Insight Student Review

The event was very enjoyable - especially the time spent shadowing a trainee. He was very insightful and friendly and no question was too onerous. The social event and the skills workshops were highly enjoyable and bought some fun to the event. Overall, it was a very useful exercise for informing my career decisions.

All the staff at the insight event made us feel welcome and gave the firm some personality. We were made to feel valued and as if HSF appreciated our interest in their firm. The food, refreshments and social events were very nice and all helped make us feel at home.

During the insight event, there were always recruitment staff and trainees to help. Trainees in particular were able to give crucial first-hand advice and accounts of their experiences applying to HSF and their training. This helped inform my career choices and gave the human touch that made me feel confident about the personality of the firm.

The application and interview tips will be useful not only for applications to HSF, but to firms across the board. As for the skills workshops, these were an excellent opportunity to display negotiation, team-working and advocacy skills which will be useful in a career as a city lawyer, any degree and in extra-curricular activities.

The insight day was very well structured with a brochure of events handed round at the beginning to steer us through the two days. Everything ran to time, was an appropriate length and the structure allowed for a good balance of informative presentations, skills workshops, company networking and social events.

The atmosphere had a perfect balance: neither too laid back nor overly dry and formalistic. All the students there were like-minded and driven which made it easy to work together and easy to communicate. All the partners, associates and trainees present had given their time and helped enthuse us about their firm and their work.

The time spent shadowing trainees helped me to understand the day to day work of a trainee and solicitors at HSF. The practice area fair helped me to understand and differentiate between the different practices of the firm including disputes, corporate, real estate etc. which I was not entirely clear about before the event.

This was one of the most important things I gained from the event. Everyone I spoke to was sincere about HSF having a different feel and culture to other firms. I felt that the firm's culture stood out as positive, friendly and very reasonable compared to some of the other firms.

Again, this was a particularly valuable aspect of the day. I am not entirely sure about by future career, but this insight event has shown me what to expect from a commercial solicitor and therefore helped inform by career choices. After this event, I am much more confident about what I want to do than I was before.

Any students who required accomodation were provided with a complimentary hotel stay to cover the two day event. Further, any reasonable travel expenses to get to London for the event were covered as well. Although I did not use these services, they are evidently important for making the event accessible to people of all incomes.

There were a large number of trainees at the event during the day to talk to. At the evening social event, there was a relaxed and informal environment to talk to partners, associates and trainees alike to ask a variett of questions. The time spent shadowing a trainee was the prefect opproximity for networking as well.

There was a big focus on the activities staff do outside of work, especially the charitable pro bono work. All HSF staff volunteer to provide free legal advice to those in need. We were also told about The opportunities for international secondment and charity projects such as beam. The company also has sports teams and a gym.

I would recommend this insight event to any first year law student or second year non-law student interested in a career at HSF or commercial law firms in general. In particular, people interested in a top disputes firm with its own advocacy opportunities would benefit from this particular insight scheme.