Terms & Conditions

Pupillage Gateway

Terms and Conditions

  1. This page, together with the documents hyperlinked from it, set out the Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) for visitors to the website https://www.pupillagegateway.com/, including users of the Pupillage Gateway (“Gateway”).
  2. Users of the Gateway (“Users”, “you”) include: (i) Aspiring barristers (“Applicants”) seeking and applying for pupillage with an Authorised Education and Training Organisation in England and Wales (“AETO”); (ii) Practising barristers and their employees (“Recruitment Managers”) who have been authorised to access the Gateway on behalf of an AETO in England and Wales to facilitate that AETO’s annual pupillage recruitment process. The acts of seeking and applying for pupillage and having access to the Gateway in order to facilitate a recruitment process and to collect diversity data for the purposes of monitoring equality of opportunity shall, for the purposes of these Terms, be collectively known as the “Approved Purposes”).
  3. The Gateway is owned and operated by the Bar Council of England and Wales® (“Bar Council”, “us”, “we” and “our”) and is subject to the Notice of Copyright. Our principal offices are at 289-293 High Holborn, London WC1V 7HZ and our VAT Number is 404524779
  4. By using the Gateway, Users accept these terms and agree to abide by them. You must read these Terms carefully before you start to use the Gateway. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not use the Gateway.
  5. From time to time, we may update these Terms. Every time you wish to use the Gateway, please check these Terms to ensure you understand them as they apply at that time.

    Accessing the Gateway
  6. Access to the Gateway is permitted on a temporary basis, and we reserve the right to withdraw or suspend or restrict the availability of all or any part of it for business or operational reasons without notice.
  7. We do not guarantee that the Gateway will always be available or be uninterrupted. We will not be liable if for any reason the Gateway, or any part of it, is unavailable at any time for any period.
  8. If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password, or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential. You must not disclose it to any third party.
  9. We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these Terms.
  10. You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to the Gateway. You are also responsible for ensuring that any person who uses the Gateway on your behalf is aware of these Terms and complies with them.

    User eligibility
  11. AETOs may only use the Gateway if they: (i) have, in accordance with Rule Q29 of the Bar Standards Board Handbook, been authorised to deliver the work-based learning, or pupillage, component of Bar training; and (ii) have paid us the appropriate fee.
  12. Applicants may only use the Gateway if they: (i) are legally capable of entering into this form of contract and are at least 18 years of age; and (ii) will have completed or obtained a waiver from the Bar Standards Board in respect of the vocational component of Bar Training prior to the commencement date of the vacancies to which they are applying.  Furthermore, Applicants confirm that their application contains only information that they honestly believe to be true and accurate and that if they knowingly submit false information as part of their application, they will be asked to withdraw, and shall do so, and may also be under an obligation to report the misconduct to the Bar Standards Board.
  13. You agree that you will ensure that all details which you input to the Gateway true, accurate, current, and complete during the period of use by you of the Gateway and/or the period during which such details may be accessed by others. In the event that any such details become inaccurate, out-of-date, or incomplete, you will make appropriate corrections as soon as is reasonably practicable. If you are, for any reason, unable to make such corrections, then you agree to notify us of the relevant changes by emailing us at pupillagegateway@barcouncil.org.uk.

