Student Review

I really enjoyed my time with the firm. Everyone was friendly and supportive and it didn't feel like any was assessing you or trying to catch you out. I felt welcome and valued the whole time and the grad rec team did an amazing job of making us feel comfortable. The range of different work I got involved with was brilliant, including a court trip and some interesting calls I was able to sit in on.

No-one made me feel like I was annoying them when I went around looking for work to get involved with. In face, a lot of people came to me with offers of joining them on calls or meetings. Everyone clearly knew that it can be challenging as a vac schemer if no-one gives you anything to do so they made sure we were able to keep busy the whole time.

[This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] were always around to answer questions or help us out. My supervisors were also really good at making sure people knew there was a vac schemer in the department and encouraging the lawyers to get us involved with their work. I was given a lot of advice from senior members of the team about the assessment centre and what the firm looks for, which really boosted my confidence.

Given that I applying for a job in a law firm, getting the opportunity to spend two weeks in the office observing how the firm works and the kinds of tasks people are doing was really helpful. It broadened my understanding of the legal world and gave me a valuable insight into the kinds of things I will be doing in a couple of years' time.

Really well structured. We had talks on every day, which broke up the day a bit and gave all of the vac schemers the chance to come together afterwards and catch up on what each other were doing. The trainee socials and lunches as well were a great opportunity to meet the more junior members of the firm and to get advice about the assessment centre, LPC and other bits and bobs

Obviously a law firm is often a stressful place, especially when lawyers are working on important, high value cases or under time pressure. Despite this, everyone was really friendly and willing to take five minutes to talk to you or give you something to do. Even the partners made time to talk to me and introduce me to people in the practice areas I am interested in.

There wasn't a lot by way of technical training but that comes on the training contract. Instead we were given introductions to each of the practice areas and insight into the firm's diversity and inclusion, and CSR programmes. I was also taught a lot by some of the lawyers I did work for as they needed to explain the context of the task I was getting involved with.

The vac scheme allowed us to spend a lot of time with the trainees and allocated us a trainee buddy, all of whom were very honest about what their experience with the firm had been like so far. I also felt like the work I was getting involved with wasn't just admin or printing, it was research and drafting, which is a good taste of things to come.

The vac scheme helped a lot with this at trainee level. The trainees told us all about the different socials and networking events that the firms puts on for them. We were also given a talk at the beginning of the week about the firm's business strategy, which helped us understand the firm's current position as well as its long-term goals.

The vac scheme reassured me that law is the right road for me. The quality of the work I saw the trainees doing and the level of responsibility they were trusted with was promising to see. It is nice to see a firm that doesn't treat its trainees as support staff but instead as valuable members of the team.

I think that the firm has set a decent amount for us to be paid for each week on the vac scheme (£360). The only thing I would change is that it would be nice to be paid at the end of each week rather than altogether at the end. For people coming in to London from other parts of the country, this could make a big difference to how enjoyable a time they have.

There were lots of opportunities for meeting trainees, which was great because these are the people that best know what we are hoping to achieve in the short term. They gave us a great insight into the firm along with plenty of tips about the assessment centre. It would have been nice to network with some of the more senior members of the team but I recognise that this would have been a lot more difficult to organise.

The pizza making session was amazing. It was great that everyone could get involved, regardless of their dietary requirements/drinking preferences. It was also really nice that all of the trainees came along to chat with us. There was potential for a trainee/vac schemer divide but everyone mingled really well and the trainees weren't at all clique-y

We were told about some of the pro bono opportunities available to more of the senior people at the firm. Unfortunately there isn't much legal work for trainees to get involved with. However, there were loads of runs and other events that trainees can do to fundraise for the firm's charity of the year etc.

Definitely. I think the level of care that went in to creating the scheme and the enthusiasm of the grad rec team really shone through. It was obvious that they really cared about making sure we were having an enjoyable time. I also think that two weeks is the perfect amount of time for a vac scheme.