Council of the Inns of Court (COIC) welcomes applications for matched funding for 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 pupillages.
The COIC Pupillage Matched Funded Scheme (PMF) helps provide additional pupillages in chambers, and other approved training organisations, predominantly engaged in legally aided work. Encouragingly, a growing number of chambers are applying for COIC matched funded grants.
How the scheme works
It is a prerequisite of the scheme that chambers understand that matched funded pupillages are in addition to those they would have offered in any event. COIC match pupillage funding already provided by chambers with a total grant of £10,900 for 2025-2026 London pupillages and £10,000 for 2025-2026 out of London pupillages and, £12,000 for 2026-27 London pupillages and £11,000 for 2026-27 out of London pupillages, to fund the first six months of a second pupillage. Chambers are responsible for ensuring that the total pupillage award meets the BSB’s minimum award for the year in question.
How to apply
Applications to match fund 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 pupillages are invited between Monday 2 September and Friday 18 October 2024. Decisions will be communicated during the week commencing Monday 4 November 2024. Online applications can be made at www.coic.org.uk/pupillage-matched-funding.
To find out more please email Hayley Dawes at COIC on [email protected].
Author: Mrs Justice Lieven, Chair, COIC Pupillage Matched Funding Grants Committee
Testimonials
As Head of Northampton Chambers, I take immense pride in our rich legacy as the oldest chambers in Northampton. Our commitment to excellence in advocacy, client care and fostering a supportive environment sets us apart in the legal community.
Although we are a smaller set, we cherish the close-knit and friendly atmosphere that permeates throughout chambers, from our experienced barristers to our dedicated clerks and aspiring pupils. It’s this sense of camaraderie that fuels our collective pursuit of excellence.
I wholeheartedly endorse the matched funding scheme as an indispensable tool in shaping the future of our profession. Through this initiative, bolstered by our collective investment, we’ve been able to nurture a vibrant cohort of barristers who embody diversity, talent, and dedication. These individuals are poised to lead our legal community forward with integrity and skill.
At Northampton Chambers most of our work is legally aided, supporting vulnerable children and families involved in care proceedings. Whilst this may not always be the most financially lucrative avenue, it is undoubtedly some of the most rewarding in other ways. As a result, our chambers doesn’t always enjoy the high levels of income seen in commercial sets. Without the support of the matched funding scheme, our pupillage programme would simply not be sustainable.
I am deeply grateful for the opportunities this scheme affords us to continue our mission of delivering exceptional legal services whilst nurturing the next generation of barristers. Together, we’re not just shaping careers, we are making a lasting impact on the lives of those who rely on us for justice and support.
Maria Savvides, Head of Northampton Chambers
5KBW is a predominantly criminal set and offers 12-month pupillages focused on this area. Chambers have remained, quite deliberately, small in comparison to other sets with a focus on quality work and excellence in advocacy. 5KBW is a very busy and thriving set with the opportunity to shadow and to become practitioners dealing with the most high-profile and complex criminal cases. We have a strong commitment to the future of the Bar and invest considerable time and effort in our pupillage programme, including mini-pupillage and outreach work. To maintain the high standards of the Criminal Bar we continue to seek to attract and recruit pupils who demonstrate talent, dedication and enthusiasm and chambers have done so throughout the difficulties posed by financial cuts, the pandemic and by the Criminal Bar Association action. We are enormously grateful for the assistance provided over the last decade by COIC’s matched funding scheme, enabling us to continue to invest in the future by offering more high quality and competitively remunerated pupillages. The application process is very straightforward. The matched funding scheme is a fabulous initiative from which the whole Bar benefits.
Charlotte Newell KC, Head of Pupillage, 5KBW