    Prohibited Use
  14. You may not: (i) use the Gateway for any purposes other than the Approved Purposes; (ii) modify, create derivative works from, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble any technology used to provide the services; (iii) upload, transmit or post any computer viruses, worms or Trojan horses, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful files, programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware; (iv) do anything to disrupt, damage, impair, interrupt, slow down or effect the functionality of the Gateway; (v) impersonate another person or entity or create a false identity for the purpose of misleading any other User as to the identity of the sender or the origin of a message; (vi) upload abusive, sexually explicit, obscene or pornographic, false or misleading, hate speech, xenophobic or similar, defamatory or otherwise inappropriate material or content; (vii) do anything that would interfere with another User’s ability to use or enjoy the Gateway or any related services or that would discourage a User from using the Gateway or engaging our services; (viii) send, upload, post or otherwise make available any solicited or unauthorised advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail”, “spam”, “chain letters”, “pyramid schemes” or any duplicative or unsolicited messages.
  15. AETOs may not use Personal Data obtained through the Gateway other than in accordance with clauses 19 to 22 below.
  16. Failure to comply with clauses 14 and 15 above constitutes a material breach of these Terms and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions (at our sole discretion): (i) immediate, temporary, or permanent withdrawal of your right to use the Gateway; and/or; (ii) immediate, temporary, or permanent removal of any posting or material uploaded by you to the Gateway; and/or (iii) issue of a warning to you; and/or; (iv) legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis resulting from the breach (including, but not limited to, all legal costs); and/or (v) further legal or disciplinary action against you; and/or (vi) disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities or regulators as is reasonably necessary or as required by law.
  17. We exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of clauses 14 and 15 above. The actions described above are not limited and we may take any other action we reasonably deem to be appropriate.

    Our data protection obligations towards Users of the Gateway
  18. We will process your Personal Data in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation. For the purposes of these Terms: (i) shall have the meanings set out in the applicable Data Protection Legislation.

    "Data Subject”, “Personal Data”, “Processor” and “Controller” shall have the meanings set out in the applicable Data Protection Legislation.

    “Data Protection Legislation” means all applicable data protection and privacy legislation in force from time to time in the United Kingdom (UK) including without limitation the UK GDPR; the DPA 2018; the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 as amended, and the guidance and codes of practice issued by the Information Commissioner, and which are applicable to the Parties.

    “DPI 2018” means the Data Protection Act 2018 (and regulations made thereunder).

    “UK GDPR” has the meaning given to it in section 3(10) (as supplemented by section 205(4)) of the DPA 2018.
  19. By using the Gateway, Users acknowledge that we will be processing their Personal Data on the lawful basis that it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority (Article 6(1)(e) UK GDPR).
  20. Furthermore, Applicants: (i) acknowledge that we will be processing any information about reasonable adjustments they require under the Equality Act 2010 and on the lawful basis that it is necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation to which we are a subject (Article 6(1)(c) UK GDPR); and (ii) warrant that all such information provided by you is accurate (and where relevant will be kept up to date); and (iii) acknowledge that we will be processing any Sensitive Personal Data that you choose to disclose on the following lawful bases - Article 10 and Schedule 1, Part 2, Paragraph 6(2)(a) UK GDPR (processing is authorised by law and is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest (in relation to Personal Data relating to criminal convictions and offences)), Article 9(2)(a) UK GDPR (processing is based on the explicit consent of the Data Subjects), and Article 9(2)(b) and Schedule 1, Part 1(1) UK GDPR (processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out our obligations in field of employment law to provide appropriate safeguards for the fundamental rights and interests of Data Subjects (in relation to Special Category Data such as health, religious or ethnicity information)).
  21. We will retain, on the Gateway, the Personal Data of Applicants that use the Gateway to make an application for up to six years to enable them to reapply and to enable us to comply with our legal obligations, after which period it will be securely destroyed. The Personal Data of all other Users will be retained on the Gateway until the Bar Council either considers them ineligible under clause 11 above, or their right to use the Gateway is withdrawn in accordance with clause 16 above and clauses 54 and 55 below.
  22. From time to time, we may update our Privacy Statement. When we do, we will publish the changes on the Gateway (together with a prominent notice drawing your attention to the changes) and/or notify you by e-mail.

