Vacation Placement Student Review

I really enjoyed the insight. Pinsent Masons gave us the chance to take part in real client work for a specific department whilst also putting on practice presentations and social events to give us an opportunity to see the firm as a whole and meet people from different areas of it.

I felt valued during my time at the company because I was given real client work to get involved with. Once I had drafted a task I would then give it to my trainee or supervisor to check who would advise me on changes to make but then when the finished product was created they would send me the completed version to send to the client showing that what I had actually done was to be sent off.

I felt that the guidance and support offered by Pinsent Masons was excellent. Each placement student was given a trainee buddy and supervisor (a more senior member) in their department. My trainee buddy regularly checked up and me and went through the work I did giving detailed feedback. My supervisor was also very helpful, setting objectives for me at the start of the placement and reviewing these throughout.

I think the skills I learnt and information received will be extremely helpful in the future. First and foremost this is because the placement taught me that being a corporate solicitor is the path that I want to take, but also the practical skills I have learnt will be useful for my degree and the LPC.

The placement was well structured as a practice presentation would run each morning for around an hour and then work would be done in our practice groups for the rest of the day. This meant that there were not disruptions throughout the day. Social events also ran on some of the evenings.

There was a very friendly atmosphere on the insight. All the other members of the scheme were friendly and in my department everyone did their best to get to know me and get me as involved as they could.

I feel that the company invested a lot into us as they put on many events for us to get involved with to teach us more about the firm and the people in it. They also ensured that we had IT training and were properly briefed by our supervisors and buddies before getting involved in tasks.

I think the insight was very helpful in helping me to understand what it would be like to be a trainee at the firm because we spent 2 weeks in the same department so got to experience day to day life in the firm and we also got the chance to speak to people in different departments to tell us about their experiences.

The placement confirmed to me that being a corporate solicitor is definitely what I want to do in the future. It also highlighted to me some of the seats that I would like to try in my training contract.

The firm put on a partner lunch and also a secondment lunch so that we could find out about the experiences of some of the more senior members of the firm. Office drinks were also held on both fridays to give us the opportunity to get to know the trainees more.

The networking sessions were very useful as they taught us about the vast array of opportunities Pinsent Masons offers to its trainees and other members of the firm. The social events also gave us the opportunity to get to know the trainees in a more informal environment and to get to know the other students on the placement.

Whilst on the scheme we had a presentation about the CSR opportunities the firm offers and we also learnt about the sports teams the firm has. It was also interesting to learn about the societies for young lawyers and professionals in the city and the events we could get involved in with them.