Blackstone Chambers

This heavyweight set, doing “cutting-edge” work on “important and influential cases,” shows no sign of slowing down.

Blackstone Chambers pupillage review 2026

About the Set

Barristers at Blackstone are formidable and ever-present figures at the Bar. “The quality of the work we do here is so strong,” one pupil told us. “In addition to the breadth of expertise, you’re working on complex, cutting-edge, high-profile cases.” It has 20 rankings from Chambers UK Bar, nine of which are top-tier. Our colleagues reckon Blackstone’s expertise in administrative & public law, civil liberties & human rights, employment, European law, financial services, civil fraud, media & entertainment, professional discipline, sport, and telecommunications is among the best at the Bar. More than 50 of its members are silks, whose shared expertise spans all areas of commercial, public, regulatory, employment and international law.

Work Highlights

The set’s client list includes billionaires, celebrities and industry figures. In one recent matter, Richard Todd KC and Richard Sear KC acted for the wife in the high-profile Standish v Standish case in her appeal against a 34%/66% financial split following her divorce - a case which revolved around when and if assets become ‘matrimonialised’. Elsewhere, Richard Todd KC and Edward Benson successfully acted for the appellant in the Court of Appeal in Simon v Simon & Anor, a case surrounding the intervention of litigation funders in financial remedy proceedings.

A “major change” in the set’s recent history is that it now takes on less legal aid work than in the past: “Most of the instructing solicitors stopped doing legal aid work,” McCrone explains, “which is the primary funding for lots of children’s work … and that's just led us to become even more specialised than we were already.”

We heard that while Blackstone Chambers takes a lot of its instructions from leading City law firms, it also takes cases from high street firms (which tend to supply work for the juniors). The contingent of barristers at the set is growing too, mostly via “organic growth from the bottom,” McCrone adds - “most years we've taken both of our pupils on because, to be blunt, we don't want them turning up anywhere else … they’re of a very high standard!”

Pupillage Experience

Pupils sit with four supervisors, for roughly nine weeks apiece. While practices often merge and overlap, Blackstone likes its pupils to sit with supervisors in its three core areas of commercial, public, and employment. Pupils are rotated and assessed by the same supervisors. One source told us that “it’s not a pupillage where you work for other members. You have a gatekeeper in your supervisor who controls your workflow.” As Jane Mulcahy KC and joint Head of Chambers adds: “You live the life of your supervisor on live work.”

Typical work for pupils involved drafting pleadings, skeletons, and communications to solicitors, as well as advice opinions, all of which feeds into their supervisor’s cases. “It was very exciting to be in court and see brilliant KCs using the work I’d done on a skeleton argument to form a response.” It’s also a non-practising pupillage: “Instead, the emphasis is on doing work for your supervisors that is difficult and out of your comfort zone,” one source told us.

“…almost every case you’re on feels important and influential.”

One pupil highlighted: “I was dealing with human rights arguments in my public law seat and I really enjoyed working on something that was trying to promote change at a systemic level. I found it quite inspiring. Almost every case you’re on feels important and influential.” Another pupil highlighted that while working on something that went to the Supreme Court was “challenging and a really tricky issue… it’s absolutely the case that everyone wants you to succeed.” Oliver adds that “Blackstone doesn’t just create brains on sticks. We create advocates here, that’s the gift.”

Blackstone poses four written tests – usually pleadings, skeletons, or advice – and seven advocacy sessions, with all pupils assessed on the same pieces. The first of the advocacy sessions is not marked and is “about finding your feet and experiencing witness handling,” with the latter assessments more about “making submissions as if in court.” Assessments are interspersed throughout the year, “which is good, so you’re not facing a big chunk of stressful assessments towards the end.” Results from these assessments work in conjunction with four supervisor reports based on a pupil’s performance in each seat. Work for supervisors is assessed but “it’s not the case where it’s a granular grade for every piece - more that everything you do in a seat is taken into account in the report.” One source added: “These reports are probably the most important when coming to tenancy.” The tenancy committee produces a final report summarising all the material, with all members of chambers then voting on tenancy decisions. Blackstone kept on all four of its pupils in 2024.

“You look at the high-profile nature of the people here and assume they are buttoned up,” one pupil said. “But it is extremely friendly and collegiate.” Well-attended Friday drinks and parties suit the collegial bunch. “Everyone’s self-employed but you feel like you’re part of one entity.” One source also recalled that pupillage hours were “very positive, strictly 9am to 6.30pm, and didn’t involve working weekends.”

The Application Process

Pupils are recruited through the Pupillage Gateway and includes an assessed mini pupillage and panel interview by a mix of five to eight KCs and juniors on a series of topics.

Mulcahy explains that the mini-pupillage gives chambers a chance to see the applicants, “and vice versa.” The minis last three days, and include a set piece of work. "Typically, it's something that can usually be completed regardless of whether you have a substantial background in law,” like a contract or a statutory interpretation. Pupils sit with a supervisor who may “take them along to a conference or court,” according to Mulcahy.

Successful applicants then return for a final interview where they are asked to consider a law they thought was wrong, and “give a five-minute presentation on why and how to improve it.” Sources cited presentations on the employee status of gig economy workers or the use of indefinite detention of immigration detainees as examples. Applicants then respond to questions from a panel of up to ten members. Having done the assessed mini-pupillage, one source highlighted that the final interview had “a different intensity as they’re not trying to extract everything they can. It’s more two-way, to an extent, and there’s more scope to ask broader questions about your interests and you as a person.”

“If we give four offers, we want to get four tenants."

Mulcahy tells us that Blackstone “wants people with high intellectual ability,” but says that “it is also absolutely crucial that they are good advocates and can work well with clients.” After all, “recruitment and pupillage is a big investment. We take it very seriously and our aim is to have as many potential candidates from as diverse a base as possible so we can ultimately get the best people.” She adds: “If we give four offers, we want to get four tenants, as our overall intention is to get tenants by the end of pupillage.”

Hotel California...

Mulcahy adds: “We’re pathetically friendly with one another. It’s such a friendly and supportive place, and like Hotel California, no one really leaves!”