 He gained a Second Class in the first History Tripos in 1909, and won the English Essay Prize with an essay on political satire in English poetry. He won the same prize again in 1910, and that year gained first-class honours in his Theological Special Examination. By this point, he was having doubts about his future as a minister and consulted with the university Law Reader as to the possibility of a career as a barrister. On the Reader's advice, Birkett took the second Law Tripos in 1911, passing with second-class honours. Birkett interviewed with the editors of The Guardian and The Observer in his search for a job to sustain him while he took the bar exam. He took a job as personal secretary to George Cadbury Junior, with a wage of £ 200 a year, which he planned to hold until he qualified as a barrister. After only a month of working for Cadbury, his salary was raised to £ 500, and he was offered a permanent position. While there, he continued his political work and spoke on behalf of the Liberal Party, cementing his reputation as an effective speaker by, on one occasion, holding the attention of more than a thousand people for an hour. He took the first part of the Bar Examination in 1912, but failed the paper on real property; he passed it on his second attempt, and was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple on 4 June 1913.
