How to become a barrister

Although I'm not personally aiming to become a barrister, the formal requirements continue to form the backbone of legal education up and down the country. So here's a quick overview.

First off this only directly applies to England and Wales. Northern Ireland also has barristers but I'm not sure of the exact route that needs to be taken; however going by the OU's information the academic requirements are mainly the same apart from it also being compulsory to study Evidence Law. Scotland does not have barristers. Instead, the lawyers who appear before courts are called advocates and have a separate path to qualification.

The route to become a barrister has three stages, known as the academic, vocational and training stages.

The academic stage requires either a Qualifying Law Degree that includes the seven Foundations of Legal Knowledge or another university degree followed by an intense law conversion course, usually the Graduate Diploma in Law.

The vocational stage requires a special vocational course, mainly taken at dedicated law course providers. The name is a source of confusion as the last couple of decades have seen renames, replacements and individual providers picking their own names or, worse, switching them around. So you'll hear variously of the "Bar Practice Course", the "Bar Professional Training Course", the "Bar Training Course", the "Bar Vocational Course" and so forth. There's also "Bar Vocational Studies" and the "Postgraduate Diploma in Bar Practice". It's easy to see why some use just the "Bar Course" and why others sarcastically refer to the "Bar [Whatever Middle Words Are Used This Week] Course".

The training stage involves working under the supervision of existing barristers, shadowing them and learning like an apprentice.

It's a long tough process and not everyone makes the whole distance.

The requirements of the academic stage continue to have a strong hold on the curriculums of Bachelor of Laws degrees across the country with nearly all LLB degrees still making the seven Foundations of Legal Knowledge compulsory, even for those students not aiming to become barristers. The Open University's LLB is one of the most flexible with alternative paths for those aiming to become solicitors and those seeking an academic degree in Law but not aiming for either profession.

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