Barrister Recruitment

We welcome applications for tenancy from civil barristers with any level of background and experience.

St John’s Chambers is one of the largest barristers’ sets in the South West, with 7 silks and over 80 juniors attracting high-quality work in all major areas of civil law.

We were voted ‘Set of the Year’ (Outside London) by The Legal 500 Bar Awards 2022. We were nominated again in 2023 and we have been nominated for this award once again in 2024. In 2024 we have been nominated for the Chambers Guide to the UK Bar for ‘Regional Set of the Year’. Our Family team won ‘Regional Family Law Chambers of the Year’ at Family Law Awards 2023, and have been shortlisted again this year. In 2022 we were voted ‘Chambers of the Year’ by Bristol Law Society. In 2023, our Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence clerking team won the Bristol Law Society ‘Team of the Year’.

We are ranked in Band 1 for Chambers UK and Tier 1 for The Legal 500 in all major areas of law.

Working co-operatively, sharing ideas, knowledge and business opportunities is at the forefront of our team. We are committed to providing all of our barristers with first class business development, and our clerking team is structured to ensure that individual practices thrive.

We have a proven track record of successfully supporting barristers in transitioning from practising in London and on regional circuits to practising on the Western Circuit.

We are always interested in applications from excellent established practitioners who can demonstrate a strong business case for their recruitment. Practitioners may apply to one of our three core practice groups:

• Commercial & Chancery (Company & Commercial, Real Estate and Wills & Trusts)
• Family & Divorce
• Personal Injury & Clinical Negligence

We also consider applications from very impressive junior tenants below 5 years’ call.

What we can offer you

• An inclusive and supportive environment for barristers, clerks and staff to fulfil their potential
• Collegiate and supportive peers, with mentoring for new members
• Specialist clerking teams, with a personalised clerking approach to ensure that individual practices thrive
• Business development support from the clerking and marketing teams
• A broad range of high-quality work, including chancery, commercial, clinical negligence, family children, family finance, inquests, personal injury, public and administrative law
• The first 3 months’ rent free
• Up to 12 months’ rent-free parental leave/shared parental leave for all members

Junior tenants

St John’s Chambers’ junior tenants can expect a mixture of led and unled work at the beginning of their career. We encourage a diverse caseload to begin with, encouraging individuals to undertake as much advocacy work as possible in their first few years of practice. Junior tenants can expect responsibility for their own cases from early on and we fully support them as they develop a practice to suit their preferences and personal commitments. Barristers with under 5 years of call need to demonstrate commitment and potential to develop a practice with us or to show exceptional experience in a specialist area of law.

Experienced tenants

St John’s Chambers is always interested to speak with established practitioners with a proven track record of a successful practice in one of our areas of work.

Tenants can expect an exceptional and supportive service from our professional clerking team with the opportunity to develop a long and successful career with a leading South West set.

Transferring solicitors

If you are a solicitor thinking about transferring to the Bar, please go to the solicitor section here.

How to apply

Any approach is treated in the strictest confidence. We consider applications by email to Simon Rhodes, Chief Executive. You should attach a CV, documents relating to your practice, and any other information that will assist with consideration of the application. Please let us know if you need any help with making an application.

We are committed to diversity, inclusion and equality and further details about our approach in this regard can be found here.