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Supreme CourtEach year the Supreme Court offers seven fixed-term posts for qualified lawyers to work as legal assistants to the Justices. Applications for these much sought-after roles are now open for next year’s vacancies, which run from September 2015 – July 2016.

The role of Judicial Assistant is varied and no two days are identical – interesting legal issues, a challenging but stimulating workload, and a need to think on your feet are the only constants.

Successful applicants are assigned to either one or two Justices and their daily duties may include summarising applications for permission to appeal, drafting bench memos, researching legal points for appeals, attending hearings and discussing cases with the Justices, producing summaries of judgments or even helping to draft extra-judicial speeches.

In the coming weeks, two of the current year’s Judicial Assistants will be sharing their experiences with the UKSC Blog: Yaaser Vanderman, the Judicial Assistant to Lord Hughes and Lord Toulson; and Rachel Barrett, the Judicial Assistant to Lord Wilson and Lord Hodge.

  • Yaaser Vanderman
    Yaaser studied Law as undergraduate student at Cambridge University, graduating in 2009. He went on to obtain postgraduate Law degrees from the University of Oxford and Harvard Law School, where he was fortunate enough both to be taught by Justice Elena Kagan, and to play for the Harvard University Cricket Team. During these formative years, he enjoyed working for various human rights organisations and writing academic articles in legal journals. He is a qualified barrister, having completed pupillage at Brick Court. During pupillage, he specialised in public law, commercial law and EU law.
  • Rachel Barrett
    Rachel originally studied History as an undergraduate, before obtaining a postgraduate degree in Chinese Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies. She then chose to study Law and went on to obtain her GDL and BPTC at the College of Law. Rachel is currently a member of Cloisters chambers in London, where she also completed her training. She has a thriving and varied junior civil law practice specialising in employment, discrimination, human rights, public law and judicial review, personal injury, clinical negligence, and mental health. Prior to coming to the Bar, Rachel worked on projects to improve standards in mental health care in different sectors, most recently managing a network for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

Interested in applying?

To meet the criteria for these appointments you must have a minimum of a 2:1 degree and be a solicitor, barrister or advocate qualified in one of the UK jurisdictions, having completed a training contract or pupillage by the start of the appointment. You will normally be intending to pursue a career in advocacy or have returned to university to carry out postgraduate research with a view to returning to a career in advocacy. You must demonstrate a high intellectual and analytical ability, incisiveness and the ability to work well under pressure.

The deadline for applications is 30th March 2015.

To apply or for further information please visit the Supreme Court’s website: https://www.supremecourt.uk/careers.html