Vacation Placement Student Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Pinsent Masons. From day one everyone at the firm made a conscious effort to make the placement students feel welcome and at home.

I got the impression throughout that those within the firm genuinely wanted us to work for them in the future. It was not a case of us trying to impress them all the time, in fact quite the contrary.

I had a trainee buddy who I dealt with most of the time. He emailed me a week prior to my start date to introduce himself and let me know what I'll be doing at the firm. I also was assigned a supervisor, who was a senior associate. The 3 of us met regularly to discuss my progress which was a good way for me to ensure I was going about my work in the correct manner.

I'll return to university in September with a much better understanding of how the law genuinely works in the real world. I also have an enhanced understanding of how the firm deals with clients and other firms. Working at Pinsent Masons has helped me feel more confident when speaking to those at a more senior level than myself, which will definitely help me moving forward.

Very well structured. We received a timetable on the first day and it was stuck to for the full duration of my placement. This was very useful as I always knew where to be and what was expected of me.

Really great. I dealt with the trainees a lot, both around the office and at social events, and they all made an effort to make me feel comfortable at the firm. Beyond that, everyone I met was very approachable and friendly, always willing to help with any problems I had.

While there wasn't any formal training (apart from IT etc), I feel the firm invested a lot of time and money into ensuring that the placement students enjoyed the experience. The daily practice presentations allowed me to understand more about what individual lawyers do on a daily basis, and new practice areas of interest to me.

Very much so. The work I was given was that which a trainee solicitor would generally do. Also working alongside my trainee buddy allowed me to study how they worked and what their role involves on a daily basis.

On the first day, there was a lot of talk about the firm's core values. These are easy to dismiss, as it seems that every firm boasts impressive attributes when applying for roles. But at Pinsent Masons it's truly the case that their values resonate throughout the firm. Everyone is very approachable and it comes across as though they really want to help you progress as an individual as well as a lawyer.

Very valuable, left me in no doubt that I wish to pursue a career in commercial law.

The salary offered by Pinsent Masons was higher than that offered by any other firms I came across.

Yes, the aforementioned practice presentations gave us the opportunity to have informal discussions with people on all levels of seniority. They also allowed me to map out who's who within the firm, which would've been difficult otherwise. Office drinks were offered on the Friday of the second week, which was an ideal way of getting to know employees in a casual environment.

Really good. The trainees took us to a comedy club in week 1 and bowling/out for dinner in week 3. These were really good ways of getting to know the trainees, all of whom were fantastic and very helpful, as well as to build relationships outside of the workplace. We also had lunches with partners and trainees, a secondment lunch, office drinks and the opportunity to attend talks within the firm.

Yes, the firm does a lot in relation to corporate responsibility, such as hosting netball lessons and painting walls at local schools, which they encourage everyone to get involved in. They run programmes such as "Partnering local communities" and "Starfish" which we received talks on. There are also some sports teams and societies. It was relatively difficult to get involved with these in the short time I had at the firm but adequate information was provided on them.

Yes, absolutely.