B.U.I.L.D. Legal Intern Review

Most of the days began with a session based on personal or professional development or on commercial awareness of the firm and utilising and applying what we have learnt throughout the programme to help us beyond. We were assigned trainers who were associates or senior associates and were allocated tasks from them or given tasks by other people from the firm if we expressed an interest in certain departments, upon submitting these tasks we were given comprehensive feedback.

During this programme, I have learnt how to apply my commercial awareness to daily tasks of a solicitor and significantly improved my tech awareness. Prior to the programme, I was not the most tech aware person, however due to the various sessions we were given about A&O Shearman's use of legal tech being spoken to by legal tech graduates, lawyers who work within the specialised legal tech teams and also the founder of Definely, this allowed me increase and also apply my tech awareness.

I was given some responsibility for example I was given independence to decide how my day would be structured, unless there was a session booked into my calendar which I liked and was given responsibility to do tasks without any hand-holding from my trainers which was nice as it allowed me to navigate how to do it by myself and apply what I knew to the task. I was given the chance to sit in on meetings and also at times when I didn't understand or agree with things that my trainer had mentioned I could put my point across with it being taken on.

I received a lot of support and guidance. The mentoring and support element of the scheme was very intentional as I had 3 trainers and 2 reach mentors which meant that throughout the programme there was a variety of people that I could turn to for support and guidance if ever I was confused or wanted to ask more questions. The culture of the firm is really good as people were very open to go for coffee chats to offer advice and to discuss their career journeys too which I found very helpful.

The culture at A&O Shearman is incredibly friendly, everyone is genuinely nice and I found that from the first day and throughout the 4 weeks that I was here. In the office everyone makes you feel comfortable and genuinely cares about how you are doing and your development on the programme. The culture is also not as intense as I thought a law firm would be which was incredibly refreshing.

I would say I highly enjoyed the internship, altogether it has been a great experience as I've enjoyed the interns that I have been with as well as my trainers and mentors throughout the scheme. The graduate recruitment team [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] did an amazing job with organising the scheme and everything that we did from the sessions, socials and support networks that we had made the internship incredibly enriching but also fun as well.

Yes

Apply! The firm is great and genuinely wants to see you succeed, the programme in particular is amazing as there's an awareness that diversity needs to improve throughout the firm but that there are active steps being put in place to make sure that young talent are given opportunities and also feel heard too when talking about their experiences. The firm is world-renowned and the training and work that it does is incredible and great to get involved in.