Vacation Scheme Review

I enjoyed the good mix of experiences through the vacation scheme, from helping out in actual work to networking with different lawyers to participating in training sessions and finding out more about the firm. The sense of being valued and with the people at the firm showing real interest to get to know me personally made sure that I felt really welcome and this was perhaps the biggest contribution to me enjoying my time at the firm throughout the vacation scheme.

We were clearly valued as part of the firm even before we started the actual vacation scheme, even in prior communications with Graduate Recruitment, there was a real sense of their interest in each individual vacation scheme student. The trainee buddy system ensured that we were all easily welcomed and introduced to many other trainees and lawyers working at the firm. The lawyers also tried their best to give us engaging tasks to do, and there was no sense of doing boring or meaningless tasks like photocopying.

There was clearly an emphasis on guidance and training at the firm, the people I worked with always took time to give me a background of the context of the work I would be doing and directing me to the right resources. The trainee buddy system was also great in ensuring that there was always someone I could unashamedly ask any questions I had at any time during the scheme.

There was a good mix of time to sit at my desk to participate in actual work, as well as go for networking sessions, which allowed us to meet people from all over the firm, and training sessions. Having an overarching client pitch project also ensured that whenever I did not have much work to do I could work on that and would not be completely idle, and also allowed us to develop closer relationships with some of the other vacation scheme students.

In general the people at the firm were all very friendly and welcoming, and were open to answering any questions we had as well as sharing from their own experiences. There was also an atmosphere of keeping things serious only when needed, so it was a good mix of hard work and partying hard at the appropriate times, and the ample opportunities to network outside of office hours as well as observing how the lawyers treated their work showed this evidently.

We were able to sit in on trainee training sessions and also had workshops that taught us general business skills for our client pitch project which was helpful for our personal development. The lawyers were also very conscious of taking time to explain how the firm/department worked and the context of deals we got to help with, which really contributed to personal learning and development as well.

Having a trainee buddy system really ensured that I could fully understand what life as a trainee at the firm would be like. I had the opportunity to sit in on client calls, help out with legal work as well as sit in for trainee training sessions and this helped me envision what it would be like to have a full time role with the firm. The open and friendly culture also allowed me to benefit from hearing honest sharing about people's experience at the firm which helped me greatly understand what it would be like to work for the firm.

We were given the opportunity to participate in a wide range of events - networking lunches with the entire department, lunch with the management committee, training sessions etc and being able to speak to a wide range of people really helped in understanding the firm's culture. Helping out in actual work with tight deadlines and seeing how the lawyers worked together on real deals also helped in understanding the working culture of the firm.

Each day we got a good insight into the actual working life of a lawyer which was really helpful in deciding a future career. The wide range of opportunities available including exposure to actual legal work, networking lunches and training sessions was especially useful in giving me a real insight. The client pitch exercise was also useful in learning more about the business side of a law firm on top of the legal work.

There were many opportunities to network and meet other lawyers at the firm, including meeting the managing committee over lunch and being able to ask any questions we had. Having a trainee buddy who would introduce us to other lawyers and trainees was also very useful in letting me get to know more lawyers at the firm and find out more about the culture of the firm.

There were lots of opportunities for us to be involved with activities outside of work, such as their diversity initiatives and also recreational activities like sports teams. Having a trainee buddy also ensured that we could find out a lot more about the activities they participated in outside of work which was useful in letting us know more about the firm's culture and the various opportunities available.

I would recommend this vacation scheme, as I gained a good insight into the life of a lawyer or trainee at the firm given the wide range of opportunities I had and many events I was exposed to. Even though it was only two weeks, the good structure and schedule of the vacation scheme ensured that I was exposed to as many parts of the firm as possible and this was really helpful in letting me learn more about the firm.