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Coupled with work experience in solicitor firms, they provide grounds for justifying your career choice on application forms and during interviews. 

Having undertaken 11 minis, I can answer the ‘why do you want to become a barrister’ question quite well. Have they helped me? Not really. I don’t even include all of them on my application forms – I was told that anything over four looks desperate.

A major problem is that because mini-pupillages are fairly easy to get, they give a false sense of achievement and reassurance. You begin to think that the Bar is not as unreachable as everyone paints it, but the reality is quite opposite.

Mini-pupillages normally last 2-5 days, which doesn’t really give you enough time to learn much or to find out whether the chambers have that friendly and supportive atmosphere that everyone keeps going on about in their pupillage application forms.

You do get to see different areas of practice and, if you are lucky, get a free lunch.

To make the most of your minis, you have to time them right. Unless you worked in the legal industry, before the Bar Vocational Course (BVC) or as it is now called the Bar Professional Trainin Course (BPTC) you may not fully understand the procedural aspects of court hearings, identify useful techniques during conferences and negotiations, and know what’s in the White Book.

Going to court during your undergraduate law degree course can bring you up to speed on the procedural aspects of court hearings and is some that should be pursued.

You are expected to have a couple of minis for your Bar Vocational Course (BVC) or as it is now called the Bar Professional Trainin Course (BPTC) application, but save the rest for later.

Also, as the time gap between your minis and pupillage applications increases, they become another tick in the box. The majority of my minis took place in 2006-2007, so I doubt that those chambers remembered me when I applied to them this year.

On another hand, everyone remembers mini-pupils from hell, who either kept standing up to object in court, tried to advise a client during a conference or turned up wearing ‘inappropriate clothes’. 

Unless it is an assessed mini, they probably won’t keep any record of you, in which case you have to find a way of reminding them. If someone offers to look at your CV, get their email address and use it to keep in touch. Keep it decent, or you risk becoming another anecdote.

Whilst mini-pupillages are great in helping to decide which areas of practice you may like, and whether the Bar is for you, they do not influence your chances of getting a pupillage. Pupillage applications are all about your academics and extra-curriculum achievements; minis are just another standard requirement along with mooting, debating and marshalling.

Author of Android's Reminiscences Blog

23-09-2009