Rethinking Pupillage: Fairness, Accountability, and Professionalism
A recent Facebook post highlighted a troubling trend: pupils in chambers “auditioning” legal firms by delaying the filing of their petition papers. This sparked a flood of comments from lawyers, almost all condemning such behavior and calling for punitive measures against these pupils. Suggestions ranged from blackballing pupils—a proposal that garnered 78 likes—to monitoring pupils closely and even issuing legal demands.
Blackballing doesn’t address why pupils leave. Nor does it solve firms’ challenges in retaining committed pupils. Instead, it punishes young professionals for making difficult choices in an unregulated system.
For context, blackballing a pupil or objecting to their long call effectively halts their legal career. It causes immense loss and embarrassment to their families and wastes years of hard work, money, and dreams.
I believe the Bar Council must establish a two-way monitoring system - one that holds both pupils and Masters accountable. Unfortunately, the current lack of regulation has led to troubling exploitation: pupils reduced to clerical tasks, forced to work excessive hours, docked allowances for minor errors, and sometimes even humiliated. I’ve heard stories of pupils selling vapes at their Master’s shop between legal work. These practices harm not only pupils but the integrity of our profession. A pupil who had completed her pupillage, approached us and asked if we would allow her to intern with us for a few months as she strongly felt that her pupillage failed to provide her with essential training and experience. Due to her persistence and pressure - we did the unthinkable. We took on a person who was waiting to be called to the Bar as an intern! She completed a 2 month unpaid internship with us (at her request) and worked really hard to fix her shortcomings. Her story (and the stories summarized above) resonated with me and compelled me in part to write this.
For many students, especially those without connections, finding and completing pupillage is a lonely, daunting journey. If a pupillage fails to provide essential training and experience, pupils should not be penalized for leaving. After all, pupillage is about building competent, ethical advocates and solicitors, not about enforcing blind loyalty.
As Masters and professionals, we must embrace our responsibility to nurture the next generation with integrity, fairness, and genuine mentorship. Only then can we truly uphold the dignity of our noble profession
#Muhendaran Sri #pupillage #LetsBuildLawyers #ChambiesHaveRights #
#StopExploitingChambies #
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