Taylor Wessing Vacation Scheme Review

I had a fantastic two weeks at Taylor Wessing. I thoroughly enjoyed the "focus on" sessions as I got an insight into the various different seats at Taylor Wessing. I sat in Banking & Finance in the first week and Employment in the second which gave me good variety and the ability to compare transactional and contentious work in more detail. I was also given the opportunity to do some pro-bono and felt like I had a well-rounded experience.

I was immediately made to feel welcome, not only by the graduate recruitment team but also by the fee earners and the support staff. We were paired up with buddies and a supervisor who always made sure we had enough work to get on with and checked in with us regularly to make sure we were doing ok.

There was a good level of guidance and support, the teams were always conscious that we were students and tailored the work to our level of experience.

The information I received and the various insights in the scheme has been invaluable in making a decision as to the type of work I enjoy (in terms of transactional vs contentious) and will aid me in choosing which seats I would like to pursue during my training contract.

The scheme was very structured. We had a clear timetable of events, meetings, insights etc.

Very friendly open door culture which was clearly non-hierarchal. We had opportunities to socialise both with fellow vacation schemers and with employees at Taylor Wessing. It's clear from the employees at Taylor Wessing that they enjoy working at the firm too.

I was lucky to get involved in pro-bono and I felt that this was a good opportunity for personal development as it required a different set of skills to the traditional work of a private practice lawyer. Taylor Wessing also invested time and energy making sure we had a look into the various departments through the Focus On sessions.

Taylor Wessing market themselves as a full-service firm and this was something that I did not fully understand nor appreciate the benefit of when I was first applying. Now I can appreciate what the various departments do and how they interact. I now have a good grasp of the kind of work trainees are expected to do and how they can support their teams depending on the seat.

The culture of a firm is very difficult to understand if you are not engrossed in it on a day to day basis. Therefore, being at Taylor Wessing and sitting in two very different seats allowed me to hear the candid opinions of the different members of staff and assess for myself if I would not only enjoy the kind of work but also the company culture.

Part of the reason I did a vacation scheme was to compare it to the other types of work experience I have done and to compare it specifically to in-house legal practice. Having now completed the vacation scheme and experienced life in private practice in terms of the types of clients, the workload and the nature of the work, I am now content that pursuing a training contract at Taylor Wessing is right for me.

There were many opportunities such as the welcome drinks, the focus on sessions and the leaving lunch and we were also encouraged to reach out to employees if we wanted to find out more.

I really enjoyed the darts but I would have enjoyed some more variety.

There seems to be a good team spirit and that teams and business groups alike socialise outside of work and celebrate closures.

Really enjoyed the two weeks and would recommend the insight to anyone who wants to work at a law firm who has both a great culture and interesting clients and work.