First Year Workshop Review

I thoroughly enjoyed the insight. Being able to experience people from a huge range of the different departments within a commercial law firm was amazing and is something that I have never been given the opportunity to do before. Additionally, I loved how genuine every I spoke to was about their experiences at HSF.

As I was just attending work experience, I did not think that I would have felt valued during my time at HSF however, I was completely wrong. I found that all the trainees, associates and partners that I encountered were keen and willing to talk to me about their experiences at the firm. Additionally, during the work shadowing, I found that the work that I was given to do was not just a task given to me to as something to do, but it was something that the trainee I shadowed genuinely needed me to read, and it was something that he was interested in hearing about.

During the insight, I was given enough guidance and support to feel comfortable in getting involved with all the different opportunities and tasks set, but not too guided. I was left to think through the commercial and the disputes scenario on my own, though I was able to get guidance during the tasks if I was struggling on a particular section. The guidance and information we were given before was also ample to understand what we needed to do.

The skills I developed during the workshop did not particularly assist me in my degree studies as they did not relate to any of the subjects I am currently studying. However, they helped me to develop skills beyond my degree which will be much very valuable to me in the future when applying for vacation schemes and training contracts.

The insight was very well structured - I cannot fault the structure at all! The two days were filled with many different events which gave me the opportunity to experience so many different sides of commercial life. The networking and social event was a great addition to the structure, as it gave the opportunity to get as much as possible out of the two days I spent at HSF.

The general atmosphere during my insight is something that I really enjoyed about it, and is a big reason as to why I will apply for a vacation scheme at HSF next year. All of the people I spoke to were very friendly and willing to talk to me about their work and experiences, and they also felt very genuine and honest which is something I greatly appreciated.

I felt the insight was greatly invested in me and helping me to develop my knowledge and skills, which will equip me with the capability to enter a competitive vacation scheme application. I did not feel like HSF tried to sell themselves to me at all, but rather they invested their efforts into helping me take the most from the week.

I think that it is very hard for any insight to be able to give me a true understanding as to what a full time role would be like, especially given how short it was. However, given the length of the insight, I feel like it did it as best as it could. The work shadowing especially contributed to this!

I experienced the company culture best when shadowing a trainee and when attending the evening social event as this was the time when I got to chat to trainees informally, and get a sense for their charisma and passion for the job. The company culture was something that I really loved about HSF!

Very!

I have not been reimbursed my expenses yet for this experience, however I believe that I will be reimbursed within 6 weeks. I have emailed Marianna regarding this. As well as reimbursing travel expenses, the fact that HSF put me up in a hotel was great and meant that the experience did not cost me anything (all my food was provided too!)

Yes - the evening social event at the rooftop bar presented a brilliant opportunity to network and meet other employees of the firm. The chill setting which enabled us to move around and talk to different people as much or as little as I wanted was really nice. Additionally, the work shadowing presented this opportunity.

Great!

I personally did not find out a huge amount about the activities that employees can get involved with outside of work. I heard about the mixed netball team and so got a sense that there are a few opportunities to get involved with things. However, this is not something I asked about at any time. However, if I had asked this is something I could definitely have been able to find out about!

YES!