Pupillage

Parklane Plowden is consistently recognised as the leading set in the North East across its core practice areas by the legal press, including Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500:

“Parklane Plowden Chambers is regarded amongst lawyers and legal commentators as the pre-eminent set on the North Eastern Circuit”

“They are a very forward thinking set…evidenced by its unique structure that embraces modern business practices”

“…a regional heavyweight set which has a growing national reputation. It has ‘exceptional litigators’ and ‘genuine strength in depth’. As one of the largest civil law sets in the region, it is strong across a range of practice areas…”.

“All of the barristers have been nothing but professional, warm and friendly,” comments one satisfied client.”

“…the clerking is excellent”

“Outstanding and by the far best in the North of England”

One of the reasons for our exceptional reputation and strength in depth is investment in our pupils and junior tenants. We firmly believe that by recruiting high quality pupils and providing high quality pupillages, Chambers will continue to thrive. We have a very strong tradition of offering tenancies to pupils who demonstrate the requisite level of ability and dedication and many of our senior practitioners were themselves pupils in Chambers.

Within Chambers, we have the following core teams:

• Civil
• Employment
• Family
• Commercial and Chancery

A Civil & Employment Pupillage will involve exposure primarily to personal injury, clinical negligence and employment work, with opportunities to experience some of our other civil practice areas too. We will seek to adapt the pupillages according to the interests of the pupil and having regard to Chambers’ work at the time.

A Family Pupillage will involve exposure to all aspects of family law including public and private child work, applications under Part IV Family Law Act 1996, matrimonial finance, financial provision for children under Schedule 1, cohabitation disputes and Inheritance Act applications, as well as to our expanding area of practice within the Court of Protection. Members of Chambers regularly represent local authorities, parents, children, the Official Solicitor, as well as private clients.

A Commercial & Chancery Pupillage will involve exposure to commercial and chancery litigation. This will include general commercial litigation, banking and finance, partnership disputes, insolvency work, probate work, claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 and property litigation.

Pupils will be based at our Leeds and Newcastle premises, depending on which pupillage they apply for.

In the interim, for more information about pupillages within Chambers, see our Pupillage Guide available here and our Pupillage Training Programme, available here.

We encourage prospective candidates to find out more about Chambers and what our members are up to by following us on Twitter (@ParklanePlowden) and on LinkedIn.

Equality and Diversity

Chambers is committed to equal opportunities for all no matter what their background, and to promoting and improving diversity at the Bar. We particularly encourage applications from those in underrepresented groups and those with disabilities.

Pupillage applications are anonymised to reduce the possibility of any unconscious bias at the sifting stage.

We monitor diversity by way of our Equal Opportunities Monitoring Forms which candidates are invited to also complete with their applications. These forms are used only for monitoring purposes, they are kept separate from the application forms and are not used as part of the selection process.

We are proud of our Mini Pupillage Equality Scheme which provides additional opportunities for candidates from disadvantaged backgrounds and aims to promote and enhance diversity at the Bar, as well as within Chambers. Further details can be found on the mini pupillage page.

Further details of Chambers’ approach to Equality and Diversity generally can be found here.

Further information on our CSR and Outreach work can be found here.

Information about the PLP Foundation can be found here.

Chambers is a supporter and partner of Bridging the Bar: https://bridgingthebar.org/

Pupillage Commencing October 2027

Chambers has already recruited pupils to start in October 2026.

During the next Pupillage Gateway process, Chambers will likely be seeking to recruit at least 5 pupils across our practice areas and sites to commence pupillage in October 2027.

How to Apply

It is mandatory for all chambers to follow the Pupillage Gateway timetable. The closing date for applications will therefore be the last day permitted under the Gateway timetable.

Applications will need to be made on Chambers’ Application Form which will be available on our website (www.parklaneplowden.co.uk) prior to the applications window opening.

Interview dates will be published in due course.

Pupillage Awards

The pupillage award for pupillages commencing October 2027 will be confirmed prior to the application window opening.

Selection Criteria

We will be looking to recruit exceptional candidates who are able to demonstrate high level competencies and attributes in a number of different areas.

Our Pupillage Selection Criteria, which we encourage candidates to have regard to in advance of applying to us, can be found here along with details of how we propose to assess the competencies during the selection process.