Wilberforce Chambers

A growing floor plan and client list mean this commercial chancery set is a real (Wilber)force to be reckoned with.

Wilberforce Chambers pupillage review 2026

About the Set

If you’ve made it far enough in your pupillage research process to have stumbled upon this page, it’s pretty likely that you’re already familiar with the Inns of Court. Lincoln’s Inn is both the largest and the oldest of the four, and conveniently home to Wilberforce Chambers. Given its longevity, it’s certainly quite the balancing act that, according to Practice Director Nicholas Luckman, Wilberforce has “kept that Lincoln’s Inn feel to chambers, but in a modern way.”

More specifically, following a number of years of headcount growth, Wilberforce has invested in additional building space on Chancery Lane. “It’s a big, modern premises on the other side of New Square with enhanced facilities, such as flexible working spaces, virtual hearing pods, communal space and a gym,” Deputy Practice Director Andrew Barnes explains, and Luckman adds, “We’ll have a much more cohesive unit where people are mixing and mingling all the time as opposed to lots of annexes which produce pockets of groups.”

This is just one example of Wilberforce’s increasingly modern identity. Commercial chancery is the name of the game for Wilberforce but, as Luckman reflects, “there’s a much more commercial feel to our practices in general. We do a mix of private and commercial trusts work, and a mix of big commercial and traditional property disputes as well. Most of our practice areas – apart from pensions, which has a much more domestic feel – will have an offshore element.”

In particular, Luckman and Barnes tell us about how Wilberforce does plenty of work in East Asia and the Middle East, where local trends are having a tangible impact on the work making its way to the set. Barnes points to the set’s trusts work in the Middle East: “We are seeing wealth has transferred from older to younger generations, who are more open to the idea of setting up offshore trust companies or structures. This is a growing development and something we are well placed to deal with.”

More generally, Wilberforce has also seen a large number of cryptocurrency disputes – as “shareholder agreements between young entrepreneurial individuals are starting to fall apart after they’ve been in business for a few years,” says Barnes – and an influx of group litigation cases and expensive shareholder disputes.

Work Highlights

As an example, John Wardell KC represented Tulip Trading in a multibillion-pound claim concerning the fiduciary duties of Bitcoin developers in fraud cases, and also acted for Bitcoin Satoshi Vision in a separate crypto dispute in the Court of Appeal. Joanna Wicks KC recently wrapped up a multibillion-pound property matter on behalf of the Secretary of State for Defence, which essentially unravelled the privatisation of 55,000 residential units in the 90s.

“For juniors, there’s a real, safe balance between doing their own work to gain confidence while learning from KCs on bigger cases.”

It's work like this that has earned Wilberforce a real range of rankings from the Chambers UK Bar guide. For example, the set is recognised as among the best of the best in commercial chancery, traditional chancery, offshore work, pensions, trusts and real estate litigation. Luckman explains that maintaining and improving this reputation is the plan moving forward: “We’re looking to be the first phone call for clients across practice areas. We want to be seen as a place of excellence in our areas of expertise, with sufficient credibility so that people can pick up the phone and have good conversations with anyone here.”

While bringing in lateral hires at all levels to strengthen the set’s practices is part of this strategy, Luckman and Barnes explain that bolstering the junior end of chambers is also key. “We encourage people here to start thinking early on about what they enjoy, and ensure they’re getting the opportunity to try everything,” Luckman tells us, “For juniors, there’s a real, safe balance between doing their own work to gain confidence while learning from KCs on bigger cases.”

Pupillage Experience

Wilberforce offers a non-practising pupillage, with four seats in the first nine months (ahead of the tenancy decision), and a further one or two seats in the final three. This means that pupils have access to around five or six supervisors and will get to see a range of practices across chambers. “I sat with supervisors in property, insolvency, pensions, trusts and commercial during pupillage,” a junior tenant recalled, “They want pupils to see all the different areas we do.”

During this time, pupils generally get stuck into a selection of live work, which “could be anything from a research note on a particular point of law your supervisor might need an answer on by the end of the day, to working on skeleton arguments in parallel to compare your approaches,” according to a pupil. Other common tasks for newbies include legal research, trying the first draft of a witness cross-examination, or joining strategy discussions with solicitors.

We heard that the general focus for supervisors is “on developing skills pupils will need to become a barrister.” For instance, one pupil had the chance to try drafting a set of pleadings their supervisor had done a month ago to compare notes and found it “so helpful to see the difference between how me and my supervisor approached it.” A junior tenant especially appreciated how “my supervisor did a fake case management conference with me. It’s a basic procedural hearing, and he pretended to be the judge so I could practice my skills.”

