Vacation Scheme Student Review

Linklaters is a fantastic place to gain real, first-hand experience of city law work in a vibrant, diverse and cutting-edge business. Everyone I was on the scheme with had a truly positive experience, and had a lot of fun.

Supervisors and trainees, as well as other lawyers, were always keen to chat, or to give work - just occasionally you will find someone is just too busy, but by knocking on doors and talking to people I was always able to find something to do.

The supervisors I had were both fantastic, involving me in their work wherever possible, introducing my to everyone else in the group, making sure I had enough to do, making sure I could do it and everyone gave very honest and constructive feedback which I can put to good use in the future (there is a structured system of appraisals which is incredibly useful).

There were occasions on which I had little to do, but the combination of (mostly) being able to find work from people and the number of lectures/activities/socials put on by Graduate Recruitment mean you are never bored for hours on end.

The level of responsibility is actually quite staggering - of course I was doing due diligence, filing, printing and other mundane tasks at times (but these are what all trainees have to do) but the amount of 'real' work I did was amazing, helping out on deals, even emailing clients - if you want the work, are enthusiastic and show your supervisor you are willing to learn and can deliver a workable end product, you will certainly get more than enough responsibility for a vacation student.

Both professionally, and personally, the skills you develop, the people you meet, the things you do and learn will benefit anyone for life (even if they eventually decide a different career is for them) and it is certainly the case that for anyone wanting to work in City law, they are a prerequisite - so a vacation scheme at a place like Linklaters is an invaluable asset and a rewarding process.

Occasionally tired or overburdened associates, but very friendly, collegiate atmosphere, with surprisingly small work teams for such a big firm - everyone willing to help out each other and work together to get deals done.

Faultless - the supervisors and trainees are well-briefed, the Grad Recruitment team is the best I have seen and the timetable you are running for the duration is the perfect balance of timetabled sessions, and 'on the job' hours.

Their time, money and effort so clearly went into this - from the two weeks' office space and work efficiency supervisors give up, to the great mix of (often expensive) social events and those who give their time to give lectures and presentations, the investment in vacation students is maximal (but of course, since they really think you are the future, this is to be expected, and the fact Linklaters see it as the start of your potential career really shows).

The best employment (and particularly the best training) anyone could wish to have in City law.

Numbers are very healthy (around 35 per scheme) which makes the atmosphere great, and there was much time to spend with each other and plenty to do.

I did not have to pay for accommodation due to personal circumstances (this can be expensive) but the restaurant is very cheap and Linklaters pays for so many evenings out that you might not need to spend much at all! If you do go out (and many groups of schemers do) you may run up a substantial bill in a night, but that's London!

I'm not a fan of nightclubs myself, but London is your Oyster (in terms of transport and nightlife) so there'll never be a problem finding places to go out.

Community Investment days (gardening!), sports matches (vac schemers v trainees football), plenty of organised socials, loads of free evening time, summer parties and more - so much to do outside of work.