After completing a successful application, I was excited to begin my work experience placement at Matrix Chambers. Walking into the building, we began with a warm welcome from Theo at reception, after which Lucy came down to greet us and gave a brief introduction to the various members of the practice teams at Matrix. Idris then gave us a very informed guide around the chambers with some interesting facts about the area, such as that the griffins on the buildings were made of real gold. After asking him our many questions, we sat with David from LSS. He initially discussed with us the routes to becoming a lawyer and asked about our plans for the future in higher education and our career, and then we completed a legal research task. Using Westlaw, we researched the defamation case of Vardy v Rooney [2022] and discussed the complexities of this case, as well as reading through the judgement and the Defamation Act 2013.
After our lunch break, we were involved in an informative workshop with the marketing team at Matrix. Charlotte provided us with insights into her day-to-day role in marketing for the chambers and then let us get on with a task in which we assessed the design and functionality of the Matrix website, suggesting possible improvements. We then returned to another task with David, this time researching cases involving LGBT+ rights. This involved researching and discussing Supreme Court cases such as Bull v Hall [2013], Walker v Innospec Ltd [2017], and R v Secretary of State for International Development [2018]. This was a fascinating task as not only did we research and determine the central issues for the cases, but we also studied the legislation alleged to be breached in each case. This provided me with insights into key cases involving the breach of rights, as well as enabling me to learn more about Matrix through finding out about the barristers from Matrix which worked on these cases.
Overall, it had been a great first day at Matrix Chambers, and I learned lots about the chambers itself, and the marketing and LSS teams at Matrix.
The second day of the placement was spent at the Royal Courts of Justice observing a case about the deprivation of citizenship. Sonder accompanied us in the morning after working through the main points of the cases D5, D6, and D7 v Secretary of State for the Home Department and C9 v Secretary of State for the Home Department to aid our understanding during the hearing. It was fascinating to witness the setting of the courtroom and see the barristers in action, quietly conversing with each other to reinforce the strength of their points when the judges were providing them with difficult counterarguments.
We returned to Matrix on the third day to discuss with Iona pathways to law through university, whether we took an undergraduate degree in law or not. She told us about the LNAT and provided us with more information on the PGDL. After recounting with Sonder the events of yesterday’s court hearing and going over some of the more complex details of the case, Iona walked us to the courtroom where we returned to watch the second day of the same deprivation case. We spent half an hour of our lunch break meeting with Zoe, a pupil barrister, over coffee near Matrix. This allowed us to ask our burning questions about the pupillage process, the route to qualifying as a barrister, and the day-to-day life of a barrister in terms of the balance between written work and court advocacy. We ended the day with a return to court to watch the second part of the hearing that day.
Our fourth day of the work experience began with a reflection of our week, which we did through writing our blogs. After receiving instruction from David on this and completing our blogs, we sat with Lauren from the Fees Team where we learned about how barristers got paid and how overdue legal fees owed to barristers were chased and paid. It was interesting to see how many fees were overdue, even dating back to the 2010s. Following on from this, we completed a task where we were given different funding types to research, such as legal aid, CFAs and DBAs, and the funding available for criminal cases. David then introduced us to a fictional case regarding a breach of privacy we would be working on in relation to the case Campbell v MGN Ltd [2004], requiring us to refer to key legislation such as the Human Rights Act 1998. The day ended with the much-anticipated interview for the Future Lawyers Scheme (conducted by the friendly faces of David and Iona) which also acted as beneficial interview practice.
Overall, work experience at Matrix Chambers has been hugely beneficial in aiding my understanding of how different sectors within the chambers, such as the fees, LSS, and marketing teams, work together with barristers. It was also very exciting to witness barristers in action at the Royal Courts of Justice, working on the deprivation case.