Pupillage | 4 Stone Building

• 4 Stone Building

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  Based out of Lincoln’s Inn, 4 Stone Buildings (FSB) is a set specializing in company law and is home to over 28 members, with several junior members sitting on various treasury panels.
  
  Among recent citations received by the set are Insolvency & Corporate Reconstruction Set of the Year at the 2007 Chambers UK Legal Awards and consistent rankings among the top two chambers for number of barristers ranked in various listings in proportion to the size of chambers.

  Practical and pragmatic is the approach this set adheres to in all its activities. Much the same applies to the pupillage programme as well, which follows on similar lines. Though very paper-intensive and full of dry factoids and complicated theories, company law can be interesting for the wide variety of conundrums it can offer.
  
  Pupils are encouraged to take the initiative and show enterprise in their daily work, supported ably well by pupil supervisors. Working hours at the chamber are usually normal, though; the days can stretch longer during the latter half of tenancy when pupils are beginning to manage their own cases.
  
  There is not too much emphasis on formal exercises for assessments as the chamber prefers to let pupils test themselves on live and active cases. Members at the chamber work hard and play equally hard; pupils will find themselves participating in a variety of sporting and social events. Quality of work and quality of life is the underlying ethos at 4 Stone Buildings.

  Stone Building’s core areas of practice are company law, corporate insolvency, corporate fraud, shareholder disputes, financial services, commercial litigation, banking and public law. Company law forms the core portion of the set’s practice and what it is most well-known for.
  
  All aspects of company law such as formation & dissolution of companies, M&A, corporate finance, capital restructuring, stock exchange & regulatory compliance, directors’ rights & duties, shareholder rights and disputes, etc. The financial services & regulation practice works on litigation and dispute resolution on financial services, DTI inquiries and FSA matters.
  
  Civil fraud and asset recovery has barristers acting for all involved parties – liquidators, administrators, directors, creditors, shareholders, etc, both in domestic and overseas jurisdictions. Some of the recent cases where the chamber has participated are Maxwell, BCCI, Swissport, OBG v Allan, Enron, Guinness, Barlow Clowes, Polly Peck, etc.

  The chamber looks for pupils who’ve earned a first class or in some circumstances a high second class degree in any discipline. In addition to intellectual ability, other qualities the chamber prefers in pupils are ambition and self-confidence, common sense and sound judgement.
  
  You must also be able to demonstrate the ability to analyze complex principles of law and provide simple and practical solutions to clients using excellent interpersonal skills. It goes without saying that you must have a high proficiency in oral and written communication, negotiation and presentation skills.

  Pupils spend each year seconded to two or more pupil supervisors, getting exposed to various areas of chambers’ practice and different styles and strategies of litigation work in a modern commercial scenario. They attend court proceedings, attend conferences with clients and solicitors, prepare pleadings and other case-related documentation and write skeleton arguments.
  
  If any members of Chambers are working on a particularly interesting or prevalent case, pupils are always pushed to assist them with it and to attend court. For each supervisor pupil’s are assigned, you will work in their room. This helps to expose trainees to the inner workings of the Bar as soon as possible, significantly benefitting a pupil’s development as a future barrister.
  
  Mini-pupillages are conducted for a period of one week each during which mini-pupils will meet with members of chambers and go through the kind of work they can expect to do should they take up a full pupillage.

  The chamber currently provides an annual pupillage award of £39,000.

  The chamber is not a member of Pupillage Portal and the application form can be found at the website http://www.4stonebuildings.com/4.html. Completed forms should be submitted by 30 April.
  
  Mini-pupillage application should be made via a letter and CV sent to the chamber address, along with the dates candidates will be available to take the mini-pupillage.

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