What help and support is available?

Mentoring and Scholarships

Combar offers a number of scholarships and mentoring schemes supporting students. Details can be found on the Mentoring and Scholarships pages.

Substantial financial support to cover training

Financial support is also available from the Inns of Court (which are essentially professional associations for barristers in England and Wales).  The Inns offer financial support and guidance to aspiring barristers. Scholarships are available for a number of stages of the training, including for the Graduate Diploma in Law and (in particular) the Bar Professional Training Course. The largest scholarships are over £20,000 and are enough to cover academic fees and living expenses, but there is a large range of awards available.

Most Combar sets offer pupillage awards which are on a par with starting salaries for other city lawyers, and some are more generous than that. Many sets allow a proportion of that award to be drawn down early to help defray course fees for the vocational stage.

Other types of help

There are many other sorts of support available to those embarking on a career as a barrister. The first port of call for these is the Inns of Court. These offer open days and other information events, mentoring (or ‘sponsorship’) schemes which connect students with an individual barristers who can offer advice and support, and mock interviews and workshops to assist with the pupillage applications process.

Find out more