For an insight into pupillage at 5RB, we asked Tiyash Banerjee, our current pupil, to answer a few questions:
I studied an undergraduate law degree at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, graduating with a First. I then studied an LLM at the LSE, with Distinction. Finally, I completed the Bar Course at City, University of London, supported by two scholarships from Gray’s Inn and one from City.
My interest in media law began during my undergraduate degree when I studied human rights and worked on a moot problem involving privacy and human rights. I followed this interest during my LLM by taking relevant modules and gaining work experience within the field.
The crucial balance of rights at the heart of media law was one of its strongest appeals to me and as the leading specialist set in the field, 5RB was a natural choice.
This was confirmed by my first-hand experience on cases that involved 5RB members when I worked as Lord Justice Singh’s Judicial Assistant. Working on Banks v Cadwalladr [2023] EWCA Civ 219 and Wright v McCormack [2023] EWCA Civ 892 highlighted the calibre of members and quality of work.
My work as a legal researcher for several barristers and judges.
As a researcher, I worked on both live cases and practitioner texts in a range of legal areas. I gained applied experience of written advocacy, client conferences and developed my knowledge base. In these roles, I worked closely with and benefited from feedback from different lawyers with different styles.
Although I mooted and volunteered in advice roles before pupillage, I would have liked to get some live advocacy in tribunals to further bolster my confidence.
Pupillage offers a unique combination of training, exposure to interesting work and feedback.
During pupillage, you learn from the best to develop a strong foundation in your area of interest, both by active training and learning through osmosis by being brought onto interesting cases. Further, the culture of regular feedback allows you to develop constantly.
As a pupil, the underlying concern about being taken on as a tenant is a tricky part of the process.
Having said that, everyone in Chambers is encouraging and tries to put you at ease as much as possible.
Focusing on learning and developing over the year, rather than agonising over the end result, seems like a much better approach.
Largely yes, but I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of active training and teaching.
Keep your eyes open for relevant opportunities.
A few days before the written deadline for pupillage applications, I spotted a vacancy for a copy-editor role on a media law book. Whilst I only got the job after the pupillage application deadline, this experience of working through the entirety of a book on the field served me in very good stead in interview.
I keep up to date by following the news and cases from the Media and Communications List. There are also great websites that provide helpful summaries of the big cases and issues in the areas, such as Inforrm, law firm blogs and, of course, the resources section of the 5RB website.
You can download Tiyash’s Q&A here.