Vacation Scheme Student Review

I really enjoyed the scheme. I met with many people from different departments in BLP and I talked with them about their experience and career in the firm which I found very useful. They were all very outgoing and willing to grab a coffee with me. Additionally, I got my hands on some very interesting research in Private client and because of it I learned a lot about new unfamiliar areas of law such as: Jersey trust law. Furthermore, I even attempted some drafting of a deed of exclusion which was very exciting. All in all, I felt extremely occupied which was good because I had as much exposure as possible.

I felt very valued at BLP. People in my department were all very friendly and respected me as if I was a permanent part of their team and not simply a three-week summer scheme student. Furthermore, they all cherished the work I did for them and were pretty satisfied with its quality, sharing it with the rest of the team because it fitted into the work they were doing. So, I felt that even by small bits and pieces I made some contributions to the working process. Moreover, I felt that the relationships I built with my supervisors and the trainees were very human and we could communicate with ease on non-work related matters. They were all genuinely interested about my personality and life and vice versa and I think this kind of relationships make the working process a lot more enjoyable.

We did not receive any formal training but whenever I was assigned a task I felt like people were really trying to brief me in a way that will provide me with a reasonably decent background of the issue. I felt this was very useful as I had a good starting point from which to base my research and this resulted into a higher quality final product that I provided my team with.

I believe that the research, organizational, team working and attention to detail skills will be vastly of great use not only for my studies but also for my future career. Although as a law student I had to work a lot with Westlaw and Lexis Nexis I think that in an environment like that in BLP where you have to work with those systems all of the time it is inevitable that you excel and learn how to use them better. Now at the end of my scheme it is easier for me to spot the legal issues and I can definitely make a greater use out of all the unlimited legal resources at hand.

The insight was very well structured. It was a good mix of training, work, CSR social events. We had a very good insight to the different parts of the firm by having daily departmental presentations. I really enjoyed the CSR activity on which we baked cupcakes for the Ronald McDonald charity. I also thought it was very good that we had an interview skills session just before our Training Contract interviews.

The general atmosphere was very nice as most of the people were really friendly and outgoing. I really enjoyed how I was treated as if I was part of the team from long ago. Additionally, the relationships among everybody else were such that there was no way you can tell the seniority of people. It did not really make a difference whether I was talking to a partner or a trainee because the atmosphere was absolutely non-hierarchical and genuinely human. This I can say is one of the biggest distinguishing factors of BLP.

The company invested a lot of time and resources in my development. I had one-on-one sessions with my trainee-supervisor in which we could discuss anything and he could explain to me in sufficient detail the background for my upcoming tasks. Additionally, on every piece of work that I did both for associates, senior associates and partners I always received a very full and comprehensive feedback which was a great learning curve for me.

The insight pretty much helped me understand what will be my full-time role as a trainee solicitor in BLP. Because tax is a very technical subject you cannot do the work to its full extent when you are a junior. Therefore, my tasks were small research tasks that fitted within the bigger picture. My lesson from this work experience was that your work as a trainee although not as significant always feeds in to the end product that is serviced to the clients. But I also got to draft some documents (of course always under supervision), made some presentations and did bundling which I believe showed me the full picture of the life of a trainee.

The insight helped me understand a lot about the company's culture because I spent significantly more time in BLP than on a simple open day or event at the firm. I could literally observe how people were interacting both on work and non-work related matters which kind of gave me a sense as to what my relationships with my prospective future colleagues will be like.

It was very valuable to spend three weeks in BLP because if you do not have such a close contact with the people and the firm it is extremely difficult to make decisions about your future career. All City law firms almost look the same based on their websites and brochures. Thus, it is priceless to go and just check for yourself if the firm is the right fit for you and vice versa.

There were many opportunities for networking such as playing social darts, a partner lunch, couple of networking events in itself and many more. The good thing was that people from all levels of the firm attended the events such as: trainees, associates, people from graduate recruitment and even partners. What I liked the most was the fact that my members of my team often invited me out for a lunch so that we can all get to know each other. It was a very kind gesture and I really appreciated it.

The networking events were very nice, we had quite a lot of fun. It was good that they were all very different so there was no chance you could get bored.

Yes. We had various presentations about BLP's CSR and the events that the charities' committee organize, the choir and the sports teams.

Of course.