Vacation Scheme Student Review

Everyone I worked with was very friendly and I had a wide variety of work.

People came into my office regularly to check how I was getting on.

The trainee and partner mentor scheme worked really well - my office was opposite my two mentors. I was also sat with an associate so I had plenty of people to ask if I wasn't sure what to do.

We had a negotiation skills training course which was excellent; also within my department I got to know much more about IP law.

I always had enough to do that I wasn't bored, but work wasn't forced on me if I was already looking busy!

Everyone in the department got on really well and often went to lunch together. As a whole the office genuinely did seem young and innovative, giving everyone lots of training and responsibility. All the trainees I met were confident and really keen to stay on at the firm.

We had daily talks about each department and commercial awareness/negotiation skills training. In my department my mentors ensured I had a wide range of work and experiences - so some days I was in court, others I was doing research to improve my IP knowledge.

I did do some bibling, filing and copying tasks, but these were all in the context of explaining what was going on in current cases that the firm was advising on. I also had bigger tasks such as gathering web evidence on an IP case, and typing up recorded telephone conversations for evidence.

It was great to see how well everyone got on - I particularly liked the roof terrace where lots of people would meet up to have lunch together.

My mentors ensured that I had a wide variety of work within the department; however it may have been good to get an insight into more than one department because being in IP my experience was possibly quite niche.

We were paid weekly £300.

There were several events organised by the firm - my favourite was a sushi making course on the first night.

Everyone got on really well, but as lots of us were commuting we often didn't stay out late.

Many of us went to socials that were not part of the vacation scheme but were for trainees; we were also invited to participate in sports activities.

My experience of the work was that it was very similar to that of a trainee. I was given a lot of responsibility and a wide range of clients and cases to deal with.