It was a busy week for Isabelle, aged 16, who is currently doing her A-Levels. This is what she got up to:
“My week at Matrix has been extremely interesting! On Monday morning, after meeting the two other work experience girls, Nicole and Alexis, we had a brief talk about the chambers and then went straight to court in the Royal Courts of Justice (RCJ). In the morning we went to watch an appeal in which some Matrix barristers were involved in, however the other side conceded their case and they left quite quickly. We stayed to watch the appeal up until lunchtime at 1 o’clock. We headed out for lunch for an hour and upon our return to the RCJ we witnessed another case in one of the smaller court rooms and watched some of a case on the misuse of confidential documents by the NHS. We left the court at round half 3, and walked slowly back to chambers admiring Gray’s Inn as we walked. When we came back we had some research to do to help the fees team on Conditional Fee Agreements.
On Tuesday and Wednesday I accompanied Laura Prince, a barrister who specialises in employment law, to a preliminary hearing in the Central London Employment Tribunal. In this case we were on the side of the respondent in a case of unfair dismissal. It was a very complex case and on the first day we spent an entire court day just agreeing the issues and claims that were involved.
On Wednesday we were back in the same court as the hearing had been listed for two days and the second day was used for the respondent to make their submissions and talk about the claims they wanted to strike out. This was a very drawn out process but I found the hearing extremely interesting to watch because as the claimant was unrepresented, the judge had to explain many things to her and this made it a lot easier for me to understand the case as well. These two days have been the most enjoyable for me as I found the case interesting to watch.
On Thursday we got set a task to do in the morning relating to human rights and after completing this at around 11am we went back to court. This time we were once again in the RCJ to watch a case relating to Iraqi Citizens and British law. However, once we got there the case had finished so instead we watched a case on Surrey County Council vs Hook in which there was a breach of planning permission. This case was interesting to watch and we stayed there until lunchtime. At 2 o’clock we returned to the office where we continued to work on the task we were set until around 4 o’clock, when, as it was Halloween on Friday, we went out to buy pumpkins and oranges to decorate the office!
On Friday we were first in the office finishing off the tasks we’d been set. Chambers and Partners was released on the Thursday night, so on the Friday, I got a chance to look through the book. Matrix Chambers was mentioned many times! My week has been invaluable to me and I am glad I chose to do my work experience at Matrix Chambers.”
