SPARK Program Review

The first day was solely classroom based with various talks and activities based around getting to know who Clifford Chance are, their values, what the different teams do and the general work that Clifford Chance undertakes. The other 4 days were for work shadowing where we would start at 9:30 and end at around 6:30 with some evening activities arranged as well such as dinner. We were given trainee tasks and a workbook.

Yes - I sat in the finance team and go to develop my legal research and proof reading skills. I also got to read through documents to find certain bits of necessary information so that developed my contract review skills as well. Whilst you don’t have any contact with clients, a large emphasis is placed on the work done with clients so it was great to get a feel or how important clients were there.

The first day in particular was great to understand the business because we had numerous talks about the firm, it’s people and values, the work they do, and how they are a firm who our clients first. My work showed to me the emphasis put on being an advisor to the clients and really exposed me to the importance of this in the firms values. Being involved with complex and important deals also helped.

Everyone was really approachable and excellent to work with - from my trainee buddy to my supervisor and the partners who gave talks to us or who you saw around the office. Everyone was very personable and there were numerous opportunities to meet and network with a whole host of employees or the firm. I throughly enjoyed the culture and it has made me very keen to apply to the firm in the future from this.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not only were the people extremely interesting and helpful but the work was also really great. I was lucky that even though it was a quiet period there was still a host of work I was involved in by the team, and the Graduate Recruitment team organised a workbook with mock tasks to do - some of which were assessed. This meant I was never bored and in downtime I networked also.

Yes

Really understand the nature of the firm as being global and client facing because that really helped my understanding of the firm and was only developed further. The firm also specialises in Finance and Corporate work so that is something to be aware of if you’re not keen on that kind of work unlike me. The assessment centre tests you but if you can explain your motivations and grasp basic concepts it’s fine.