Work Experience Review

My role at Pinsent Masons, as a work experience student, was to spend a week at the firm to obtain a greater insight into the work of a solicitor in a commercial law firm. I spent each day from Monday to Friday in a different practice area, including Tax, Projects, Property and Employment and was given various research tasks and activities to complete from my supervising trainee solicitor

I had to develop my skills of time management because I had to complete various research tasks for the solicitors and email these to them. We also completed a business exercise on the first morning at the firm, which involved analysing a situation, coming up with a solution and presenting this to one of the solicitors at the firm. We were given feedback about our public speaking and presentation skills, which helped us to develop these.

We spent a day in a different department, therefore there was varying levels of enjoyment. I really enjoyed working in the Tax and Tax Litigation team where I got to sit in on a conference call regarding tax disputes and was given various research tasks to help the solicitor. There were other departments I found less interesting due to the work, for example Corporate. Due to the nature of a commercial law firm, the tasks you are given are varied and it depends on the day and the workload the solicitor has that is supervising you. Overall, the firm is extremely friendly and everyone is really informative, which meant that my week was very enjoyable.

Although I was only at Pinsent Masons for one week, I was given a lot of work by each solicitor who was supervising me each day. Unlike other work experience, Pinsent Masons really do ensure that you become involved in the solicitors work, rather than doing boring tasks. I worked with four different solicitors during my time at Pinsent Masons. Three out of the four gave me extremely useful feedback on my work and they gave me support and advice throughout my time there.

The programme, overall was very well structured. We had presentations about the law in the mornings and then we were collected by a trainee solicitor who took us to the department we would be working in. However, we had no choice in where we were working, so we were not necessarily put in the departments that we would find the most useful.

All of the solicitors in the firm were extremely informative and supportive and were more than happy to answer any questions.

As it was work experience, there was no employer. However, each department I worked in were extremely friendly and were happy to help me if I had a problem with the work set.

The work was voluntary.

I was only there for one week, so this did not apply.

Yes

For anyone interested in commercial law, the Pinsent Masons work experience programme gives a great insight into the daily life of a solicitor in a commercial law firm, which is extremely useful.

There was one application online. I can gather that it was quite competitive to get on, as there is a limited number of spaces. Therefore, make sure that you answer the questions to the best of your ability and research what the firm's aims and values are to get a better insight into the work they do.