Summer Vacation Scheme Candidate Review

The vacation scheme was extremely enjoyable but equally challenging. I had the opportunity to assist fee earners with a range of research, drafting and other essential legal tasks for a variety of clients in both Banking and Disputes. I attended a number of presentations which informed me about Dentons strategy and the developments taking shape across the firm, as well as enjoying social events and getting to know people and their motivations for joining the firm.

I learnt how to draft agreements in the Banking space that I had not previously dealt with and engaged in research tasks on exciting areas of sanctions law that were still in development. Being in the office and taking on a range of tasks was perfect for developing my communication and organisational skills and helped further my understanding of what it takes to be a commercial lawyer.

As the vacation scheme was specific for securing a training contract with Dentons, the firm did a brilliant job at informing me on what the firm values and what it would be like to undertake the training. Presentations were delivered on all aspects of the business including strategy, pro bono, innovation and the SQE.

The company culture was very sociable and transparent and the general atmosphere from my own experience and through speaking with those within the firm was that everyone is extremely supportive and take great care in understanding your preferences for the type of work you would like to be involved in and your wider career development very early on.

I really enjoyed my vacation scheme experience because it was structured in a way that allowed me to balance a range of tasks I was expected to complete, accompany fee earners to client meetings, attend presentations to further my understanding of Dentons as a business and enjoy all of the social/networking events that took place.

Yes

As the firm is so friendly, approachable and vast, I would recommend reaching out to people on LinkedIn to understand their motivations for joining or remaining at the firm. It would be useful to maintain this correspondence throughout the application process as you might even work alongside or have the opportunity to meet these people as part of the vacation scheme. If you have previous legal experience, I would recommend leveraging this early on throughout the application process as a way to demonstrate that you have developed some of the necessary skills of a commercial lawyer. I also found this useful going into the vacation scheme as I was then entrusted with more complex client work, which also was a great learning experience for me.