Open Day Review

I felt that the firm valued our presence and wanted to make the most out of our day. During the insight day, we had the opportunity to hear from people from all ranks and practices of the firm, and even speak with partners, solicitors, and trainees face-to-face in a casual setting during lunch.

The Insight Day was very well organized. Everything was on schedule, to the minute, and only overran in the end during the Q&A, during which students who had to leave were welcome to. The Negotiations activity was also very well organized, and the trainee supervising/judging my particular negotiation was very friendly and gave very constructive feedback.

It was a friendly atmosphere. The people were very kind and polite. I genuinely felt that everyone enjoyed working at the firm despite the long hours.

The day consisted of a wide variety of presentations and activities. Having senior partners participate showed the level of investment the firm put towards the Insight Day.

Given that it was only a one day placement, there was little opportunity to gain insight into what a full time role would be like. But given the little amount of time, the firm conveyed a very good introductory picture of life as a trainee.

In meeting the trainees and partners, we were able to gauge the real culture at the firm. Through the presentations, we could also sense the firm's emphasis and priorities. The clients were obviously the highest priority, but a close second was the people working at the firm.

The day was a good introduction to life as a trainee solicitor at Baker & McKenzie, however it only touches the surface. A vacation scheme would be more helpful in deciding a future career path.

I did not need reimbursement, but those students who traveled farther were entitled to sizeable reimbursements for travel costs.

We were briefly introduced to the activities available to employees, however there did not seem to be a large variety of activities outside of work, especially that which was not ProBono work.

It was a very enjoyable experience. While there were a large vaiety of students there, from various parts of the UK, studying at different levels of higher education in various subjects, I would recommend this Open Day to a first year law student, or someone who just started looking into studying law, given the introductory nature of the event.