Summer Vacation Scheme Student Review

This insight has been the most enjoyable experience in my career so far. I have learned more from this placement about commercial law in practice than in the past 3 years at University. I have also made lasting friendships with existing members of the firm and those taking part in the placement alongside myself. I have enjoyed every aspect of my two weeks at CMS Cameron McKenna and can confidently say I would enjoy working in with this firm in the future,

I felt extremely valued by the members of not only my specific team, but the wider members of the office. This meant I was able to develop positive working relationships with each individual I worked with and came across. It is very important to envisage a future job being a place where you feel happy and valued and in only a two week period I was fortunate enough to feel this in CMS Cameron McKenna.

There was a great deal of support offered by everyone in my team and additionally other members of the office as above. I did not ever feel like I was left alone with something to do without guidance or support. In addition to this I was given in depth feedback relating to tasks completed for different members of staff. This was extremely valuable and allowed me to learn from each and every experience and task.

The skills I have developed in this two week period will assist me in my degree and career in a number of ways. Firstly I will be more confident entering professional environments and developing positive working relationships. I will also have a deeper understanding of how the work I am doing in university correlates to the practice of law. I have also learned a great deal about timekeeping and working to deadlines, as well as managing my work load and prioritising.

Excellent and I could not fault any part of the organisation of the scheme.

The atmosphere in the office is very friendly and warm but also very hard working. It is clear people are working hard and focussing on the task at hand, but make sure to smile and engage in polite conversation when walking around the office. I believe the atmosphere in the office strikes a perfect balance.

The firm offered a great deal of personal training and develpoment simply by allowing me to take part in the work of the trainees and to observe the work of other fee earners and partners.

I now fully understand what working for this firm would be like. I have been able to speak with a number of people working in different teams and gained a well rounded picture of what working for CMS is like.

I believe this was one of the most important parts of this placement. Being able to spend two weeks working alongside different members of the firm has given me a first hand perspective on the culture, and it is very much the same as what is percieved on the outside. The culture of support, trust, hard work and drive comes through very clearly after being in only one of the many offices of CMS.

As well as the social events which undoubtedly provided this, I personally sought out as many opportunities as possible to mix with different members of the firm, and this was very easy to do. Everyone is very approachable and happy to get to know the summer students.

Each and every social event I have attended with this firm both before and during my placement have been excellent, very relaxed and informal and a great chance to chat to members of the firm in a relaxed setting.

There are many different activities such as football and social events but also many CSR opportunities on offer and we were all made very aware of this.

Yes without a doubt.