Vacation Scheme Student Review

Sat in an office with my work supervisor, and basically shadowed them. Depending on what my supervisor had going on, I either was set longer research tasks over several days, or did multiple ad hoc little things (call note, drafting a client email). My supervisors were busy, which made the work dynamic and interesting, but they also always made time to answer all of my questions. The graduate recruitment team had organised one informational or social event for every day of the vacation scheme, so there was also always a fun catered event to attend either in the morning, at lunch, or in the evening.

Generally, I learned how big commercial law firms work. I learned how to structure and format a legal memo, write a call note, and communicate with my supervisors about the progress of my work. I got a lot better at using Microsoft Word. The experience also taught me how to prioritise tasks, write under pressure, and distill large issues into short and easy to digest summaries. I feel like there is a subtle difference between studying Law and practicing it, so it was also interesting having to learn how to adapt my writing style to suit the needs of a law firm.

Grad Rec did an amazing job at exposing us to as many practice areas as possible, organising multiple "practice area fairs" at lunchtime, or slideshow presentations for different groups such as the Digital Law Group. All the lawyers at the firm were very friendly and more than happy to talk about what they did. I was surprised to find that I didn't have to make too much effort to reach out to people to talk-- often, instead, I was approached by friendly people who told me that they'd love to chat to me about the business.

Very friendly people, from partners to the legal secretaries. I was surprised that, despite the fact that HSF runs 4 vac schemes in a year, I was really made to feel important in the teams that I was in, as if they did not have a new clueless intern every few months. You get the impression that people high up at the firm genuinely care about recruitment and about the people coming in. They want you to get involved.

Being honest, as friendly as the people were and as well-organised as the vac scheme was, these three weeks were undeniably extremely stressful. The fact that there is no exit interview puts enormous pressure on having to get on well with the particular team you were placed in and to write the best piece of legal research you have ever written for your assessed task. The variation between team cultures and the nature of tasks assigned to each vac schemer adds even more pressure. It would have been nice to have been provided with slightly more transparency regarding the recruitment process-- perhaps an extra informational session about the criteria we were being judged on. I feel like most, if not all, vac schemers felt the need to overcompensate in everything we did. We did not really take much time to socialise together, as we were all working overtime on our assessed tasks. Some people might say this is simply the reality of being a trainee solicitor and part of the larger "test" of the vac scheme, and maybe it is.

Yes

Attend all the informational sessions you can, whether in person or online. The grad rec team are very transparent about what they expect from the application form answers, so make the most of that (the questions are also the same every year, so nobody is trying to trick you here). HSF seems to like interesting people, so be upfront about your interests outside of law. For the assessment centre, study like you are revising for a technical exam about M&A.