List of contributors

Major contributor bios

Fen Greatley-Hirsch

Fen graduated from the University of Warwick with an LLB in Law with French Law before moving to the Netherlands, where he worked at a Hague-based NGO specialising in strategic human rights legislation, completed an advanced LLM in Public International Law at Leiden University, and won the International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition. He then returned to the UK for the BPTC at BPP Law School, with the generous assistance of a major Queen Mother Scholarship awarded by Middle Temple.

He is currently researching for a PhD in international criminal law at the University of Leeds on an AHRC-funded doctoral studentship. In September 2019 he will commence a common law pupillage at Broadway House Chambers on the North Eastern Circuit.

Sophie Kay

Sophie is currently undergoing pupillage at 9 King’s Bench Walk Chambers. Prior to commencing pupillage, Sophie worked at the Ministry of Justice as a Justice Policy Officer in the Probation Programme, drafting answers to Parliamentary Questions on behalf of the Secretary of State for Justice and Justice Ministers, and worked on creating future policies in Justice Reform. She is a committee member of the Human Rights Network, which is the young professionals committee of Human Rights Watch.

Sophie studied law at the University of Bristol and completed the BPTC at BPP Law School, London. While at law school, Sophie volunteered as a Vocalise Mentor, teaching parliamentary debating to  prisoners. She is a grateful recipient of the Jules Thorn ‘Major’ Scholarship from Middle Temple.

Robert Levack

Robert started pupillage in a criminal set of chambers in London in October 2018, having been called by Middle Temple in November 2015. After being called, Robert worked as a paralegal first at a boutique criminal justice firm in London, before moving to a large legal aid crime firm in London where he was a paralegal and police station representative.

He was awarded a Harmsworth Scholarship by Middle Temple. Whilst studying the BPTC, Robert volunteered as an advisor in a pro-bono family advice scheme in West London.

Before the BPTC, Robert took an LLB and an LLM in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at the University of Sussex, where he represented his university in national and international mooting and criminal advocacy competitions. He also served as master of moots in his final year as an undergraduate.

Over 4.5 years before and during university, Robert served as a Special Constable in the Suffolk Constabulary.

Our acknowledgements

It is simply not possible to undertake a project of this size without the input and support of others.

Help was gratefully received in a variety of forms: general encouragement, input into the Guide itself through editing, proofreading, suggesting sections / future ideas, submitting content for a section or entire page, and offering feedback, have all helped make the Guide what it is.

We are both grateful to the pupils, juniors, and senior barristers who took the time to give Beheshteh detailed feedback. Some chose to write up their feedback (several thousands of words!), others sent messages through various social media platforms, and others engaged over the phone. Around 95% of the feedback was integrated into the guide, about 3% was “saved” for future updates, and we chose to omit about 2%. Feedback has been included without individual attribution per point but with the author’s permission and our thanks.

As the Guide makes clear, presentation matters as much as content; without Andy Patterson’s efforts, the site would not look the way it does now. We are both incredibly grateful that he could lend his talent to this project.

We want to ‘do our bit’ in terms of helping the next generation of barristers. In particular, we want to encourage those from non-traditional backgrounds into a career at the Bar. The Bar should reflect and represent the society in which it operates. It requires the best advocates – and that demands the widest possible pool of candidates.  Many students feel that the Bar isn’t for people like them. We hope we can make them feel otherwise. Accessibility depends on knowledge and comfort level – we have tried to deliver both. We hope we have.

Below is a list of thanks to those individuals who helped make the Guide a reality. This list does not include the many people who helped Beheshteh on her journey to the Bar. For them, she is eternally grateful.

Special thanks to those individuals who helped make this project a reality

• Rebecca Herbert, The 36 Group, who first pushed Beheshteh to approach Simon Myerson QC about her idea for this website.
• Grace Ong, Beheshteh’s pupil supervisor at Goldsmith Chambers, for her support and encouragement.
• Tony Metzer QC, Head of Goldsmith Chambers, for his facilitation of this project.
• Liam Hunter, for spending hours upon hours debating the finer points of this guide with Beheshteh.
• Those at Middle Temple, particularly Neil Davey and Christa Richmond, who persuaded Simon to teach aspirant barristers.

Thanks also go to the following people:

• Encouragement/enthusiasm from the following barristers: Chloe Ashley, Agharad Marshall, Mary Aspinall-Miles, Florence Iveson, Maria Gherman, Ishan Kolhatkar, Hashi Mohamed, Snigdha Nag, and Ruth Reid (founder of Cake & Counsel).
• Detailed feedback was received from more senior barristers, including: Neil Baki, Richard Borrett, Dan Bunting, Jonathan Dunne, Jamie Hamilton QC, Angela Patrick, and Lucy Reed.
• Encouragement from the juniors and Beheshteh’s co-pupils at Goldsmith Chambers.
• Detailed feedback was received from the following pupils: Darragh Coffey, Ryan Leigh Dowding, Fen Greatley-Hirsch, Sophie Kay, Dan Kozelko, Sam Way.
• Tips & feedback received from many other pupils, in particular (but not limited to): Theo Bunce, Francesca Kolar, Agharad Monk, David Reader, Gayan Samarasinghe.
• Special thanks to Robert Levack, another pupil, who spent hours listening to Beheshteh discuss this project.
• Feedback from BPTC students, in particular: Molly Farrow, Liam Lane.
• Technical assistance: Hormuz Irani, Ben Lattimore, Jimmy Madon.
• Website design: Andy Patterson.

Finally, a big thank you from Beheshteh to Anna Williams, Careers Queen at the University of Law. She taught the value of having the right mindset in this process.  I know that many of us owe her a huge debt of gratitude.

Standard disclaimer: support for this project does not mean that the individuals named agree with all of the points made in the Pupillage Guide. The content is the responsibility of the site authors alone.