    Data sharing arrangements with AETOs
  23. For the purposes of these Terms, the following definition applies:
    “Agreed Purposes” means access to the Gateway in order to facilitate a recruitment process and to collect diversity data for the purposes of monitoring equality of opportunity.
    Shared Personal Data” means the Personal Data provided to us by Applicants and accessed by Recruitment Managers for the Agreed Purposes.
  24. With respect to the parties’ rights and obligations under these Terms, the parties acknowledge and agree that the Bar Council and AETOs are both data controllers in respect of any Personal Data they process during their use of the Gateway and under these Terms. The Bar Council and AETOs acknowledge that the Bar Council will regularly disclose to AETOs Shared Personal Data collected through the Gateway for the Agreed Purposes.
  25. Each party shall comply with all the obligations imposed on a Data Controller under the Data Protection Legislation.
  26. The Bar Council and each AETO shall: (i) ensure that it has all necessary notices and consents in place to enable lawful transfer of the Shared Personal Data to the AETO for the Agreed Purposes; (ii) give full information to any Data Subject whose Personal Data may be processed under these Terms of the nature of such processing. This includes giving notice that, on the termination of these Terms, Personal Data relating to them may be retained by or transferred to one or more of the Recruitment Managers, their successors or assignees as relevant; (iii) process the Shared Personal Data only for the Agreed Purposes; (iv) not disclose or allow access to the Shared Personal Data to anyone outside the AETO other than any Suppliers contracted to process the Shared Personal Data on the Bar Council’s behalf; (v) ensure that all Recruitment Managers and any third parties with access to the Shared Personal Data are subject to written contractual obligations concerning the Shared Personal Data (including obligations of confidentiality) which are no less onerous than those imposed by these Terms; (vi) ensure that it has in place appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect against unauthorised or unlawful processing of Personal Data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, Personal Data; (vii) not transfer any Personal Data received via the Gateway outside the UK unless the transferor complies with the provisions of Articles 26 of the UK GDPR (in the event the third party is a joint controller) and ensures that the transfer is to a country approved by the UK as providing adequate protection pursuant to Article 45 UK GDPR, there are appropriate safeguards in place pursuant to Article 46 UK GDPR, or one of the derogations for specific situations in Article 49 UK GDPR applies to the transfer; (viii) Each AETO shall assist the Bar Council (and the Bar Council shall assist each AETO) in complying with all applicable requirements of the Data Protection Legislation, including providing the Bar Council with reasonable assistance in complying with any data subject request or other individual rights requests in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation; (ix) Each party shall, insofar as it relates to the other party: notify the other party without undue delay on becoming aware of any breach of the Data Protection Legislation, provide the other party with contact details of at least one employee as point of contact and responsible manager for all issues arising out of the Data Protection Legislation, ensure that once Personal Data is no longer required and relevant retention periods have expired, the Personal Data is securely and permanently deleted in accordance with that party’s retention and disposal policies or returned to the originating party as appropriate, and in the event of a dispute or claim brought by a Data Subject or a supervisory authority concerning the processing of Personal Data under these Terms against one or more of the parties, inform the other party about any such disputes or claims and cooperate with a view to settling them amicably in a timely fashion; (x) aach party shall indemnify the other against all liabilities, costs, expenses, damages and losses (including but not limited to any direct, indirect or consequential losses, loss of profit, loss of reputation and all interest, penalties and legal costs (calculated on a full indemnity basis) and all other reasonable professional costs and expenses) suffered or incurred by the indemnified party arising out of or in connection with the breach of the Data Protection Legislation by the indemnifying party, its employees or agents, provided that the indemnified party gives to the indemnifier prompt notice of such claim, full information about the circumstances giving rise to it, reasonable assistance in dealing with the claim and sole authority to manage, defend and/or settle it.

