable and has allowed me to readily answer pupillage interview competency questions and to engage with the barristers on interview panels.
In conclusion...
Working at Advocate has allowed me to work with incredible individuals who have been instrumental in supporting my pupillage applications. It has helped me to develop the skills set out above which allowed me to approach pupillage interviews from a fresh perspective and ultimately to secure pupillage. I am immensely grateful for the opportunities I’ve been afford working at Advocate and would highly recommend it to anyone seeking to pursue a career at the Bar.