Applications for Traineeship 2024 are closed.
The Traineeship application will be available online from the 3rd January, inline with the Pupillage Gateway. If you have any questions regarding traineeship please contact recruitment@matrixlaw.co.uk
Traineeships at Matrix are available each year. Our traineeships constitute the “pupillage / work-based learning component of Bar training” as set out by the BSB and are available to those following any of the following three pathways: three-step pathway, four-step pathway or integrated academic and vocational pathway. More information about pathways can be found here.
The purpose of traineeships is for aspiring barristers who have completed their academic and vocational components of training to gain practical training under the supervision of experienced barristers. You can find more information about this component of your training to become a barrister on the BSB website here.
Matrix strives to be an equal opportunities employer and is committed to diversity amongst its staff, members and trainees. We therefore encourage and welcome applications from women, people of minority ethnic origin, people with disabilities, neurodiverse candidates and those who are LGBT+, as well as candidates from other groups which are underrepresented in the legal sector. We are happy to make reasonable adjustments to enable disabled or neurodiverse candidates to demonstrate their suitability for the job. For more information about reasonable adjustments please click here.
Please read our information on our Equality & Diversity activities to see what we do to promote equality.
Annual Student Open Evening: 6th December 2023
Matrix will be opening its doors to prospective applicants for traineeship that are thinking about applying in the forthcoming round this year to commence traineeship in October 2025.
The open evening will take place in person and via Zoom, starting at 5pm and lasting approximately 2 hours. In person places are now full. If you would like to attend online, but be added to the waiting list for an in person please, please let us know.
The purpose of these sessions is to give those who are considering applying to Matrix an opportunity to ask any questions they may have about the application process and what life is like at Matrix.
If you would like to attend the open evening remotely, please email Lindsay Clarke lindsayclarke@matrixlaw.co.uk giving your full name, email address and also whether you would like to be added to the waiting list for an in person space. Please also confirm whether or not you are applying for traineeship/pupillage in the forthcoming round of applications opening Jan 2024 for an Oct 2025 start.
If you have any special requirements, then please let us know.
Key documents
If you would like the Traineeship Brochure in an alternative format, please contact Lindsay Clarke at recruitment@matrixlaw.co.uk.
Traineeship interviews
What does a good answer look like?
To help guide candidates on good interview technique, we have produced a short video of one of our juniors who recently went through the interview process successfully. To view the video transcript, please see here.
In the video, Emma provides a model answer to the following four example interview questions:
- Should suspects in police investigations have a right not to have their identities published prior to their being charged? Present the strongest argument for and against, and then explain why in your view one is right and the other wrong.
- Should persons who left the UK to live in Islamic State held territory be stripped of their British citizenship? Should it make a difference if they have dual nationality, or if they repent?
- Why is an equal opportunities policy important to an organisation?
- What qualities do you think are most important in a barrister to a client?
Advice on how we mark the interviews
- Matrix will be listening to how you answer the questions as well as the content of what you say: make good eye contact; talk at a volume and pace that will allow the interviewer to note what you are saying, voice the points confidently and persuasively, and try to use the language an advocate would use.
- If you are asked to take a position on something do so. Try to maintain your position as you would when making a legal submission. Judges regularly test an advocate’s position and it is important to be able to justify the argument you are making and explain why the point being made by the Judge can be distinguished. However, if the point is unarguable, or the advocate senses that the judge is against them, it is important to be able to shift the argument and adopt a stance that will be in the best interests of the client (which may include concessions).
- It is much easier for the interviewer (and a Judge in court) to follow a structured answer. Explain the points you are going to make, make them and then conclude with a summary of why they should persuade the interviewer on that point.