    Copyright
  27. All rights, including copyright and database rights, in the Gateway (and its contents), are owned by or licensed to us, or otherwise used by us as permitted by applicable law or the copyright holder. To the extent that any such rights are our property, such rights shall be retained by us.
  28. You may not remove any copyright, trademark or intellectual property notices contained in the original material from any material downloaded or copied from the Gateway.
  29. We grant you a limited revocable license to access and use the Gateway and the services for the Approved Purposes only, subject to your compliance with these Terms. This license does not include the right to collect or use information contained on the Gateway for the following or any analogous purposes: (i) to create derivative works based on the content of the Gateway; (ii) to create a database by systematically downloading substantial parts of the Gateway; (iii) to download or copy the Gateway or any part of it (other than page caching); or (iv) to sub-licence, retrieve, display, modify, copy, print, sell, distribute, download, hire, reverse engineer or create extracts of, or derivative works from the Gateway.
  30. If you use the Gateway in a manner that exceeds the scope of this license or you breach these Terms, we may revoke the license granted to you and take further action to recover losses and/or to prevent your future use of the Gateway.

    Trademarks 
  31. All names, images, logos identifying us or our services are our proprietary marks. All third-party names, logos, images, or branding relating to a company, product or service contained on the Gateway are the trademarks, service marks and trade names of their respective holders. Unless you have obtained the holders’ explicit written consent (either from us or the appropriate third party), we do not give permission for any use of any such trademark, service mark or trade name by any person other than the holders. Any such use may constitute an infringement of the relevant holder’s rights.

    Viruses, hacking and other offences 
  32. We do not guarantee that our site will be secure or free from bugs or viruses.
  33. You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform to access our site. You should use your own virus protection software.
  34. You must not damage or attempt to damage the Gateway by knowingly introducing viruses, Trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Gateway, the server on which the Gateway is stored, or any server, computer or database connected to the Gateway. You must not attack the Gateway via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities, and we will cooperate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use the Gateway will cease immediately.

    External links
  35. The Gateway may contain links to other websites, in the pupillage vacancies advertised by AETOs, which are beyond our control. Such links are provided solely for information purposes and shall not be construed as any form of recommendation or approval by us.
  36. You hereby acknowledge that such third-party websites are independent from the Gateway, that we have no control over the content of linked third party websites and that you visit such third party websites entirely at your own risk. We accept no responsibility for the content of such websites, nor do we accept responsibility or liability for any losses or penalties whatsoever that may be incurred as a result of your use of any links to any other websites or reliance on the content of any website to which the Gateway is linked or to which you are directed.

    Framing, linking and deep-linking 
  37. You may not frame, link or deep-link the Gateway to any other website without our prior written consent.
  38. You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.
  39. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.

    Complaints
  40. If you have any complaints about the Gateway, please e-mail us at pupillagegateway@barcouncil.org.uk and we will consider your comments carefully.

    Our rights
  41. Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved to the Bar Council.
  42. The Bar Council will always seek criminal prosecution of any individual who, or organisation which, seeks to use the Bar Council’s name, material, logos, or trademarks for unlawful purposes and, where appropriate, will take action in the civil courts of any applicable jurisdiction against any individual or organisation discovered to be using the Bar Council’s name, logos, trademarks or the Gateway for unauthorised or unlawful purposes.
  43. Any delay or failure by the Bar Council to exercise any right or remedy under these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of that right or remedy.

