Vacation Scheme Student Review

I had a fantastic experience on my two week vacation scheme at Allen & Overy. It served as a great introduction to the firm and its people, and I found that everyone was interesting and had a lot to talk about (both the vacation scheme students and A&O people). Would encourage anyone who is interested in a large, commercial and international firm, and likes the idea of working in a friendly environment, to apply,

We were really well looked after by the graduate recruitment team who put a huge amount of effort into making us feel welcome. Obviously there is a limit to what you can do without any law training (I am a non-law student) but still I found that the assignments I was set were interesting and gave me an insight into what it is that people actually do.

My trainer gave me a lot of his time helping to explain the tasks he set and going through them afterwards, which I really appreciated. The graduate recruitment team were very supportive- super responsive and happy to answer even very trivial queries (such as room booking). We also had a vacation scheme app with lots of useful information on, and in general when reaching out to people I got a great response (for example, in preparing for our client pitch).

I think it will help a lot in terms of the better understanding of commercial law I've gained and definitely I have a much improved idea of what the different practice areas involve than I did before. They don't assume that you know what practice area you'd like to go into, so put on a practice area fair where you can talk to people from the different practice areas which is really helpful.

As a whole I think the scheme was very well organised. The vacation scheme app meant that timetable/seat plan information was well communicated and you knew where you were in the scheme of things at all times. It was nice having talks or events as a group, as it was a chance to catch up on what different people had been doing in their offices.

Overall a great atmosphere. I actually didn't speak to anyone that I didn't get on with, and everyone was super supportive of the other people on the scheme. Obviously everyone wanted to do their best, but it wasn't a competitive or 'one-upmanship' atmosphere at all which I really appreciated.

We had several different sessions aimed specifically at this-a presentation skills session, pro bono session, and client pitch advice session. These were all really helpful. The presentation skill session in particular was outstanding, probably the most useful one I've been to with clear advice and solutions to common problems.

The main thing that I didn't experience was the hours- we had a 9.30 to 5.30 day and whilst most days I was back much later, this was more due to evening socials than staying late to work. However the work I was doing seemed relevant, and the gym, restaurants and bar were all open to us so we experienced the offices well I thought.

Allen & Overy seems to have a great company culture, with everyone I spoke to very happy working there and getting along well with the people they worked with. The bar was packed on Friday evening and there are a number of outside of work groups- sports teams, women's networks etc. that seem well frequented.

For me the scheme confirmed that commercial law is what I want to do so in this sense it was very valuable! I think that the number of opportunities that remain open to you were well presented as well as the quality of the training that people receive. The emphasis on commercial awareness boils down into some seemingly very useful business training.

The graduate recruitment team encouraged us to go out and ask people questions, and said they were happy to arrange coffees with people and that kind of thing. The practice area fair was a clear opportunity for meeting other employees, as was the trainee buddy scheme and social. Someone even had someone from a different department reach out to them as they did similar (non-law) subjects at uni!

I really enjoyed the social events we had. The food at the office is generally of a pretty high standard so that definitely contributed! I also think people were keen to chat to each other which made the events fun. The trainee social ended quite early as people had to get back to the office, but I don't think anything could really have been done about that.

Yes for sure. There seem to be a large number of sports teams but I myself didn't get involved in any sports over the two weeks. The gym is by all accounts pretty big and good though. There was quite a bit of promotion of different diversity networks like A&Out and women's networks which was good. It seems like despite the long hours people are still keen to get involved outside of work with Allen & Overy things!

Definitely. Its been such a good experience and I've met some great people who I've had a lot in common with. For me its firmed up that this is what I want to be doing, which is so helpful as knowing what it is you want to do is half the battle! We were so well looked after over the scheme and I didn't encounter a hyper-competitive atmosphere or have to work crazy hours which are some of the horror stories you hear about city internships.