Back to probationary tenancy vacancies
Name of chambers: Atkin Chambers
Chambers address: 1 Atkin Building, Gray's Inn, London, WC1R 5AT
Number of vacancies: 1
Area(s) of practice the role holder will focus on: Construction and Engineering, Energy and Natural Resources, Commercial, IT and Telecommunications, Professional Negligence, Shipbuilding and Offshore Construction, Transport, Infrastructure and PFI/PP
Level of guaranteed earnings (in £ pounds): All probationary tenancies are funded. The current amount of funding is £42,500 which is paid in equal monthly instalments once the probationary tenancy commences
Role start date: 14 September 2026
Length of tenancy: 6 months
Closing date for application: 16 July 2026
How to apply:
To apply, please send a CV, Cover Letter and a reference to [email protected]. If you have completed (or almost completed) your 12 month pupillage, your reference should be from one or more pupil supervisors. If your reference is from one supervisor, then you are invited to ask that supervisor to consider including an explanation of the views of all supervisors within the reference.
Within your cover letter of no more than two pages, please include why you are applying and why you think you would make a good candidate for a probationary tenancy at Atkin Chambers. Your CV and cover letter should be your sole creation and original work, and you should not use any Generative AI programmes, including Large Language Model (LLM) Programmes like ChatGPT, to write any of their content. If your referee requires longer than the deadline to produce the reference please email [email protected] for advice.
Application Assessment Criteria
The recruitment of probationary tenants will be on the basis of the Pupillage and Recruitment Committee’s assessment of the following as evidenced by the CV and covering letter and by interview for those candidates invited to progress to that stage:
1. Intellectual excellence
2. Advocacy/communication
3. Motivation and ability to build a successful practice at Atkin Chambers
4. Judgment and potential to: advise in commercial matters; and work well with others and independently.
If you have any questions about the application process, please contact Chambers’ COO at [email protected].
There is no guarantee of tenancy at the end of the probationary tenancy. Applicants will be assessed for tenancy as laid out in Chambers’ Pupillage Policy.
About your chambers:
Atkin Chambers is a leading set of commercial barristers specialising in disputes arising out of construction and engineering, energy, IT, and other infrastructure projects. Disputes are varied and relate to a wide range of sectors and subject-matter, including transport, oil and gas, water, renewable energy, shipbuilding, offshore construction, and social infrastructure projects including major flagship and landmark projects.
Chambers is recognised as being a leader in its field, both in the UK and internationally. Atkin Chambers was named 'Construction Set of the Year' at the Chambers and Partners UK Bar Awards in 2021, 2022 and 2024 and 'Construction and Energy Set of the Year' at The Legal 500 Awards in 2022, 2023 and 2025. It was also awarded 'Set of the Year' and 'English Bar in the Middle East: Construction Set of the Year' at The Legal 500 Middle East and North Africa Awards 2026, having also won the latter in 2024.
Members appear in many of the highest-value and most significant cases both in the UK and internationally. Examples include disputes relating to The Shard, stadia such as Wembley and the Olympic Stadium, projects involving London Underground, Heathrow Airport and various international airports across the Middle East and South-East Asia, and the Panama Canal, amongst many others.
Around half of Chambers’ work has an international component and from the earliest stage in their careers, members have the opportunity to explore an international dimension to their practice. Cases frequently involve projects situated across the globe and require members to work with and against, and to appear in front of, lawyers from many other jurisdictions. Chambers therefore has a strong international outlook and prizes an understanding of, and appreciation for, other cultures and legal systems.
Members appear regularly in the Technology and Construction Court and Commercial Court, as well as the Court of Appeal and the UK Supreme Court. Alongside court work, a significant proportion of our disputes are resolved through arbitration (both in the UK and elsewhere), adjudication and mediation. Members have also been involved in public inquiries, including the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and the Al-Sweady Inquiry.
As with other areas of commercial practice, the principal legal areas of Chambers’ work are contract law, tort (particularly the tort of negligence), and unjust enrichment. Some of the leading cases in these subjects, with which applicants may be familiar, are construction cases including Murphy v Brentwood, Ruxley Electronics v Forsyth, McAlpine v Panatown, Aspect Contracts v Higgins Construction, Burgess v Lejonvarn and Triple Point Technology v PTT Company.
Beyond these core elements of private law, members are frequently required to advise on, and appear in, cases which raise jurisdictional issues, questions of corporate insolvency or company law, procedural issues relating to the particular dispute resolution process at hand (be it court, arbitration, or construction adjudication, which is a statutory dispute resolution procedure unique to construction disputes) and aspects of administrative law (in particular, public procurement).
Members of Atkin Chambers are authors of authoritative and influential legal texts, including the Building Law Reports, the International Construction Law Review, and Hudson’s Building and Engineering Contracts - the seminal work on the law relating to building and engineering contracts which has been produced by members of Chambers for over 50 years. Members are frequently invited to give lectures in relation to our practice areas across the globe.
What most distinguishes members’ work from other areas of commercial practice are the facts to which the law is applied. Our disputes relate to tangible infrastructure and systems, much of which is technically complex. Members of Chambers are skilled at gaining an in-depth understanding of technical areas with which they might have had limited previous familiarity and distilling what is important in a case from a large amount of factual information so that it can be presented in a compelling way.
In addition to being challenging, it is this variety of technical and factual applications that makes our area of practice one of the most intellectually rewarding and varied at the English Bar.
Chambers is a close-knit, collegiate and supportive environment within which to develop a successful legal career. The training of probationary tenants, and ensuring they reach their fullest potential, is treated as a matter of the utmost importance. That training does not end upon tenancy: new members continue to benefit and learn from a wealth of knowledge and experience around them. In addition, Chambers is home to one of the most experienced and well-resourced clerking and support staff teams at the Commercial Bar, available to help members to develop successful practices and achieve their career goals.
Chambers is based in beautiful and spacious premises in Gray’s Inn, which looks over the Gray’s Inn Walks. Each member has their own room as well as use of a modern suite of meeting rooms with full technical support for remote hearings and meetings.
We encourage you to visit our website – www.atkinchambers.com – for further information and to view our videos which showcase members’ views of life in Chambers, how to apply, and the experience of probationary tenancy. If you have any questions which are not addressed on our website, or our Pupillage Policy, please contact us at [email protected] and we will respond quickly.
About the candidate:
Chambers is committed to recruiting probationary tenants who are highly motivated and have an interest in practising in the areas of law in which we specialise. Members come from a variety of backgrounds and cultures and have taken a range of different routes (academic and vocational) to becoming a barrister. All are valued. There is no single mould within which candidates must fit. A science or technical background is not required, nor is a pre-existing knowledge of construction law, although candidates should have a firm grounding and interest in contract and tort law. Chambers encourages applications for probationary tenancy from law and non-law graduates alike. Applicants for probationary tenancy will usually have a first-class degree or a good upper second-class degree. Postgraduate qualifications are viewed favourably but are not essential. Applicants should have met (or be shortly expected to meet) the Threshold Standard for the competences provided for by the Professional Statement but have yet to secure tenancy.