Too few pupillages

Government budget cuts and the over-supply of barristers looking for pupillages were key topics at this year’s Bar Council conference.

Bar chairman, Nicholas Green QC, asked the government for assurances as to future levels of funding, in his address to about 500 delegates at the 25th Bar conference, in London last week. He urged legal aid barristers to diversify to protect their income.

Green highlighted the moral dilemma of calling so many people to the Bar who may have no real prospect of attaining pupillage.

Last year, 1,330 students completed the BVC but only 342 completed their first six months of pupillage. The Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC, formerly known as the BVC) costs about £14,000 in London, and about £11,000 elsewhere.

“At one level, the oversupply of young lawyers intensifies competition for places, helps maintain quality and creates a paralegal workforce, which keeps costs down. On the other hand, to a profession which places such a premium on ethics, I cannot but feel that there is a moral dimension to our work which we are overlooking.”