Summer Intern (COVID-adapted) Review

The insight was of a reduced length due to COVID-19 but I genuinely loved every moment of it! I got to meet a wide variety of people across the firm, including some of the most senior staff, as well as many other interns. It definitely exceeded my expectations given that Grad Rec had to change the programme to suit virtual life.

I felt so valued!! From the onset, the firm showed that it was mindful of the fact that doing a virtual Internship wasn't ideal and so they were really taking care of this aspect when planning the sessions. They made sure we got the right level of engagement with people from the firm, including the Global Managing Partner, UK Managing Partner, Head of Corporate, Manchester OTP/OMP.

A LOT! Grad Rec were always on hand if we had any issues (really useful given that technology isn't always the most reliable) and we were all assigned a trainee buddy who was our personal point of contact for anything we needed help on during the week. When we were doing our task work, the firm organised trainee drop in sessions which were run for over 4 hours which was really nice of them.

I don't think the insight supports my degree but it definitely supports my career ambitions as I got to experience the sorts of work trainees would do on their training contracts, and it was fair to say these tasks were challenging!. This includes presentation skills, communication skills, and general commercial knowledge about what makes a good trainee.

DLA Piper should win an award for their time-management and organisation of their programmes. We were all sent a brochure detailing timings for sessions and these times were stuck to. There were well-planned breaks and lunches too. There was also a great deal of flexibility too when it came to doing the presentations. Every day we would be emailed with the details/prep needed for the next day.

It was lovely and really wholesome! Grad Rec were lovely and supportive, and everyone was super collaborative in all the group tasks we did. DLA really does speak true to its values and this is reflected in even the Interns. The trainee quiz on the first day definitely left a good impression!

I think this is difficult to answer in terms of the virtual scheme but most of the talks we had all touched on skills and how to excel as a corporate lawyer, not just at DLA but in the wider legal profession too.

Again, this is difficult to answer due to the virtual nature of the scheme but to the extent that I can answer this in terms of the tasks that I did and the level of engagement with trainees, I'd say I got a pretty accurate image of what it is like to be a trainee at DLA and the sorts of opportunities id have.

A LOT! DLA Piper is so so true to its values that these were echoed in every task, every talk, every presentation we had. With the scheme being virtual, i think they paid a special focus on ensuring that we were able to understand what DLA stands for the and the culture of the firm.

VERY VALUABLE. Being able to do tasks that replicate the work done by fee-earners is invaluable in understanding what makes a corporate lawyer. I definitely know that I want to follow this route and due to the diversity of the work, I also got an idea of what practice areas I want to work in too.

*I was paid competitively for the week's experience which was exceptionally generous *On Monday, for during the trainee quiz we were given a food voucher to spend *On Friday, for a celebratory lunch with fellow interns we were given another generous food voucher to spend The level of reimbursement would obviously be higher if we were in the office but given the circumstances it was still very generous

*talks with senior members of the firm *trainee quiz *trainee buddy *trainee drop in *office-specific sessions *group tasks with different members of the firm *if you wanted to get more information from different employees at the firm, you could ask your trainee buddy to organise a call for you e.g. if you wanted to network with someone who worked in aviation

STELLAR

This was alluded to in most of the sessions, especially those in which were run by trainees. They spoke about the different employee networks and the social networks too which include sports, choirs, pre-TC opportunities etc. They also do a lot of pro-bono and all members of the firm are encouraged to get involved with this.

YES.