CMS Academy- Vacation Scheme Review

I really enjoyed the work I did- I was asked to complete many legal tasks that were new to me. However, I would have liked to have been given more of these; as it was summer holiday season, many staff were off and there was not a lot of work to help out with.

Everyone that I met within the firm made me feel welcome and valued. The grad rec team's communication and socials made me feel properly integrated and helped pull together the vacation scheme students as a team.

The buddy system for the vacation scheme was well thought out and very helpful to have an approachable mentor. All the lawyers on my floor were keen to help me out and give me things to work on whenever possible.

I believe that the skills that I have learned at CMS will help me understand my university modules better and have a clearer insight when selecting future subjects. It has given me a well-rounded understanding of life in a commercial law firm, that I can take with me into the start of my career.

The insight was well structured, with a number of meetings and socials to break up the weeks. I was given short tasks as well as logner tasks to continue with in the background. I appreciated grad rec touching base every few days really helped achieve this.

Welcoming and friendly- but quiet, as many people were on holiday. However, this perhaps made it a little less daunting! Definitely took away the stigma of law firms being very rigid and daunting work environment.

I felt that the company wanted to train us in the long term: they let us know what CMS could do for us as trainees, NQs, all the way to partner.

Working closely with current trainees gave me the insight and information required to make the decision whether to pursue a career in commercial law, and a traineeship.

I believe that now have a high understanding of company culture at CMS- this was particularly helped by the talks, panels and activities durign the London week, as well as just networking iwth people within the firm over lunch.

Extremely valuable- I was given legal work that I did not expect to be undertakign at this stage, which was a very positive experience.

I was very impressed at the financial support that I recieved for flights and accomodation when I had interviews and during the week in London-even the open day! I haven't heard of other firms that have done so much.

Being in a regional office, I got to meet pretty much everyone in the office, and I felt comfortbale three very quickly. I appreciated the day, during the week in London, where Lawyers from the regional offices came to a networkign lunch.

Very good- I am glad that we had a social during the weeks in our regional offices, however, one more free night during the London week could have helped us relax more.

Yes, I am particularly keen to find out mroe about the football team and the annual trip.

I would defintiely recommend the vacation scheme to a friend, at any stage during the end of their university career.