The High Court is recruiting up to 36 judicial assistants, to give junior lawyers a 'ringside view' of trial processes and judicial decision making. The programme, which is now open for applications, is aimed at recently qualified solicitors and barristers with ‘outstanding intellectual ability, excellent organisational skills and the ability to manage large and complicated workloads’.

Placements will last for either three or five months, and the work will involve carrying out research, summarising case documents and transcripts, summarising submissions and discussing cases and hearings with judges. The assistants will be paid around £2,500 a month.

The programme is an extension of the judicial assistant scheme launched by the Commercial Court early last year. 

The judiciary says it is 'hoping for a spread of applications from firms and sets of all sizes and specialisms'. However, it could not say how many current judicial assistants are solicitors and how many are barristers. 

The deadline for applications is 5pm on 1 July.