Vacation Schemer Review

People were friendly, work was varied. To some extent, you were required to "make your own" placement by approaching partners and associates for work, which was generally well received. I felt genuinely able to approach senior members of the departments for work, which meant that I got quite involved. However, you should not expect to be spoon fed or even given clear direction of what's expected of you - it definitely felt like an audition in that respect, which I guess it was.

HR were brilliant. The departments varied in whether it seemed really important to impress you or conversely whether you were simply in the way. My own experiences were generally positive but the stories from other vacation schemers differed depending on department, supervisor and courage of the trainee to join in. The current trainees ran a committee which put on events to help with networking, which was a nice touch.

This is one of the weaker areas for the vacation scheme. You really were expected to stand on your own to feet and shout out for work, usually from busy solicitors who didn't often give you feedback until the end of the week due to tasking. That's not necessarily bad - you want to work for a firm that has a lot of business, right? - but don't expect people to give you much guidance or support as they simply don't have the spare capacity to do it without compromising their work. That said, you were assigned a "trainee buddy" who could give you all sorts of low-level tips and advice to help you find meaningful work to do. Mine were fantastic.

I'm not sure it will assist me in my final year of my law degree, seems unlikely. However, a lot of the stuff picked up from the current trainees during lunch breaks and the socials felt like it would be useful in the LPC, so there was definitely a lot of educational value to be had here.

The structure of the scheme was well considered; there was always something structured to fit in with the day to help gain an insight into the other departments. Vacation schemers were given two "seats" - one in each week - to bed in to a department. This was particularly good for getting you some meaningful work, as you had time to build rapport with the fee earners, which meant that the quality of the work increased over the course of each week. There was also a group task, which took as little or as much time as your team felt necessary. You were encouraged to fit in appointments within your diaries to meet up and work on this throughout the week but there was structured time set aside to ensure that this could happen.

The other vacation schemers generally bonded quite well. The trainees were really good at mixing with us and could be quite candid about their experiences; invariably however they enjoyed their training contracts. This led to an overall positive atmosphere, even though some of the tasks (and the knowledge that this was an assessment) did add an element of pressure to the scheme. On the whole, the general atmosphere was pretty positive. I didn't experience any of the cut-throat competition I expected.

The teams were quite busy and it really was a case of "sink or swim". There were end-of-seat appraisals each week but unless you went out of your way to chase up what happened with cases you had worked on you didn't receive any development per se. Certainly, coaching did not seem to feature on my vacation scheme.

There was the opportunity to access a lot of behind-the-scenes tasks during the scheme, provided you were practive and identified them. This meant that I felt that I had a better grasp of the day-to-day business than just the work expected of me, which was a plus. Potential future vacation schemers should also expect to witness quite a high tempo of work at the firm, which by all accounts was pretty normal.

One of the big things that struck me is how the firm genuinely values cheerfulness as a key attribute of its employees. I didn't meet many withdrawn, aggressive or demoralised people (although I did look for some... you can't get a decent picture of an organisation just by speaking to the happy people) which suggests that the overall morale of staff was a consideration for the partners and the management.

Exceptionally valuable. For the sake of this being an anonymous review I won't say what I have decided on but I would definitely recommend applying for the summer scheme if there is even the smallest of doubts in your mind about what to do after university, whether looking at law careers or looking to choose between law careers. The breadth of areas covered in the "focus on" sessions was also greater than I had anticipated, even though I was aware that this is a "full service" law firm (well, most firms claim to be "full service" but these guys actually seem to be).

Yes, this was a paid placement. Don't expect to make money from it, it's a scheme in London, but the pay was pretty good considering that it was effectively an interview. The socials arranged by the trainees were also free, so you should definitely take full advantage if you secure a placement on a future scheme.

The firm is proud of its inclusivity and open-door policy, so even outside of "networking events" it was easy to approach people in different departments for a couple of minutes of introduction, which was usually well received. Within the seats, people did make an effort to introduce themselves to you and to introduce you to their colleagues.

The trainee-delivered socials have already been mentioned. These took the form of some low-energy activity (in our case, darts and tapas) with a couple of sociable drinks outside of the office area. This kept things informal and allowed the trainees to be honest about their experiences, which seemed to be generally positive. There were also formal networking events: two drinks receptions and an end-of-scheme lunch. The fee earners who attended these were easy to approach and made an effort themselves to meet everyone, which was great when you're new to networking.

We were formally told in the opening presentation about other activities outside of work. Each department also made an effort to explain that there was a social aspect of life at the firm, which was nice. However, I was not able to see any of these myself. That said, one of the vacation schemers was taken on a dragon boat race.

Not many of my friends are interested in a career as a solicitor, so technically "no". However, if any of them were interested or even curious about what a solicitor does in the big city, I would recommend this vacation scheme to them, without a doubt. I certainly enjoyed it and it was invaluable to future planning.