How to become a barrister
As a barrister, you will be trained to provide specialist legal advice in conference and in writing, as well as represent your clients in courts and tribunals.
What does a barrister do?
As a barrister, you will be trained to provide specialist legal advice in conference and in writing, as well as represent your clients in courts and tribunals. Most barristers’ careers evolve to a position where they focus on practising in a limited number of specialised areas of the law.
The type of clients and people you could be dealing with depends on the area(s) of law you choose to specialise in. Barristers are frequently instructed by Solicitors to represent a client in court or to provide expert advice in a similar way to a GP referring a patient to a specialist. However, clients and businesses do employ Barristers directly for both personal and commercial work.
Some of the areas you could specialise in include:
Commercial law
Chancery law (estates and trusts)
Common law (e.g., family, housing, and personal injury law)
Criminal law
Entertainment law
Environmental law
Sports law
A barrister looks like me
We’re here to inspire the next generation of legal talent – by breaking down stereotypes and barriers to show that with hard work, determination and passion, anyone can be a lawyer. In this video we speak to aspiring barrister and Barrister Training Course (BTC) student Sam Eskdale – who shares their passion for embracing what makes us different, and the importance of representation in the legal profession.
Becoming a barrister
There are four main steps towards qualification:
Step 1
First, you need a law degree in England and Wales or a non-law degree plus a pass in a validated law conversion course such as the GDL, PGDL, CPE or Law Foundations Course.
Step 2
You’ll then need to join one of the four Inns of Court, which are professional membership associations for barristers in England and Wales.
Step 3
Once you’ve joined one of the Inns of Court, you will be permitted to progress onto the final stage of your formal academic training and study for the Bar at a provider authorised by the Bar Standards Board. The name of the course varies between providers: at BPP our Bar course is the ‘Barrister Training Course’. Once you have passed this course, you can be called to the Bar.
