Vacation Scheme Student Review

I found the insight to be quite enjoyable. We were given many activities to do every day, both social and professional, and the standard of work was generally interesting. All of the lawyers were friendly and the Recruitment advisors worked hard to make sure everyone had an enjoyable time at the firm.

I didn't feel particularly valued, but if anyone thinks that they can be truly valued by an enormous law firm after completing a 3-week vacation scheme, then they're completely delusional. More importantly, I was given interesting work to do and all of the lawyers with whom I interacted were very generous with their time.

I received a good degree of guidance during the insight. The amount of guidance or support that vacation scheme students received depended upon how much they sought it, which is a good arrangement. Whenever I felt stuck or uncertain about a piece of work, I was always able to speak to somebody about it.

Legal scholarship is not particularly relevant to life in a law firm, so the skills that I developed on the vacation scheme probably won't assist me in my degree studies much. But the information that I received throughout the vacation scheme was very useful for understanding the requirements and the work in an area that the majority of law students end up doing.

The insight was very well structured. We had many activities that had been planned for us. A lot of these activities related to learning about different departments in the firm, but there were many social activities too. Some of these activities were involved meeting partners, while others were just for vacation scheme students.

The general atmosphere during the insight was friendly. All of the vacation scheme students were very friendly with each other and the employees of the firm, from trainees to partners were also very friendly and not particularly intimidating or anything like that. It seems as though the firm is quite social.

The firm invested in the vacation scheme students a good amount. It is difficult for everyone because for employees, the vacation scheme is inevitably a 3-week advertising campaign, whereas for vacation scheme students, the scheme is inevitably a 3-week job interview. This can make proper investment difficult, but we were given good feedback on our work.

I ended up with a good sense of what full time work as a trainee would be like at the firm. Naturally, vacation scheme students are given the more interesting work on the spectrum of work that might be expected of a trainee. But that's to be expected at every firm.

The insight did help me understand the culture of the company to a good degree. The company seems to be pretty relaxed (though hard working) and all of the trainees seem to be very social with each other. There is also a strong international element not just in terms of work but also in terms of trainees.

The content of the vacation scheme was very helpful in my decision about future career paths. This is because the vacation scheme provides a good sense of what work as a junior lawyer is like, as well as the work of more senior members of the firm. In this sense, I received a good impression of the life of a solicitor at the firm.

There were many opportunities for networking and meeting other employees of the firm. It seems that this is something that the firm puts a lot of emphasis on. We had numerous networking opportunities with each other, or just with junior lawyers, or with partners. There were also many different types of networking opportunities.