Virtual Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed the virtual experience and found the experience to be very engaging. At no point did I feel bored or did it feel repetitive. I think Grad Rec did a great job at adapting the normal Summer Internship format to a virtual one. There were a variety of sessions to get involved in which made it such an enjoyable experience.

Everyone at DLA Piper who we had interactions with (grad rec, trainees, associates, senior associates, partners, office managing partners and the CEO) were so welcoming towards all of us interns and made us feel part of the firm, despite not physically being in the DLA Piper office. I definitely felt valued.

Grad Rec were great and we knew the they were only an email or phone call away if we had any difficulties. The welcome everyday by [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] made everyone feel very supported and at no point did I feel unsure of the structure of the day as this was emailed to us the day prior.

The information provided will help me when it comes to making career decisions in the future. Experts at the firm shared their tips as to what has helped them get to their current positions. I will certainly use their advice and put it into practice when I begin my legal career.

The virtual experience was very well structured. Not only did we receive a physical itinerary of the programme in the post, we also received emails the evening prior to inform us of the structure for the next day. The Zoom calls worked extremely seamlessly with little to no technical difficulties.

The general atmosphere was great. [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] energy is amazing and she helped set a brilliant atmosphere for the experience. Other interns also contributed to the great atmosphere and made the experience so enjoyable and I can definitely say that I have made lasting virtual friends that I will stay in touch with.

The virtual experience enabled us to become very well informed as to what a permanent role at DLA Piper would look like. Talks from lawyers from the firm assisted with this. We were also given lots of details about the specific training programme that DLA Piper offers that made it easy to understand what being a trainee at DLA Piper would be like.

Everyone we met and had interactions with were so down to earth and friendly and were a testament to DLA Piper's culture. It was very clear that DLA Piper is an inclusive firm that doesn't seek to recruit people who fit any particular mould and that they welcome everyone from all backgrounds.

We were paid £400 for the week long experience. This is due to be paid in a few weeks time. The original programme was supposed to be £400 per week for the 3 weeks but it makes sense and was very fair to alter this in light of the experience being shortened.

I particularly enjoyed the speed networking event that was organised on Zoom where we rotated different meeting rooms and were able to ask any questions to a range of staff (trainees, associates, senior associates and partners). The general talks resulted in lots of interns wanting to ask questions and not enough time to cover them all so the networking event enabled more question asking opportunities which I appreciated.

The trainees organised a virtual quiz on the first day of the Internship which was really enjoyed by all and enabled us to get to know other intern on the programme. Grad recruitment were especially kind in giving us a £25 voucher for Just Eat so that we could eat a takeaway while participating in the quiz so it was very clear that they really did care about us.

Yes. Many speakers talked to us about sports teams, choirs and music lessons etc. They made it very clear that if you have an interest, you are able to take it as far as you would like and set up a group for this interest. They also informed us about the DLA Piper facilities that you would be able to use such as the gym.

I would definitely recommend this virtual experience to a friend because I genuinely enjoyed myself and had fun. It was extremely well organised and structured. I learnt a lot about the firm while also enjoying myself. It is clear that the grad rec team put a lot of effort into this programme and that they were successful in adapting their internship to an online experience.