Vacation Placement Student Review

The time spent in the practice group was very interesting, with a high quality of work provided to me to get involved with. This was challenging but rewarding and enjoyable.

A lot of time and effort was invested in the placement students by the firm and people were always friendly, willing to have conversations and give challenging work to make the experience as valuable as possible.

People were approachable and always gave their best effort to answer questions that I had. Good levels of support were given with tasks and feedback when requested.

I have mostly gained greater organisational skills and practiced the ability of receiving and recording high quantities of information in a short amount of time. This will help around planning my studies. I do feel that from spending time in an office working environment I will have gained generally better working practises.

The structure was consistent throughout with practice presentations every morning spent detailing different areas of work in the firm and then generally the rest of the day was spent with my practice team which allowed for consistent periods of work and that was useful. The only exception to this would be where a social was organised, special lunch or the assessments. Social events were well spaced out and generally well attended by staff.

Professional, fairly intense as it was a busy period but sufficiently welcoming.

I was taught computer skills and how to use the firm's systems but generally the learning was done on the job.

The industry standard for placements of this kind is two weeks and it is limited how much you can appreciate the life/career you would have in that time frame, but naturally this applies to all such placements of this type across firms. In general on my placement there was one busy week and one quitter week, so it was usual to experience the 'ebb and flow' lifestyle in terms of intensity that is so often described about law firms of this type. Also, both weeks were spent with one team, rather than a split as on other schemes so this allowed for a more in depth insight into the career in that department.

Between the working style and attending the socials I think I gained a good appreciation of the firm's culture, which to me seemed professional in the working environment but far more relaxed and casual on social events.

I think that by spending time in one department and learning about others from presentations I have a greater idea than ever before which type of practice group I would like to be involved in.

I find that asking for the mode of reimbursement is fair and I would be willing to tick a box indicating a 'range' of pay if prompted, without giving a specific figure.

Yes there were dedicated opportunities to meet people of varying levels of seniority at the firm, out of the work environment, which consisted mostly of lunches and fun activities.

External social events were enjoyable and well thought out, however some of the events within the office were poorly attended by staff. Some of the internal networking events to meet specific people at the firm would have been better suited to a presentation style opportunity.

Yes there were activities on offer and placement students were invited to partake.

Yes, I found it to be a challenging placement and resultantly an excellent learning opportunity. It also had a career opportunity with the firm as part of the placement which makes it an extra-rewarding experience.