At The City Law School on 3rd November 2025, Alison Williams, Kate Ferguson, Imogen Pitts, and Rosie Shoulder-Harris walked the audience through life as a pupil and as a junior tenant at Harcourt Chambers.

Are you interested in international child law? Imogen and Rosie, as new pupils, were not familiar with the field, and yet under Harcourt Chambers’ expert counsel and accommodating approach they were quick to learn. Harcourt is a set with geographic breadth in more ways than its practice areas; since 1989 they have been based in both London and Oxford. Yet if there was one overarching message from an evening with Harcourt, it was this: what makes a chambers, more than anything else, is its people.

This statement may sound trite, but the testimony of the speakers gave it some tangibility. The greatest takeaway from Rosie’s experience as a pupil was the time that chambers invested in her. Whether debriefing after a lengthy court session, or an evening call with supervisors on anything the pupil was unsure about, what clearly emerges is the lengths that members would go to lend their expertise to others. Support was always there, with the panel praising particularly the work of the clerks, and the counsellors that Harcourt has in place in the event of welfare issues. Although it is accepted that stress is common in pupillage, at Harcourt during the second six, cases are limited to three per week so as not to overwhelm pupils. Most barristers would no doubt claim that their chambers have a positive work culture, but with Harcourt the conviction appears strongly held.

The importance of being personable

There is a wider point here about how crucial communication skills are to being a strong barrister, which Kate helpfully elaborated on. Specific perhaps to family law is the ability to reassure clients facing troubling cases; it was essentially Kate’s job in one case to ensure that her client remained cool and collected amidst the difficulties of the court environment.

Beyond this, barristers should have a chameleon-like quality, able to quickly adapt from one environment to another, changing their style of communication to suit different audiences. At court earlier in the day, Kate adapted admirably to addressing postgraduate students in the evening.

Why Harcourt?

When asked this question by an audience member, the panel initially struggled to respond. Perhaps the answer was so self-evident to them as to be forgotten. Imogen essentially admitted that many family chambers can look alike to prospective applicants. Yet anyone who had been paying attention to panel reflections that evening had heard more than enough to come to a conclusion.

The pupillage process was particularly lauded, so much so that Kate mused about going through it again, and the new tenants concurred. It is stressed early on that pupillage at Harcourt is not competitive; its purpose is to prepare pupils for practice, not to pit them against each other for a tenancy. The training is invaluable, particularly since the early exposure of pupils to court work at Harcourt is apparently “not normal”; Rosie had the opportunity to shadow KCs and other tenants who were not her supervisor. Targeted training, in which pupils are encouraged to explore their advocacy styles and develop a practical appreciation of their work through mock scenarios, further equips pupils for the momentous jump to second six.

Ultimately, this training prepares pupils for Harcourt’s “high-quality, complex work”, which Kate elaborated on when describing a particular child custody case and some of the ways in which things didn’t go to plan. Aspiring family law barristers should be aware of the disappointments that often arise when relying on witnesses and unpredictable clients. What the panel speakers emphasised above all, however, was the fact that when events went awry, they could always rely on helpful advice from more senior members of Harcourt Chambers.

Further advice

How can students get to grips with this practice area long before pupillage? Well one tip given for aspiring family law barristers was to seek out practical experience, perhaps at a legal advice clinic such as Dad’s House. One might also consider a student membership with The Family Law Bar Association, who put on seminars, run courses, and publish a tri-annual magazine.

Family law is not an area which students are mandated to study in-depth, and thus outreach evenings like this one are a helpful reminder to look beyond the course, because the interesting work that Harcourt does should not be overlooked.

Edward is currently studying the Graduate Diploma in Law and is a member of the Lawbore Journalist Team 2025/26. He studied history at undergraduate level, during which he became particularly interested in legal history, which in turn led him to pursue a career in law. Family and land law are two of his particular interests, and he hopes to practice in these areas in the future.