RateMyPlacement
The opportunity to visit the firm and the sessions that were organised were fantastic!
A&O organised a open day specifically focused on first years. This insight was one of the best I have had into the world of commercial law and the legal career. I would recommend all first year law and non-law students to apply to this if the want to learn a bit about commercial law, A&O and the way a big city firm functions.
Tiring and stressful because of the possibility of getting a training contract, but great work experience, met some fantastic people and generally had a really fun week or so.
I found that there was a good balance between the scheduled talks on different practice areas and time at our desks for actual work for our trainers. The talks on practice areas and on other aspects of the firm were largely well-delivered, and speakers were honest about the difficulties of the work. My trainers gave me a good array of work that was both interesting and challenging, and were happy to answer questions whenever they arose. There was also a project we had to do about halfway through the scheme, which made for an interesting exercise in time management and teamwork. I felt that, overall, I received a lot of support from my trainer, my trainee buddy, and the graduate recruitment team.
Very structured so as to ensure that the scheme was as informative as possible while also being as enjoyable as possible.
Overall, disappointing. At best, both I and the firm had bad scheme fatigue. Either the firm is overhyped, or they inadvertently were brutally honest about trainee life. Worst offence was a complacency that by virtue of being on the scheme, our default first choice would be A&O, notwithstanding that all but one of us had done at least one City scheme just before.
People were mostly friendly and I enjoyed the work.
Quite often didn't have much work to do.
very enjoyable
Very enjoyable: the people at the firm as well as the students on the scheme were all friendly. The work was generally interesting, and the scheme was a useful way of coming to understand A&O.
Found the firm a lot less 'friendly' than I expected. Their marketing and the reality are two different entities.
It was enjoyable
Having been nervous before starting I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the placement; both the work and the people were great and I was genuinely sad to leave.
The vacation scheme was enjoyable from first to last.
