Vacation Scheme Student Review

I really enjoyed the opportunity to gain an insight into the work and office culture of a major London city law firm. Such a career after university as a law graduate is obviously on anyone's radar, so gaining this experience was vital to my decision making process. Being embedded in a department with a trainee buddy and associate supervisor as instant points of contact ensured swift integration into the team and access to work on high level deals from people across the department. The socials meanwhile provided an opportunity to get to know the lawyers on a more personal level. Knowing that you will like your future colleagues is vital when you may have to spend upwards of 10 hours per day with them. CMS catered to this need for information excellently. However, the work by and large was simple and a little menial - understandable given that most were not yet legally qualified and a large part of the lawyer's job is drafting and contracts, but still a little unengaging. Fortunately, small gems of interesting, intellectually stimulating work did appear occasionally over the two weeks.

As a vacation scheme student, it was inevitable that I would never fully feel like part of the team, being present for such a short space of time and doing the simple work to take the load off of some of the trainees. However, my colleagues did an excellent job of making me feel like I was contributing at least something of value. I don't think they could have done any more to make me feel welcome short of throwing me a welcoming party, and it was simply the time frame and nature of my job that held me back.

There was little to no formal guidance and support in the form of any classes or workshops to develop skills. However, I think allowing us to learn on the job and ask our buddy or supervisor for advice was exactly the right way for support to be provided. We attended the scheme looking to gain an insight into the daily work of a commercial lawyer, not someone attending interminable classes on drafting etc. Being left to your won devices with a safety net there in case it all went wrong was perfect to that end.

Attending the scheme has definitely developed my formal letter writing skills and eye for detail when reading and writing quickly. These are obviously valuable skills. However, the two weeks are about knowledge of the profession, not developing ability, so no one should attend expecting a masterclass in practical commercial lawyering. That's what the GDL and LPC are for,

The insight struck a perfect balance between being structured and allowing us to find our own feet and root out real work in our departments independently. To gain a real insight, there has to be a sufficiently natural atmosphere in the office for the intern, and work has to be given organically, not manufactured especially. Excessive structure would have detracted from that, although occasional quiet spells left some interns twiddling their thumbs. At the same time, regular talks from partners in different firm departments and opportunities to meet up and talk over our experiences at socials ensured that everybody took away certain crucial things from the experience.

Very much work-like. Lots of camaraderie and teamwork, but obviously an awful lot of work to do, which could bore anyone on occasion

The firm ran some information talks on different practice areas, and one talk on presentation skills which was useful for the group presentation we gave at the end of the two weeks. However, the intention is very clearly to give an insight into commercial law rather than to provide a masterclass in the skills necessary to succeeding in that profession, so no one should expect a great deal of training or any special classes. You learn on the job with advice from the people you're working with.

In terms of demonstrating the firm's office culture, what it's like to work with the people there, and the calibre of deals and clients that you would be involved in, the insight is fantastic. However, I don't think the work you will do is representative of all the work that a lawyer there does, simply because of the lack of applied law. Your tasks during the two weeks should be taken with a pinch of salt, as mine mostly consisted of letter drafting, document checking, and form filling, and you should take every opportunity to ask people practising there what their roles are like day to day.

Being completely immersed in the firm for two weeks, working closely with four or five lawyers during that time, and being given regular talks on the work of the firm and their attitude to ethics and corporate social responsibility means I believe I now have a deep understanding of firm culture. The impression I get is of a company full of diligent intelligent people with a global outlook, but who also enjoy getting out of the office and doing something positive there, be that through sport, volunteering, or simply being sociable. The office seems to be almost devoid of negativity, which you might think is surprising in a big City firm as these have a reputation for being workhouses.

The day provided me with an excellent insight into one specific sector within commercial law. I also gained a more limited insight into other sectors through talks by partners. In one sense, the whole insight was not valuable because it didn't confirm for me that commercial law is what I want to do. I didn't discover a burning love of the sector I was in, and I didn't get enough information on other sectors to make a truly informed decision. However, I've taken value by now knowing what I definitely don't want to do, and having enough information to guide future enquiries and narrow my options down.

The firm put on one social per week, and these were attended by employees of the firm. These provided excellent opportunities to meet and network. There was also the chance to ask general questions of partners at the sector talks, which provided another opportunity to meet them in a sense. It was also entirely possible to get into conversation with people I was working with and so get to know more about them and the firm - even in my training contract interview at the end, my interviewer was willing to chat about herself and her career. The emphasis was always on work while in the office, but opportunities to meet and network were well integrated.

Formal opportunities to network were limited, albeit generous in terms of venues and refreshments - one night was a cocktail making class, another was dinner at a fantastic steak restaurant with free drinks. Thus they were a great opportunity both to relax after an intense day and also get to know more about the firm outside the office. In addition, it was easy to create your own networking opportunities simply by meeting people in the office and having a chat. Everyone was very friendly and willing to talk about their career and work, provided they weren't busy.

The firm was very keen to discuss out-of-office activities such as a charity softball event that was being organised. We were also given a talk on the firm's approach to corporate social responsibility, as part of which lawyers are recommended to do 50 hours of volunteering each year as part of their job: be that pro bono legal work, mentoring at a local school, or getting involved in fundraising for an overseas development project that the firm donates to. We weren't bombarded with information about that however, and the focus in the talks was clearly on how their CSR programme is integrated into their business model. The implication is clearly that out of office activities are secondary to work, which is easily understandable in a business.

If that friend was interested in commercial law, absolutely. The insight is well-structured and provides very valuable information to anyone interested in a commercial career, and the firm itself is very friendly and welcoming to vacation scheme students, as well as being a top firm with high quality work and clients and brilliant working conditions. Anyone interested in working in the City could not ask for much more. Perhaps the only downside is that the insight is two weeks instead of three weeks long. More time to fully embed yourself into the team and follow an individual deal for longer would give a better flavour of what working as a City lawyer is really like.