Winter Vacation Scheme at Linklaters

I really enjoyed my time at Linklaters. I felt valued by the firm, and had the opportunity to undertake a wide variety of trainee-like tasks. I had the ability to fully understand and grasp just what working at Linklaters as a trainee is like. Furthermore, we participated in a range of fun socials.

My supervisor was extremely welcoming during my time at the scheme, and made sure that I was well looked after. The ability to chat to my trainee buddy whenever I wanted also helped create a more informal environment. The graduate recruitment team were extremely communicative and responsibe to any questions we had, which helped me feel valued.

We had a trainee buddy, principal, and the graduate recruitment who all gave guidance and support. The level of open communication was great, with events such as anonymous pre-interview and pre-scheme Q&A sessions that allowed us to ask any questions without feeling silly. Sitting in an office with my principal meant there was always someone to ask questions to.

These skills are less useful for a Law Degree but exceptionally important for applying to a training contract!

The insight had the right balance of structure and flexibility. Every day we had at least one talk, whilst there were large groupings of time where we could sit in our work shadowing seats without interruption. This allowed us to interact and form relationships with both our department and other vacation scheme students.

The culture at Linklaters is extremely welcoming, whilst on the whole the office is quite relaxed. As our vacation scheme was over the Winter period, everyone participated in Xmas Jumper Day, and the secretaries on our floor all decorated their bays to be judged through a competition where one of the associates went round and judged the best bay. There was also a secret santa, and an Office Xmas Party.

There was a significant amount of investment, as demonstrated by the amount of partner talks and time that was dedicated to us. In the two week period we also had a talk from both the Firmwide Managing Partner and the Senior Partner of the firm, demonstrating their level of investment.

The depth of work shadowing meant that we had the chance to explore our department fully, and were quite comfortable in our roles at the firm. All the trainees, partners, and associates spoke candidly about their experience at the firm, and their openness was extremely valuable in understanding trainee life.

The work shadowing element was extremely insightful in understanding the company culture, as it gave us the opportunity to explore how the firm's targets look like in practice. The talks also conveyed a very strong insistence on areas such as diversity, inclusion, pro bono, and innovation. These were definitely depicted in practice.

The scheme was very useful in deciding my future career path, as I am now set on corporate law.

We were paid £450 per week, for the two week scheme.

Every day was a new opportunity to network and meet more employees. As well as a few socials involving partners and trainees, on the very first day you are given a tour of your department where you introduce yourself to everyone in the office. They also urged us to go out and meet new people

We had numerous drinks and dinner socials, as well as a trip to the Theatre. We watched a show called the Ocean at the End of the Lane, which was much better than I initially expected. We had a private room with snacks and drinks. We also attended a networking dinner with partners, which gave us the chance to explore other practice areas.

I didn't really enquire into other activities, except for the BAME group which held a christmas lunch.

I would recommend this insight to a friend or for anyone considering commercial law. It presented a very real outlook into the industry at one of the market-leading firms in London. Everyone was extremely friendly and any question would have been positively answered by those that work at the firm.