Vacation Scheme Student (Commercial Dispute Resolution) Review

I had a fantastic supervisor and trainee support (/buddy) for the scheme and in this respect I suppose I was quite lucky (however, on this scheme most of my peers felt the same way about their supervisors). The work was really interesting and varied; I was kept busy and worked on several tasks concurrently.

Everyone in the department was incredibly friendly and supportive, from the partners right down to the admin / support staff. It was a great working environment and I was challenged, encouraged and praised throughout the week. My only concern was I had very minimal exposure to staff from other departments - although this is to be expected as the placement was only 1 week long.

As above, I couldn't have asked for a better supervisor.

I was challenged and worked hard. The official working hours for the placement were 9 am- 5.30pm but I chose to stay until around 6-7pm most evenings (although there was no pressure whatsoever to do so) mainly because I found the work really interesting and wanted to make sure I had completed it to the best of my ability.

I was given what I would consider to be a perfectly appropriate and suitable amount of responsibility for such a scheme.

Even though a week is a short period of time, I feel that I have improved upon a lot of my skills (teamwork, research, communication and presentation). I am also now 100% set on forging a career in the litigation side of commercial law as opposed to the transactional side, (preferably in Commercial Dispute Resolution). In this sense it has been a great help in informing my career goals, aspirations and indeed decisions.

At the end of the day it is a serious working environment, but everyone was prepared to have a laugh and was fairly relaxed (even when under significant work pressure). I loved the work itself so, in terms of my own expectations of the atmosphere, it was perfect. The right balance!

Very well run. No complaints whatsoever.

We were given talks by current trainees during the week about the different areas of law that the firm works in. The assessments (one with College of Law staff and one with BPP staff) were also interesting and useful (both in terms of the skills they test, and more broadly in terms of experience). My supervisor was also really good at explaining various points and helping to develop my understanding of the relevant law throughout the week.

Waiting to hear - I would love to get a job with Walker Morris as they are a fantastic firm and I really enjoyed my week there. As with any Law firm worth its salt Training Contracts are highly sought after and it is very competitive. All the trainees are very positive about their experiences of the firm.

A really good and balanced group of people on placement and working at the firm, which in turn reflects very favourably on the firm as a whole. The social event was fun and relaxed. I also understand that each department do different social events (from sport to going out for evening drinks).

Fairly reasonable.

Leeds has a really good and varied Nightlife - although I know this more due to attending university here than from going out and sampling it on my placement!

There was a great social event during the middle of the week which included a pool tournament. In one week you cannot really expect too much!