Vacation Scheme Student Review

The internship was well-organised with plenty of socials, including a day trip to the Paris office of the firm and presentations from different departments within the firm. There was always organised almost every day so the interns themselves would meet and it would break up the day ensuring one did not feel tied to their desk. All-in-all, a very enjoyable internship.

Colleagues were appreciative of any efforts you contributed to a task allocated to you even if you were not able to complete it. Throughout the internship, you were assigned a buddy who kept in touch, attended socials and arranged a lunch. Partners attended a partner lunch and were approachable and all too happy to answer questions. The envrionment was colleagiate and transparent, one felt like part of a team.

The supervisor would ensure you had work daily and pointed you in the right direction. Many of the tasks were research-based and interns were given a lot of responsibility to use their own initiative so though you had someone to call upon if you had any questions, the expectation was you would try to complete the task independently. All deadlines were internal and subject to negotiation and your supervisor was generally understanding if something else was planned in the day.

How busy you were really depended on how proactive you were in seeking work and which department you sat in. Insurance was particularly busy and I was never bored. IP was a much smaller department with less work but upon moving to a Partner's office, I found much more work coming my way in the form of a ProBono project. Bearing in mind the internship was in August with many members of staff on holiday across the bank holiday weekend and beyond, I would say I was busy enough, though could have been busier.

Lots of responsibility was given to interns and the general consensus amongst the interns were they were given genuine work, instead of arbitrary research tasks.

I learnt how to take direction from senior members of a law firm and the importance of organising your time efficiently. The skills are invaluable and will assist me not only in my final year at University but crucially when I embark on my career as a commercial lawyer, whether it be at Mayer Brown or elsewhere.

The Insurance department was described by a key member of the team as quite serious. As a top tier department, the nature of the deals were high profile and required a lot of hours to be invested in them and so understandably there was far less time for socialising. In contrast, IP was not as busy so there were often chats in the corridor or people in the team would stop by your office and chat. Once again, the atmosphere of the office was really department-specific.

Please see answer to first question of the questionnaire.

The firm ensured they arrnaged a visit to Kaplan law school and gave a talk on the training and development a trainee at Mayer Brown can expect to receive, One was left knowing what personal training and development would entail in the future.

The firm is going through difficult times with retention rates dropping and limited vacancies in departments. Many trainees spoke of not getting their first choice seat upon qualification or having to leave. There have been recent departures of key partners but the firm insists when the training contract commences in 2014, economic conditions and future employment prospects will be stronger.

Yes, everyone saw each daily, arranged lunch and coffee breaks and after-work socials together.

Expensive, it's London afterall but everything was paid for by Mayer Brown. For example, when we were taken to Borough Market for lunch, graduate recruitment gave each intern £10 to spend on lunch of their choice.

I did not have the opportunity to attend any nightlife socials though, from experience, the nightlife in London is the best in England!

The internship included an off-site cricket match and the interns themselves very often arranged lunch or after-work events outside the office.