“Working as a Commercial Barrister can be a fantastic career: fun, challenging, more collegiate than you might expect, creative, scary (usually in a good way), and thoroughly rewarding (and not just financially, though that too). Different perspectives can help, and the Commercial Bar seeks to recruit the most talented future practitioners it can find.
The Mentoring Scheme is now moving into its fifth year and has assisted over 870 mentees to date. It allows applicants from under-represented backgrounds, who meet the requisite standards, to access one-to-one mentoring with practitioners from one of 26 participating sets. It is an important way of promoting access and assisting the Commercial Bar to recruit the very best candidates by broadening the pool of applicants. I am delighted that this year’s Scheme can build on the success of previous years and I want to thank all those involved for volunteering their time to make this happen.”
Henry King KC, Chair of COMBAR
As we move into the fifth year of this successful scheme, COMBAR is delighted to announce that its mentoring scheme for applicants from groups who are under-represented at the Bar (and the Commercial Bar in particular) is now open for applications for the 2026 – 2027 cycle. The scheme is an important part of COMBAR’s commitment to improving access and diversity in the legal profession. More than 870 mentees have benefited from the scheme to date.
The scheme pairs successful eligible candidates with practitioners from COMBAR member sets for a series of one-to-one mentoring sessions. Mentees and their mentors are also invited to a pupillage interview and application workshop and social event, which is planned for 13 January 2027. An equivalent event for this year’s scheme was held in January 2026 at Gray’s Inn, with an excellent turn out from mentees attending in person and remotely, and a keynote introductory speech by Mr Justice Henshaw, the Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court.
There has been an excellent uptake of the scheme by COMBAR member sets. 26 sets have agreed to provide mentors and it is expected that there will be places for about 250 mentees on the scheme across those participating sets. All participating sets have also agreed to cover reasonable travel expenses for mentees allocated to them.
In order to ensure that as diverse a pool of potential applicants is reached as possible, COMBAR intends to advertise the scheme through the careers departments of all English and Welsh universities with a law department, together with a number of universities in Scotland and Ireland, third sector organisations such as HerBar, FreeBar, InterLaw, the Social Mobility Foundation and Sutton Trust. COMBAR is also pleased to have renewed its arrangement with Legal Cheek, which remains the official partner for the scheme.
Applicants who are considered to have realistic prospects of obtaining a pupillage at the Commercial Bar will be assessed by reference to their need for mentoring and their potential to pursue a career at the Bar. A deliberate decision has been taken to give equal weighting to both of these criteria to help ensure that the scheme reaches talented applicants from the most under-represented communities who would benefit most from mentoring and guidance.
Applicants wishing to participate in the scheme are requested to download and complete the application form which can be found here. Completed application forms must be saved as a PDF with the naming convention “First Name – Surname” and emailed to: MentoringURG@combar.com by Friday 16 October 2026. Applicants will be informed as to whether or not they have been accepted onto the scheme within November 2026. Due to the number of applicants applying for the scheme, it will unfortunately not be possible to give individual feedback as to why an application may have been unsuccessful, though unsuccessful applicants are welcome to re-apply in subsequent years.
Full details of the scheme can be found at the Scheme Guidelines which can be found here. Any other questions should be directed to the following email address: MentoringURG@combar.com
