Hello all,
 
I'm thinking of applying for the diploma at the moment, which is a year earlier than I was planning. However, of course, the traineeships have in general been long-since hoovered up. Is there any chance of there being any late ones offered, or any other ways to squeeze myself in?
 
I should probably be speaking to the various careers people at my university, but I am unfortunately miles away from it...

As EFP says try the smaller firms, but keep an eye out on the diploma noticeboard and the like, quite often the larger firms trainee requirements change, they may decide they need more trainees or a recruit may drop out or so, often these jobs only ever appear as a sheet of a4 on the notice board so keep checking.
 
Don't worry about not having a job when starting the diploma, to be honest the majority of people on my diploma did not have a traineeship arranged when they started the DLP.

Thank you, I shall try some of the smaller organisations.
 
I am at a slight disadvantage though, since I am no longer a student at this stage. I have already taken a gap year between graduating and beginning the diploma.

A number of the big firms have deferred their trainees for a year (by a variety methods including one major firm which pulled unlucky diploma students names out of a hat!) so many of the diploma students just now are very worried, with the possibility of worse on the horizon.  So being promised a traineeship by a big firm is not necessarily the best thing just now!
 
From....
A diploma student

This one...
http://www.lawscot.org.uk/htmlpage.aspx?children=1&id=1001830&preview=tr ue