Vacation Scheme Review

It was very enjoyable. The work was challenging, highly commercial, and rather technical - it was therefore very interesting but upon developing an understanding of the work it became genuinely enjoyable. The socials were also enjoyable, and everybody was welcoming and friendly. In short, both whilst working during work hours and during events outside of work hours, the experience was very enjoyable.

I felt really quite valued. I was given responsibility on real, live work that the firm was carrying out for clients - my abilities were trusted. I was also thanked invariably by whoever shared their work with me. My trainer and others were also very ready to provide constructive, positive feedback and development points for improvement. The open-door culture makes a genuine difference. The Graduate Recruitment team and HR team had clearly made a great effort to get to know us as vacation scheme students, and to help introduce us to the firm, its work, and its wider opportunities.

I received a great deal of support. My trainer and other lawyers at the firm were always willing to explain technical and commercial complexities to me and often provided useful insights and guidance. The Graduate Recruitment team's efforts were also very significant. From giving us ipads for the course of the scheme and developing an App to help us navigate the firm and the opportunities that arise during the scheme, to introducing us to particular contacts relevant to our individual legal and wider interests, the effort that everybody had made to provide support was clearly a substantial one.

I have already graduated but the insights I gained and the work that I undertook, provided me with an invaluable insight into my chosen career path. I had also received wider insights and guidance into the particular nature of the unique professional requirements of an international commercial lawyer, which will also prove invaluable.

The insight was very well structured. The first day provided a number of events which were all a great way of introducing us to the firm. There were business development exercises which were enjoyable and informative, as well as very useful talks from partners and recruiters. The scheme had a number of very useful talks on matters ranging from pro bono opportunities, to features of successful pitches, to honing public speaking skills. I also thought that the ratio of time spent at events/socials to time spent in the office, was perfect.

The atmosphere was exceptionally positive. The open-door policy was very clear - everybody was welcoming and friendly and showed a genuine interest in me personally. This feeling was echoed by my fellow vacation scheme students. Everybody, in every role within the firm, at all levels of seniority was just as easy to get on with.

I was invested in greatly. I was trusted to carry out live work for real clients and in doing so, I learned a huge amount very quickly. There were also business development games, talks, pitch exercises and other opportunities, that the firm provides to even its most senior members. I felt that these were invaluable training and development opportunities.

The experience gave me a very good understanding of what it would be like to be a trainee lawyer at the firm. Such is the calibre of the work that the firm does that most of it is extremely interesting. But my trainer, and the firm generally made sure that I was given as realistic of an insight as possible, into trainee work. This meant that I had a bit of the more mundane tasks to carry out on live work - but it is important to appreciate how necessary and important these bits of work are. Colleagues were also generally keen to give me an honest reflection of life at the firm and made no attempt to pretend that everything is perfect at all times.

I gained a very good insight into the firm's culture. As I have mentioned in other comments, everybody, regardless of their role within the firm, and regardless of their seniority, was highly welcoming, friendly, and approachable. This pervades the firm. The firm interacted with its own full-time staff in exactly the same way that it interacted with me.

The content of the vacation scheme further cemented my ambition to pursue a career in international commercial law, as well as further refining it in terms of the type of international commercial law firm that I wish to pursue a career at.

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There were plenty of networking events. They ranged from talks about various aspects of the firm's work, to dinners at luxury hotels, to casual lunches, to speed-networking practice area fairs. In my particular seat to I was encouraged to seek out a variety of work from different people, and upon doing so I can see how positively this affected my experience.

(see other comments)

The firm made an active effort to offer us a great deal of exposure to the wider opportunities at the firm. They range from sporting, musical, social, and also support networks and the firm provided us with a list of useful contacts either in a section on the vacation scheme app or made a particular effort to seek out contacts of particular interest to us and introduce us to each other. The wider facilities at the firm, such as its gym, its therapy rooms, its musical recording rooms, and its restaurants are also exceptional.

I would absolutely recommend this insight to a friend.