As a big fan of John Grisham’s legal thriller novels and a keen debater, I’ve always hoped to one day become a Barrister. This work experience gave me an invaluable opportunity to learn more about the career that I’m passionate about and see the day-to-day work of some of the leading professionals in the country.
Our first day began bright and early at 8:45, giving us plenty of time for an induction before making our way down to Westminster to watch an extradition hearing at the Royal Magistrates Court. We all watched eagerly as James Stansfield and his Trainee, Zoe Brereton, defended a man facing extradition to Azerbaijan. Once the trial concluded, we had the chance to discuss our thoughts surrounding the various intricacies of the case, deepening our understanding of what we’d just seen.
After our lunch break, Charlotte, the Marketing Administrative Assistant, explained to us the variety of roles that the Marketing team at Matrix fill – from condensing verbose news articles into short, snappy LinkedIn posts, to designing invitation cards for various legal events. Excitingly, we were able to unleash our creativity and create our own invitation cards on Canva – a nice contrast to the legal complexity of the morning!
As the weather was pleasantly sunny, we ended our day with a lovely tour of all the Inns of Court. Iona, the Outdoor and Office Assistant, explained to us everything we’d need to know about the process of becoming a Barrister and working in the legal profession as we eagerly followed her on her court runs.
Our second day started with us reading the skeleton cases for the trial we were due to watch the next day. This gave us a chance to see how lawyers structured their arguments in court, and despite the occasionally complex legal jargon, it was a very interesting read!
Just before our lunch break, we grabbed coffee with two Matrix Trainees – Zoe Brereton and Jessica Sutton – who had a wealth of knowledge between them about the Bar exam and the process of becoming a Barrister. They answered our myriad of questions without complaint, and I ended the morning with an enriched understanding of the career path I’ve always dreamed of going down.
In the afternoon, we underwent a series of inductions in the various departments that Matrix has. We started with an overview of the Fees and Finance section, where we learnt all about the different types of funding that can be used when hiring legal representation, as well as the various methods through which Barristers receive payment.
To round off the day, we were given a research task to complete, allowing us to consolidate our knowledge surrounding finance.
On the third day, we were yet again back in court – but this time, we headed to the historic Royal Courts of Justice to watch James Laddie KC expertly negotiate an “unless order” against a litigant, who was refusing to pay court-ordered costs. The stunning architecture of the impressive building was both intimidating and awe-inspiring – we felt like we were surrounded by centuries of rich legal history.
Best of all was watching the trial. It was fast-paced, heated, and incredibly passionate, and certainly showed a very different side to the legal profession than what we’d seen just a few days earlier. Though originally, we were only supposed to watch the first hour of the case, we were kept in suspense by the legal complexity of the case and decided to spend the rest of our day on the edge of our seats – the courtroom benches – as we watched the unfolding drama.
Our fourth day started with the much-awaited induction to the Legal Support Services team, where Sonder Li and Donella Torcassi started by explaining their respective paths towards entering the legal field, before teaching us various research techniques that are vital to construct well-developed and powerful legal cases.
We were taught how to navigate various legal websites such as Westlaw, and Sonder then tested us on our skills by making us try and find a particular legal case – R v Hallam – after giving us only a brief descriptor of the key points! We spent the rest of our morning discussing the case and learning about the interaction between international treaties and domestic UK law.
After lunch, we had a series of mock interviews, where we were put on the spot with various situational tasks to test our critical thinking skills. We were given a final marketing task to complete, and then time to type up our blogs.
Overall, this experience was wonderful and eye-opening. My dream to study law at university has been consolidated by my week at Matrix, and I strongly encourage anyone similarly-minded to apply here.