Vacation Scheme Student Review

I throughly enjoyed my time spent at Baker Mckenzie. I was able to experience two of their leading practice areas; Corporate and IP, which was a unique and valuable experience. More importantly, I networked with a variety of people at the firm from Partners, associates, HR, support staff and paralegals. This gave a greater insight into the working culture of the firm.

I always felt well valued during my time at Baker McKenzie. I felt the work I was doing was interesting and important. It was also great that partners, associates and trainees all took time to speak with and get to know people on the vacation scheme. This made made the scheme feel more like an accurate representation of what being a trainee at the firm is like.

I always felt well supported and my supervisors carefully guided me through my work. Prior to any work, I was assigned, my trainee went over the context and where exactly the work I was doing fit into the grand scheme of things. Also, we were the opportunity to ask trainees about their training contract experience and how it has shaped their choices in what department they would like to qualify in.

I gained a better understanding of the skills required in corporate law, and have tried to integrate them into my university work. I have definitely found that the research I did in the Intellectual Property department to be helpful as I am studying Introduction to Intellectual Property in my final year. Similarly, witnessing how the advisory side of employment law works has been helpful in giving my employment law revision more practical context.

I found the vacation scheme to be very well structured. There were enough presentations, workshops, panel discussions during the day to keep me busy but not too much so that my work at the department was not impeded. We were given a clear itinerary with timings as to each talk and the individual running each session, which helped us research beforehand in asking pertinent questions.

The atmosphere in the firm is generally quite exciting, you can tell that the people are passionate about what they do and it comes across. There was no competitive atmosphere between other people on the scheme, and everyone was really friendly, both in graduate recruitment, people working at the firm and the other vacation schemers.

Baker McKenzie invested a great deal into our personal development and training. The firm organised a full day of training in using the IT system / library resources so that we maximized our time in each department. We were also given 2 hours of coaching on how to present in preparation for our group assessment in the second week.

This scheme was very useful in understanding what it would be like to have a full time role. The two weeks have helped me to understand the realities and the necessary skills to be a successful commercial lawyer. Having been to put different departments I was able to understand how certain departments work more closely with another in a transactional seat compared to a more technical advisory seat.

The vacation scheme helped me to gain a much better understanding of the firm's culture. We had sessions on the diversity and corporate social responsibility initiatives at the firm, and I even had the chance to attend a corporate social responsibility event. It was great also to see the collegial and friendly culture come through in how different people at the firm worked together and through the general atmosphere.

The two-week scheme was very insightful as it has reaffirmed the areas of law I would like to experience and hopefully specialize in. It also helped me understand the necessary skills needed to be successful in my chosen field, especially in corporate having commercial acumen is vital in understanding your clients business.

I was paid for my time spent at Baker McKenzie, which I used to pay for travel and accommodation costs.

There many networking opportuntities throughout the scheme to meet and socialise with your intake and learn more about partners and associates journey within the firm. There was a range of social events which included lunches, dinners and drinks.

The networking and social events were great - we had the chance to talk with trainees about what it's like to work at the firm day to day which was really helpful in generating a true picture of what the firm is actually like. We also were able to meet partners at the welcome drinks, who were extremely approachable.

Yes, I found out about various activities that employees can get involved in outside of work.

Yes, I would absolutely recommend this vacation scheme to a friend.