Since there is no official practising second six, Wilberforce makes sure its pupils are up to speed with one or two advocacy assessments. “They’re short, and usually small submissions you might expect to do in the early years of practice. They don’t want to put too much pressure on pupils!” a junior tenant assured. There are also additional written assessments, which are assigned by other members of chambers. “All pupils will get the same task, whether that’s an opinion or a skeleton or whatever,” says Deputy Head of Pupillage Committee Harriet Holmes, “It’s centralised so that we can ensure we’re treating all pupils equally and have the chance to look at the same work product from each and calibrate.”

“Consistent improvement has always been the focus, not perfect, finished pieces of work.”

Pupils receive feedback on these assessments and every other piece of work they submit throughout pupillage. According to Holmes, this is a strict requirement for supervisors: “We have a meeting at the beginning of each year to remind supervisors of all our policies and share a supervisor guideline document which summarises our expectations. The document reminds supervisors to have discussions with pupils at the beginning of each seat, regularly check in, and provide prompt, ongoing feedback.”

Pupils were grateful for the regular feedback in particular, noting how “consistent improvement has always been the focus, not perfect, finished pieces of work. The non-practising second six is testament to how much chambers takes the learning aspect seriously.” Case in point, as Holmes reminds, “supervisors tend to not assess pupils in the first couple of weeks in chambers as there’s an understanding that they might need to settle in.”

So, to summarise, pupils receive feedback on all work they submit, supervisors form a report from this feedback, and this is then produced as evidence in the tenancy decision. After careful consideration of pupils’ first nine months in chambers – based on criteria such as intellectual ability, legal problem-solving skills and interpersonal skills – the pupillage committee makes a recommendation to chambers, who then vote to decide whether pupils are kept on. “It is right and fair to say that chambers ultimately get to decide,” Holmes explains, “but since the committee is specifically tasked with recruitment, chambers will follow and respect its recommendation.”

For pupils who are kept on, the final three months of pupillage are “for mopping up,” says Holmes, who outlines, “Pupils might start to pick up their own work in the post-decision period, but that depends on whether they are truly be available or if they’re better off working on something for the supervisor. Either way, they start the transition to tenancy, shadowing junior members of chambers and seeing examples of typical hearings they’ll do when they start practising.”

“Your supervisor will absolutely kick you out if you try to stay longer than 6pm!”

It's also worth noting that hours are especially rigid for pupils, who are expected to work 9am to 6pm and only on weekdays. “Your supervisor will absolutely kick you out if you try to stay longer than 6pm!” a junior tenant fondly recalled, “The aim is for people to build sustainable practices and stay at chambers for many decades. It’s important that people don’t burn out too early, so they’ll insist you take a full one-hour lunch break, too.”

That’s just one aspect of the culture that interviewees were keen to discuss and, according to one pupil, “It’s quite rare to get people who are very good at what they do and incredibly nice to be with. It manages to be the best of both worlds, which is hard to achieve, and hard to explain without quoting Hannah Montana!”

The Application Process

Wilberforce’s application starts on the Gateway and consists of three stages: an initial written application form, a first-round (i.e. longlist) interview, and a second-round (i.e. shortlist) interview. The form follows the standard Gateway questions, and Holmes clarifies that “what we’re really looking for is outstanding intellectual and academic ability, written and oral communication skills, and the motivation to join and be committed to the Chancery Commercial Bar.”

36 candidates typically make it through to the longlist interview, alongside four to six further candidates with RARE Recruitment flags. A two-person panel conducts the first interview, and pupils are set a problem question around half an hour before it starts. The interview lasts around 30 to 40 minutes and centres around the problem question but is “designed to be fair to both law and GDL grads. The question is often centred around a question of interpretation or will involve some kind of language element, whether that’s a contract or trusts law-based problem.”

“We’re not interested in putting candidates under cross-examination-type pressure.”

Twelve to 15 candidates make it to the shortlist interview, which is around 40 minutes long with four interviewers, all of whom are members of the pupillage committee. This is again focused on a problem question, and Holmes emphasises how “we’re not interested in putting candidates under cross-examination-type pressure. Our aim is to help a candidate display how they reason and their communication skills; we’re much more interested in trying to understand how someone thinks. It’s about seeing what’s between the ears rather than putting them under pressure for no good reason.”

As such, second-stage interview questions will be slightly more complex, typically with more facts to consider. Offers are made after this interview, and Wilberforce aims to recruit up to four pupils a year with a view to tenancy for each.

Interviewees were quick to offer advice on the application process. A junior tenant emphasised, “demonstrate your interest in commercial chancery, and make sure you’ve researched exactly what it means and the different practice areas it covers.” Holmes echoes this sentiment, and adds, “Recognise that the application form is a type of advocacy, and is there to demonstrate to us that you not only have the intellectual prerequisites and ability to come to the commercial chancery bar, but also to show us that you can write well, clearly and in a structured way.”

Pupillage Wilbe-yours if you…

“Be yourself!” Holmes advises, “What we’re looking for is bright people who are interested in our work. That’s it.”