Pupillage in Wessex

Our Wessex Centres in Bournemouth and Winchester offer the best of both worlds. We have the status of a long established (1892) London Chambers with all the benefits of circuit life. Those benefits are there from pupillage onwards: they are professional and personal and they have ensured an energetic growth in all centres, we now have over 100 members. Each year we offer five funded pupillage’. The selection progress is strenuous as we normally only have one pupil at a time in the centres (two in London). The benefit to the successful candidate is that they are guaranteed a very broad based choice of work to see, without the pressure of feeling they are in competition with other pupils at their centre.

What is the attraction of Bournemouth and Winchester ?

Based in four centres we operate as one set. Each centre has an experienced Temple-trained Senior Clerk backed up by a full complement of juniors. All centres are networked with modern telecommunications, including the latest video conferencing equipment in all four centres.

Bournemouth Chambers have been established for 30 years now and Winchester over 12 years. Together with our other two centres we offer a comprehensive service to our clients on the Western Circuit and beyond. Because 3 Paper Buildings is an established set on circuit, our client base includes the larger, more successful firms of solicitors. Significantly both Wessex annexes have large and busy combined courts on their doorsteps. Winchester tenants have a short but energetic walk (uphill) to the Courthouse in the city centre; the work is high quality and plentiful; the barrister’s canteen is middling but the walk home is effortless (downhill). Our Bournemouth annex now populates the new combined court centre at Wessex Fields. These particular fields are more than a short walk from the town centre. In fact, a car is essential but once there, the staff are friendly and the canteen better than middling. Local Courts mean efficient use of time in our practices. They are convenient and the Clerks have good working relationships with the various listing departments.

For those of us who live and work on circuit, the Wessex Centres provide an unsurpassed alternative to living in London, without sacrificing career opportunities for the ambitious.

If you would like to visit one of our centres or for further details please contact any of our Senior Clerks at whichever centre you may be interested in or our Chief Clerk in London. All details are on the contacts page.

3 Paper Buildings, Bournemouth.