The common law Bar remains an attractive option for those who believe that variety is the spice of life. Typically, common law chambers are multidisciplinary and are divided into practice groups so that members can develop and maintain specialisations. Areas of practice can include actions against the police, employment disputes, discrimination law, landlord and tenant, personal injury, professional negligence, family law and criminal law.

Adam Heppinstall is a barrister at Henderson Chambers, one of the leading common law sets in the capital. After studying for a law degree at Balliol College, University of Oxford and completing Bar school in London, he secured a pupillage at Henderson and hasn‘t looked back since. He recalls that pupillage can be stressful, but suggests that some of this might well be self-induced. "Pupillage tends to be quite intense," he says. "Even at the most relaxed set of chambers, you can't avoid it feeling like a sort of 12-month interview - or that's certainly how you feel as a pupil. I now know from watching from the other side of table (I'm about to become a pupil supervisor for the first time myself next year) that it probably isn't quite like that, because the barristers are quite busy and don't have that much time to watch what the pupils are doing. But you feel at the time that you are under intense scrutiny, and that everything you say and do counts against you in some great scorebook in the sky somewhere."

As Henderson is one of the busier common law chambers, Adam has had the chance to delve into a number of different areas. "I think you are incredibly lucky at the Bar if you can say, ‘I want to do X' and then drive yourself towards it," he says. "You can certainly do a bit of that - and I've tried myself - but at the end of the day you do what lands in your pigeonhole, and if you do it well you get more of the same, and suddenly you are an expert in that area. I think it often tends to happen that way round. General common law goes all the way from personal injury and other private clienttype matters from high-street firms all the way to business claims and debt claims that are almost heavyweight commercial. It is very broad and encompasses - in this set, anyway - product liability, property, employment, personal injury, health and safety and professional discipline. So it's a pretty wide range."

It is this broad spectrum that particularly appeals to many common law barristers, but Adam points out that there is still room for a little specialisation. "I enjoy the variety," he acknowledges. "I have now started doing more and more employment law. I'm Treasury counsel and the Treasury solicitors send me lots of employment work. It's not something I've asked them to do; it's something that has just happened. Over the last five years, I've built up some expertise dealing with the public sector employment structure. I've also done some group action work, most recently with the nuclear test veterans. But it's still good to dip my toe into other areas when the occasion arises; I'd get a bit bored otherwise."

Young lawyers at the common law Bar generally spend a fair bit of time in court to begin with, but according to Adam this tends to dies down with experience: "In my first five years I was on my feet a lot; in the latter five, not so much. I started to settle down with more of an advisory practice. Bigger cases that take longer to go to court; more junior work for silks; so a bit more staying in chambers and reading or preparing skeleton arguments - that sort of thing."

As a pupil, there's no telling exactly how much court time you'll see - it will depend on your pupil supervisor - but Adam is still convinced of the strengths of the system. "You will be shadowing your pupil supervisor. If you have a pupil supervisor who is in court a lot, you go with them. In both my first and second six I had pupil supervisors who went to court quite a lot and that was part of the fun of the pupillage. You obviously have no responsibility, so you can watch the problems and all the pitfalls occur. But you are in it together with your pupil supervisor. Once the client has gone, you can share the frustrations and the problems that have occurred that day - and the upsides as well. So as a learning experience, it's unparalleled, quite frankly."

Adam has recently interviewed prospective pupils for the first time and has the following advice for those seeking a pupillage at a common law set: "You have to know what the chambers does and be realistic. These days, some candidates seem to be quite romantic about the whole thing and dream about lazy days in chambers. We do go through quite stressful periods. All the benefits of self-employment and freedom - well, yes, they are all there. But at the end of the day, we do have people chasing us for work and clients who have to be looked after. So a slightly more objective outlook would be good from our candidates. I know it's hard, because they are coming straight from Bar school, but they should realise that we are a business, rather than some form of amateur legal debating society. A little business acumen goes a long way in this job, so being able to display that is very useful."

He also offers a view that tempers some suggestions about the value of minipupillages. "There's intense competition for places these days and we're looking for someone who has gained some insight about what the job actually is. That's always quite impressive. This doesn't mean they've done 20 mini-pupillages, which sometimes looks a bit odd. Some people take the advice to do mini-pupillages too much to heart: there are people who seem to collect mini-pupillages like badges and haven't stepped back to look at the job. If they've done three or four and then actually worked it out, having gone to chambers like ours, and have actually figured out what we do and can show a bit of insight at interview, it speaks volumes."