    Disclaimer and warranties
  44. If you are the Recruitment Manager of an AETO, you acknowledge that all information on the Gateway in relation to Applicants and their applications for pupillage has been provided by the Applicants and not by us.
  45. If you are an Applicant, you acknowledge that all information on the Gateway in relation to the advertised vacancies and connected processes has been provided by the relevant AETO(s) and not by us.
  46. Accordingly, we are not able to warrant or guarantee the quality, accuracy, timeliness, completeness, or fitness for purpose of the information provided on the Gateway. No responsibility is accepted by or on behalf of us for any errors, omissions, or inaccurate information on the Gateway, nor are we responsible for how you use or interpret the information, or what reliance you place on it.
  47. The information and content of the Gateway is not intended to, nor does it, constitute legal or other professional advice or services or a recommendation to purchase any product or service.
  48. We do not accept any responsibility for the results of any action taken on the basis of the information provided on the Gateway and all warranties, including implied warranties of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose, non-infringement and accuracy are excluded to the fullest extent that they may be excluded under applicable law. To the fullest extent permitted by law the Bar Council will not be liable for any claims, costs, penalties, loss (whether direct, indirect, or consequential and whether economic or special loss), damages or expenses arising from the use or from the inability to use the Gateway or from reliance on information or on advice contained on the Gateway or from any unauthorised access or alteration to it by a third party.
  49. We do not guarantee that the Gateway (or any part of it) or any content is compatible with your computer equipment nor that the Gateway (or any part of it), or its server, is free of errors or viruses, worms, bugs or Trojan horses, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful.
  50. We will try to make the Gateway available but cannot guarantee that it will operate continuously or without interruptions, or be error-free, and can accept no liability for its unavailability. We will provide the service using reasonable skill and care and we make no warranties other than those made expressly in these Terms. We hereby disclaim to the extent permitted by law all other express or implied warranties (including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose and merchantability) other than those which cannot be excluded by law.

    Limitation of liability
  51. Except for liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or in relation to death and personal injury arising from negligence, neither you nor we shall be liable to each other for any indirect, incidental, punitive or consequential damages arising from the use of the Gateway, any information contained on the Gateway or any related services, including, without limitation use or loss of use, loss of data, profits, revenue, business or anticipated savings, whether in action of contract, negligence or other tortious action arising out of or in connection with the use of the Gateway.
  52. Except for liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or in relation to death and personal injury arising from our negligence, we will not be responsible or liable to you or any third party for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise, even foreseeable, arising or in connection with: (i) the content of websites to which the Gateway provides links (and we do not accept responsibility or liability for any losses or penalties whatsoever that may be incurred as a result of your use of any links to any other websites or reliance on the content of any website to which the Gateway is linked or to which you are directed); (ii) use of or reliance on any content displayed on the Gateway; (iii) disruption, damage of your data or computer system which you may suffer as a result of the transmission of any errors or viruses, worms, bugs or Trojan horses, any distributed denial-of-service attack or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of the Gateway, or to your downloading of any material posted on them, or any website linked to them or other such destructive feature via the Gateway; (iv) use of, or inability to use the Gateway; and/or (v) deletion of any materials relating to your use of the service on our servers or otherwise in our possession following termination of your use of the Gateway.
  53. Our liability to you or any third person for any or all damage or loss that may arise from the use of the Gateway, any information contained on the Gateway shall not exceed £100 (one hundred pounds sterling).

    Termination
  54. If you are in material breach of these Terms we may (in our sole discretion): (i) suspend, limit your access to or terminate your use of the Gateway and/or the service; and/or (iv) where relevant suspend, limit your access to or terminate your account with immediate effect.
  55. If we terminate your use of the Gateway, we may delete from our servers (and from the Gateway) any information or materials relating to you (and/or your use of the Gateway) subject to our requirements under the Data Protection Legislation and any retention requirements as set out in clauses 19 to 26 of these Terms.

    Severability 
  56. If any of these Terms should be determined to be illegal, invalid, or otherwise unenforceable, it/they shall be severed and deleted from these Terms and all other terms and/or conditions shall remain in full force and continue to be binding and enforceable.

    Entire agreement
  57. Without prejudice to your or our rights in respect of fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, these Terms constitute the entire understanding and agreement between you and us regarding the subject matter of these Terms and supersede all prior and contemporaneous agreements and understandings between you and us regarding the subject matter of these Terms.

    Rights of third parties 
  58. Notwithstanding anything else in these Terms, the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 shall not apply to any contract between you and us and no contractual rights are conferred on any third parties.

    Governing law and jurisdiction
  59. These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England. The courts of England shall, subject to clause 60 below, have exclusive jurisdiction over any claims, dispute or matter arising under or in connection with these Terms.
  60. We shall retain the right to bring proceedings in the courts of the country of residence of any user of the Gateway.