Spring Insight Scheme Review

On day one, we listened to a wide range of talks. These included talks about Simmons & Simmons' culture, the pro bono work they do, the emergence of FinTech (something Simmons specialises in), and life as a trainee. On the second day, we were put into a certain division (eg banking, construction, real estate) and given work to do by our trainee supervisors. Our tasks ranged from putting together a presentation, to filling out a tax return for a client! The insight scheme was made up of just 20 attendees, making it a really intimate experience!

As a non-law student, I learnt a lot from the programme, including what the life of a commercial lawyer is really like and what kind of work they do. I also improved my teamwork and time management skills, by sharing and completing the task I was set with a fellow participant. I learnt how to quickly adapt my personality to different levels of seniority because one minute I was talking to a partner and the next minute I was talking to other people partaking in the programme!

Simmons & Simmons chose very friendly speakers who simplified the more complex roles that the lawyers do. The most interesting roles to hear about were the pro bono cases that many of the lawyers had worked on - it was very encouraging to hear that there's an opportunity to use law skills outside of working on large, commercial cases! We were given the opportunity to answer questions at the end of each session, which also meant we could find out more about things that would be important to us in a future career.

The company culture was great. A lot of the employees I'd met had applied to Simmons & Simmons because they preferred the culture of a slightly smaller City firm, and I can see why. They were all very friendly and welcoming, and complimented us on the work we'd completed. It was also great to see that Simmons is a bit of a trailblazer in technology law, which meant that many employees had an interest in science (which is something I think is rare when many lawyers have studied humanities!).

I really enjoyed it. On most spring programmes, the cohort is huge so you don't really get the opportunity to have 1:1 conversations with lawyers. However, we got the chance to talk to people from all levels at the firm (in groups or individually) and even draft up work for clients, which was quite a surreal experience. Although the insight was only two days, I thought it was a fairly realistic depiction in what the day in the life of a trainee could be like

Yes

Make sure you have a decent idea of what commercial law is and why it interests you. However, the most important thing you can do is show that you've done a range of activities outside of your A levels/degree and be friendly in the video interviews. It seemed as though Simmons cared a lot about the personality of the participants, as well as their competency (be prepared for some tricky logical reasoning tests), so it is essential to make sure there's more to your life than your studies!