Pupillage Vacancy Information
About Express Solicitors
Express Solicitors is an award-winning law firm specialising in personal injury claims. Founded in 2000, Express Solicitors has built up its reputation to become one of the UK’s Top 100 law firms. Based in Manchester, we serve clients nationwide covering all areas of personal injury, including employer’s liability, serious injuries, clinical negligence, occupier’s and public liability, road traffic accidents, and industrial disease.
The firm is built upon the foundations of education, dedication, and unwavering customer service. We achieve this by taking on the UK’s finest legal talents.
Express Solicitors is proud to be:
- Recognised in The Lawyer’s UK Top 200, currently ranking in 70th place out of over 10,000 firm
- Ranked as a leading firm with Chambers UK and the Legal 500
- Recognised as a ‘very good’ company to work for by Best Companies, ranked 13th best law firm to work for in the UK, 63rd best company to work for in the North West and 83rd in the category of best large company in the UK.
- A Law Society accredited personal injury practice
- Certified by the Cyber Essentials Plus Compliance Scheme
- A member of the Association of Consumer Support Organisations (ACSO)
The Advocacy department is comprised of barristers, pupils, advocates (individuals who have completed the academic and vocational components of education and training for the Bar, but not the pupillage/work-based component) and a clerking team.
All pupils are recruited with a view to being offered a position as an employed barrister upon completion of pupillage. This is not, however, guaranteed.
Structure of Pupillage
For detailed information as to the structure of pupillage, please see our Pupillage Policy (attached).
Financial and Other Support Available
Expenses associated with pupillage, e.g. travel/accommodation to attend court, and reasonable expenses to attend mandatory courses/examinations, will be paid for by Express Solicitors.
Pupils will benefit from the ability to work at home, helping to provide a healthy work/life balance. We provide laptops and full IT support in getting home offices set up to ensure that our employees have everything they need.
Health and Wellbeing
We understand that the working in the legal industry can be stressful. To help our staff at Express, we offer a variety of support to ensure their mental health is taken care of. We have qualified Mental Health First Aiders on hand for employees to speak to. Employees also have access to the Employee Assistance Programme (“EAP”), a confidential 24-hour helpline for all staff.
We promote charities and run fundraising events around key dates. We believe that socialising and exercise also contribute to overall wellbeing. For this reason, in addition to mental health support, we also offer opportunities for our staff to socialise and engage in group activities.
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
At Express we pride ourselves on working with a diverse range of talent from all backgrounds. We always look to promote and support all our members of staff whatever their background. We believe that to create an environment where diversity can flourish, it is vital for all staff feel supported, heard, and represented in the workplace. We rate skill and ability above all else and our recruitment policy encourages applications from all.
We have diversity at every level of our organisation, with 25% of our workforce identifying as BAME, from a wide spectrum of religions and speaking over 20 different languages. Women make up 70% of our workforce, with 52.5% of our Partners being female. Our latest Gender Pay Gap report is available on our website.
Our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Network has representatives from each department, to ensure that all staff feel represented and have a point of contact should they have any questions or want to raise any issues.
Some examples of the ways we promote diversity and inclusion at Express:
- A full calendar of event to raise awareness of topics and communities
- Regular EDI Network section in our monthly newsletter, to highlight all the fantastic work the team does
- Everyone has the option to have their pronouns in both their internal and external emails, to help with inclusivity of non-binary (they/them) or transgender people
- Suggestion boxes in all buildings so our colleagues can leave comments anonymously
- Emergency sanitary products in bathrooms
To learn more, and to read about some of the recent events we’ve organised, please visit the Diversity and Inclusion section of our website:
www.expresssolicitors.co.uk/about/diversity-inclusion-express-solicitors
To enquire about the accessibility of Express Solicitors prior to making your application, please e-mail emergingtalent@expresssolicitors.co.uk or telephone 0161 904 4660 and ask to speak to the Emerging Talent department.
How to Apply
Aspiring barristers are invited to apply for pupillage between Thursday 2nd January 2024 and Thursday 6th February 2024, using the Pupillage Gateway application system to search for the relevant Pupillage Vacancy and selecting ‘Apply for this pupillage’.
In addition to the standardised Bar Council questionnaire, candidates will be asked to respond to the following questions:
Question 1:
What grade were you awarded for your bar training course (i.e., the vocational component of your training)? Applicants are reminded of the minimum requirements for academic achievements, as set out in the Pupillage Policy (applicants who have not yet completed the bar course are not eligible to apply). Applicants who would like any applicable extenuating circumstances to be considered must ensure they include details of the same in the relevant section of the form.
Question 2:
Do you intend to enter employed or self-employed practice at the Bar of England and Wales? If the answer is the former, why? Please include any information here that would help to demonstrate a commitment to a career at the employed Bar.
Word count limit: 250
Question 3:
Please identify up to 3 difficulties a practitioner might experience whilst working at the employed Bar and give specific examples of any experience or skills you have gained or developed which would help you to cope with such demands.
Word count limit: 250
Question 4:
Describe one occasion where you demonstrated high-quality oral advocacy skills. Please include specific information as to the skills themselves, the outcome achieved, and how the two interrelated. Ideally, the example will relate to a court or tribunal hearing/setting, mock or otherwise, but any example of persuasive advocacy outside of this (where you have influenced the outcome of the decision) is acceptable.
Word count limit: 250
Question 5:
Why do you want to join Express Solicitors? Please include any information here that would help to demonstrate a commitment to a career with Express Solicitors and why you are interested in our areas of practice.
Word count limit: 250
Question 6:
Please consider the following scenario:
You have been instructed by a solicitor (Partner) on many occasions over a 6-month period and have built up a friendly professional rapport with them. You receive papers from them at 4pm on a Wednesday for an application hearing at 10am on the upcoming Friday. The solicitor’s witness statement accompanying the application is missing key factual evidence that you believe to be critical to the application’s prospects of success, although the requisite information is not only contained within your instructions, but you are told it has previously been communicated to the opposing party in correspondence.
What, if anything, would you do?
If your answer includes contacting someone by e-mail, please confirm who the recipient would be and include a copy of the e-mail you would send them.
Word count limit: 250
Question 7:
Tell us something interesting about yourself, outside of your legal training/career, that we might be surprised to know about you.
Word count limit: 175
Attached documents
