Summer Intern Review

Considering the internship was originally meant to be a 3-week vacation scheme in the DLA Piper offices, I was worried about how the internship would progress and whether I would get the insight I thought I would have gotten from an in-person internship. However, I think that the programme has exceeded my expectations as I have been given exposure to multiple aspects of the firm which I have thoroughly enjoyed. Of course, there still remain opportunities I would have liked to have experienced in the office but nonetheless, I can safely say that the internship was extremely enjoyable.

I felt extremely valued at the firm, all employees from trainees to senior members treated all the interns with a high level of respect and regard and engaged with all intern queries and questions with a much-appreciated level of enthusiasm. Throughout the week, interns have been given information on how DLA Piper wants to retain as many of us as possible which of course helps you feel extremely valued.

Similarly to feeling valued, the firm was extremely supportive, providing all interns with buddies a few weeks prior to the internship itself. Moreover, once the internship had started an environment of support was instantly created with all members of the firm allocating time to answer our questions and worries. Despite it being a week, it felt like we had established a mini-community.

As a law student, all information about current case studies and deals will aid my understanding of law in practice. However, considering I am in my 2nd year of University, there are areas of law I am not as familiar on, which could have helped with my understanding of some of the cases. But in cases where there were areas of confusion, members of the firms helped clarify the situation. During, the internship I would definitely say my confidence has skyrocketed - due to the current pandemic situation the virtual nature of the internship almost forced you to get out of your comfort zone in order to get the best out of the experience, so confident has massively been increased.

I would say the internship was well structured as we were given real-time updates to how the structure of the day would look as well as a look into the next day in order to prepare. I would say however, I would have liked more time with some of the sessions and I think everyone had the same idea as many sessions would run over due to the volume of intern interaction.

While on the first day of the internship I was apprehensive about how enjoyable the sessions online could be, to my surprise they have surpassed my initial thoughts. Right from the start the graduate team create a supportive environment to help ease your nerves, this is furthered helped with when a senior member of the firm reassurance you and create a relaxed environment. I believe the relaxed environment created correlated to how enjoyable the sessions were.

Throughout the internship, it has proved hard to provide specific developments to us as individuals. however, with the group project we had which was introduced earlier in the week, we have been given sessions where we can ask trainees and partners about real-life examples that would correlate with our given task. In that sense, the firm has added with personal development, however, I would say I would have gathered preferred an in-office experience in regard to personal training.

I have to say one advantage of a virtual internship is the vast exposure you to the different trainees across the different offices. After speaking to trainees from multiple offices it quickly became clear to me that my values align with the firm perfectly. Additionally, you get you really understand how the firm operates after speaking so closely with so many senior members and that in of itself gives you a clearer picture into what life as an employee at DLA Piper would look like.

As mentioned prior, a massive emphasis was placed on the culture of the firm and this was clarified massively to aid our understanding. Given I was already quite familiar with the culture of the firm, I do have to say the sessions did provide me with even more information, the information you really can't get anywhere else.

I can say that after this internship my aspirations to work as a solicitor at DLA Piper have been cemented. I think in a way the internship has given me the drive and motivation to continue on my path to hopefully secure a TC from the firm.

Interning at the Birmingham office with a £300/week pay rate, among benefits.

As mentioned throughout, due to the nature of the internship networking was essentially the core aspect of the internship. An aspect I believe the interns enjoyed as all of our networks grew significantly.