Your well drafted Pupillage letter......
Writing a covering letter to Chambers? How do I write a letter which is going to stand out among the other pupillage applications? How do I know which is the best Chambers to apply to?
Writing a covering letter for a pupillage application requires time and thought, especially if you want to get it right and more importantly if you want it read. The starting point in my opinion is to really research your chosen Chambers. Identify the strengths and the experience of the individual barristers and see if there is a synergy between your abilities and those of Chambers. After all, if you are going to apply to a particular set, you need to ensure that there is a good match of skills.
I always think that it is important to see who the incumbent pupils are, where they have come from, both in terms of age and background (by this I mean educationally and previous legal/work experience) as this will give you a gauge as to the type of pupils that Chambers seek. Also, a key tip is to chat among your fellow students to find out whether anyone has completed a mini-pupillage with that set, as it will of course give you a clear insight into the daily life and pace of Chambers.
Now that you have completed your homework, check how Chambers wants you to submit your covering letter. Importantly, sometimes you are expected to submit a covering letter with the good old ‘pen and ink’, so it is always good practice to double check.
Turning now to the letter itself. Amusingly in recent days there have been a variety of tactics driven across the Internet as to how to get your letter written for you. (PERISH THE THOUGHT). However, when it comes to writing your own letter, I personally don’t think there is a right or wrong formula, just make sure you are able to put yourself across well and take on board my earlier comments.
As usual, I have been conducting a cross examination upon the Internet and have come across some surprising results and here are a few to share with you. Interestingly, ‘The City Law School’ have put online a covering letter, its set up as a PDF but it gives a clear outline of both a letter and CV. (Click Here for City Law Covering Letter). For some other pointers, why not go to ‘LawCareers.Net’ as it provides some good advice (Click here for LawCareers.Net Tips). Finally, it is worth a peek at ‘The Diaries of UK Law Students’, it’s an old blog, but it has an interesting snippet with some tips from a junior criminal barrister, (Click here for UK Law Students Tips)
Well, today’s blog is just sharing some of my thoughts, take them or leave them, but perish the thought that you will ever request a cross examination on this subject matter.
As always,
Justin Time
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