Modern barristers' chambers are not all Chancery Lane, Ye Aulde England watercolours and grovelling to dribbling old silks.

The innovator

Everything you wouldn't expect from a barristers' chambers, Matrix is non-hierarchical, tradition-challenging and self-consciously cool. There is no head of chambers and traditional Bar terminology has been abandoned – practice manager and trainee are in, clerk and pupil are out. Inside, there's not a Turner print in sight. In fact you have to keep looking out of the window to remind yourself that you are at Gray's Inn, not downtown Manhattan.

Helen Law, who was called to the Bar in 2005, feels at home in the progressive environment. "As a junior barrister you're taken seriously," she says. "The approachability and friendliness of the more established members makes a real difference."

Amanda Iling, the practice director, is similarly positive about the Matrix revolution. "Unlike sets where the clerks are expected to replace toilet rolls, change light bulbs and even walk members of chambers' dogs, the role of practice manager is respected here."

Of course, right-on Matrix isn't to everyone's tastes. Law and Iling both mention "sniping" from more traditional sets. But with business booming (Matrix recently expanded on to a third floor) and several leading chambers sneakily adopting its radical ways (3 Verulam Buildings and 3-4 South Square have quietly dropped clerk in favour of practice manager), Matrix fever is clearly catching.

A barristers' chambers... where?

The Cleveland Business Centre in Middlesbrough, home of Fountain chambers, does not have quite the same place in the national consciousness as the mystery-cloaked, history-steeped alleys around Temple. But does it matter?

On the set's conspicuously non-ancient premises, Harvey Murray, a barrister, says: "It's functional, modern and right across the road from the Combined Courts Centre. Perfect, in fact."

And unlike many chambers in barrister-saturated London, Fountain is thriving. "Being in a densely populated area served by relatively few barristers' chambers means lots of high quality, interesting work – and really fast career progression," Murray says. "Only two years into being a tenant and I'm doing a lot of Crown Court trial work, while friends at chambers in London spend most of their time in the mags."

Still, the Bar has a tendency to look down on barristers choosing to practise outside London. Murray recalls the response of a QC at Middle Temple when he mentioned that he was going to be undertaking his pupillage in Middlesbrough: "Why would you want to work anywhere else but London?" he was asked. But no one at Fountain chambers seems too troubled about being outside the capital.

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