Vacation Scheme Student Review

I very much enjoyed my time at Taylor Wessing - the two weeks flew by! There's a lot going on in the two weeks including networking events, socials and interactive focus sessions on the various practice areas, making it a very busy but very enjoyable time. You get to meet a wide range of people from across the firm, from trainees to partners and across all practice areas, so it's a great opportunity to really get a feel for what the firm and the people that work there are like.

This was a definite strong point of the firm; everyone seemed genuinely interested in getting to know you and making sure your experience was as good as possible. There was a noticeable effort made by everyone to ensure you were involved in interesting work, as well as allowing you to attend client meetings or court wherever possible. In both seats I was in I felt like I was part of the team and I had coffee, lunch and in one case dinner with different team members.

You are given a supervisor and a trainee buddy during both seats who are on hand to offer help and advice when you need it. In one of my seats my supervisor was very busy and I didn't have much contact with her, however my trainee buddy as well as others in the department were all very helpful. The trainees were all especially good at giving support and advice, be it on how to use the printer, where to look when doing research and general advice about law and studying the GDL/LPC. There is a true open door policy at the firm and you are encouraged to ask any questions you may have, and people are genuinely willing to offer guidance whenever it is needed.

The scheme allows you to gain an insight into all the different practice areas across the firm and therefore provides you with significant information as to what kind of work you will be doing as a trainee, wherever you are sat. You are given challenging and interesting work which allows you to really develop skills such as research and drafting and providing concise summaries of court proceedings or meetings. There are certain skills that are difficult to develop during the scheme, as face-to-face interaction with clients is relatively small, however this is to be expected and in general you are given significant levels of responsibility to allow you to develop useful skills.

The scheme was very well-structured. You are issued with a timetable at the beginning of the week with all the timings and locations of events and are kept updated as to any changes. You are given a useful, but not too lengthy, introduction on the first day and the networking and social events are spread out throughout the two weeks well. I also enjoyed the structure of spending one week in one department and the next in another, as it allowed you to experience first-hand different areas of the firm and different teams, as well as how the type of work contrasts across various practice areas. Overall I thought the scheme was exceptionally well-structured and I could not think how to improve this area at all.

The general atmosphere was very good during the scheme. Everyone was friendly, right up to partner level, and made an effort to ensure you are having a good time and feeling comfortable. I regularly had people coming by the office where I was sitting just for a chat, and everyone was very open to answering any questions you had. There were some stressful times when a deadline was approaching, however there was a noticeably strong team atmosphere in these situations, with everyone collaborating in order to make sure the task was done.

The firm invested significantly in terms of personal training and development. There were formal appraisals at the end of each week, however people were always willing to sit down and give useful feedback for individual pieces of work, as well as providing examples of similar work so that you could learn from them. One trainee even took the time to explain the best methods of learning and revising for the GDL and LPC.

The scheme gave a good insight into what it would be like to have a full time role within the firm. I felt integrated into the teams in which I worked and we were involved in typical trainee tasks, as well as being included in activities outside of work, such as shadowing a pro bono clinic. It was perhaps difficult to get a true picture of the typical day-to-day hours, as the week may have been a particularly busy or a particularly quiet one and the after-work socials meant that we often left before many of the employees. However, I feel we gained a good understanding of the types of tasks you might be involved in and the general working atmosphere of the firm.

The company culture was something that really came through during the two weeks. There was a true open door culture, not just literally but in the sense that everyone was open to chat, give advice or answer questions, even if they were busy. Something that was particularly noticeable was that everyone seemed genuinely proud to work for the firm and this created a strong and tangible team spirit. There was also a definite sense among employees that they were acting at the cutting edge of the law and that the firm was really going somewhere.

Although I was pretty certain in my desire to become a commercial solicitor before embarking on this scheme, it definitely served to cement this. I was fortunate enough to be given my first choice seat for a week and working in that area also confirmed that it was something I would be interested in specialising in. Employees across the firm did, however, emphasise the importance of keeping an open mind, and I found many of the focus sessions on different practice areas very interesting, therefore I still could not definitively say what area of commercial law I will chose to develop a career in.

We were paid well for the scheme and the money easily covered the cost of travelling to and from London each day.

There were many opportunities for networking and meeting other employees of the firm, from trainee through to partners. There were two trainee organised social events, as well as welcome and leaving drinks and networking lunches. Furthermore, we were strongly encouraged to get in touch with employees across the firm if we had any questions and people were more than willing to sit down and have a coffee and talk about different aspects of the firm. The only thing missing from the networking opportunities was the chance to meet any of the support staff.

All the networking and social events were very enjoyable and varied. The only critique in this area would be on the final networking event which was a lunch with partners and the HR staff. Whilst this was an interesting and enjoyable event, we were seated on various tables and there was no rotation between the tables, meaning that we were not able to speak to everyone in the room, which was disappointing. In all other respects, however, the events were well organised and enjoyable.

There were many opportunities to find out about activities that employees could get involved in outside of work. We were able to be involved in some of them, including mixed touch rugby and a pro bono clinic attended by trainees. From speaking to employees there seemed to be a strong emphasis on sporting activities, with many sports teams as well as an inter-office football tournament, and charity sporting events such as a cycle to Paris and a London triathlon. There were also non-sporting activities such as a choir and various networking events, including the business development event organised by the trainees. There was certainly not an 'all work and no play' culture and everyone seemed to be involved in some form of activity outside of work.

I would 100% recommend this insight to a friend. Not only was the work challenging and varied, but you were made to feel very much a part of the firm. I gained a true insight into what it would be like to work for Taylor Wessing and therefore consider it a very valuable experience.