Q4: Re-applying to chambers which previously rejected you
How do chambers feel about applications from people they rejected previously?
posted by tor at 4:04 PM
Sunday, November 27, 2005
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posted by tor at 4:04 PM
1 Comments:
I don't have any direct experience of this, but I'd have thought that unless you have radically improved your CV since your last application, it might not be a good use of one of the 12 OLPAS options.
Of course, it depends on how far you got the first time. If you ended up on the reserve list, it might well be worth re-applying.
It is possible to ask chambers for feedback about why you've been rejected. Hardly any of them actually invite you to ask for feedback, but if you call them up you will usually find that they oblige. The system does seem very opaque from the applicant's perspective, but don't feel that it's impossible to get information. Just be brave and phone them up and ask for feedback, or better still, ask for advice before you apply (this is where the mini-pupillage can come in very handy).
The feedback can be very useful - one chambers that rejected me, for example, told me that they had 5 criteria and explained how they were weighted, and told me which one I had failed on.
My own view is that chambers should be encouraged to publicise more detail about what they are looking for and any minimal requirements or particular preferences they have. At the moment, for many chambers, you pretty much have to look at the recent tenants' CVs and try to figure it out yourself. If more applicants take the initiative and ask them for information and feedback, perhaps they will decide it's worth making it public at the outset.
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