Vacation scheme Review

The internship at DLA Piper was a thoroughly engaging experience. I was able to learn a lot about not only the business but the commercial sector in general. Every member of staff was willing to support you. At the start of the week the group project on the scheme felt a little overwhelming but with the help of your buddy and other members of your group you are able to create something you are proud of.

DLA Piper at every point of the scheme tried to make it as personal as possible and continuously emphasised how much they wanted to get to knows us. Whilst this was a bit difficult online they did still manage to make the scheme feel personal.

I was given a lot of support on this programme - one from being given a buddy who was outstanding and always wanting to help. Another was the opportunity to attend drop-in sessions with trainees to go over any issues we may have had.

I learnt many valuable skills on the scheme. Firstly I became adept at zoom and skype calls, learnt teamwork skills and also with the tasks provided developed my commercial acumen and my ability to logically work through tasks.

the scheme had a good structured that was emailed to us every day. Although sometimes sessions did over run but that was only due to the enthusiasm of the team to want to answer as many of our questions as possible.

The general atmosphere was a lot more casual than I had anticipated. The team sought to put us all at ease and was always very positive in all of their approached

due to the current crisis it was difficult for the firm to be able to invest a lot of training into us as we could not attend their office. However, they did give us tasks that a typical trainee would undertake during my north west interactive session and at the end of this session helpfully went over these tasks with us allowing us to learn a lot.

To a large extent I was able to understand what this would be like as different members of the team spoke about their experiences including trainees who went over what their typical schedule was like.

I was able to learn a lot about the culture of the company which is one of the things I find very attractive about DLA as a firm as they have such a supportive and collaborative culture.

The content was very valuable in this as the team gave me an insight into what the career their is like so I could see if it would be something I would want to do.

I was paid a salary for the week and there was an opportunity to be reimbursed for expenses but I did not incur any

throughout the week we were able to meet a lot of employees who all delivered engaging talks.

the networking opportunities were difficult given the current pandemic but DLA adapted in the best way they could.

we were given a talk about the amazing work that DLA does outside of legal work - this included a wide range of pro bono work as well as different diversity and inclusion initiatives.

I would definitely recommend this experience to a friend as it is an opportunity to learn about both the firm and the sector.