Exclusive: Furious chambers axes its pupillages

Charter Chambers has cancelled its 2014 pupillages, blaming changes to the legal aid system for forcing its hand.

The 52-tenant set told RollOnFriday the "ill thought out" legal aid proposals mean it cannot guarantee enough junior level advocacy work to support any new pupils next year. It predicts losing a whopping 30% of its business when legal aid cuts hit this Autumn. And says when legal aid cases start being awarded to the lowest bidding barristers in 2014 it faces a "significant alteration of its client base" (translation: losing the other 70%).

A lack of pupils yesterday

Charter claims the future is so uncertain that it would be irresponsible to take on a pupil intake. And, in more good news for budding barristers, it warns that axing pupillages is such an "obvious side effect" of the new rules that other sets are bound to follow suit. Becoming a pupil just got even more fun.

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Comments

It's not all doom and gloom, there are a number of openings for Baristas at Costa Chambers :)

Even if you secure a pupillages the new fees proposed will never pay back your student loans and other costs of qualifying in the first place. Sadly this is the end of the criminal bar.

So this is how I, an applicant who had already submitted a pupillage application to said set (don't ask me why...), have discovered that 1 of my 12 applications is worthless (8 days before the dreaded deadline).

It is ludicrous that this is the only place where the news is published: I did not receive any email from the set, nor can I find any news on the set's website or on the Pupillage Gateway's website.

I think that the anonymous user below is right: I think applying to Cafe' Nero to become a Barista is really the way to go. Surely no one would be so unkind to withdraw a coffee order whilst I'm preparing it for them and run off without telling me!

Correcting my previous post, I must apologise as the news is here actually: http://www.pupillagegateway.com/news-alerts/
Not that this makes it any better...given I hadn't seen it (as probably most other applicants).