Work Experience Student Review

The work experience comprised of multiple tasks, presentations, and group exercises over the course of 4 days. It served to introduce the students to Pinsent Masons as a firm and to a career in law in general. Meetings with Pinsent Masons employees gave valuable chances to ask questions and find out more about life as a trainee or solicitor. Group exercises gave the opportunity to carry out legal tasks and gain practical experience and skills.

There were many opportunities involving discussions and presentations after taking part in group exercises encouraging students to be confident and present their findings to the group. The programme also introduced us to skills that would be integral to a legal career. For example, a Statutory drafting task allowed us to familiarise ourselves with legislation. Many group exercises and tasks also required interpretation skills whilst reviewing a range of documents from contracts to leases. In general, it provided a useful insight into what is required to forge a career in law and introduced us to some of the skills needed to do this.

All the Pinsent Masons employees who gave up their time to take part were extremely welcoming and aimed to make the experience as enjoyable as possible. The interactive tasks and group exercises were very informative. However, there could have been more of these interactive elements in place of the many presentations, which whilst informative were very numerous.

The platform the work experience was run from was comprehensive and made it easy to navigate tasks and join video calls. The schedule was full and it could not have been organised any better! All the Early Talent Team were accessible over email and were brilliant with responding to any queries you may have.

There was a significant emphasis on Pinsent Masons itself and what made it stand out from other firms. Talks such as the responsible business presentation informed us specifically about the firm. There were multiple opportunities to interact with Pinsent Masons employees and trainees which provided a space to understand the firm better.

It contributed greatly to developing the necessary understanding of what a career in law entails in order to decide on a future career path. I now feel I have all the tools to make an informed decision about my future career path. If I do decide on pursuing law, I also have a better and more comprehensive understanding of how to do that and the various different routes ti is possible to take as they made sure to focus on the wide array if paths to a legal career from becoming a paralegal role to taking part in vacation schemes.

No payment or reimbursement was necessary for this experience as it was all conducted virtually online through the Teams app. This meant there were no costs incurred whether they be travel costs, lunch costs, or any other potential costs that may arise if the work experience placement week had been carried out in person.

They provided two sessions during a lunch break where participants could elect to network and meet their fellow work experience students. All such sessions were optional. One criticism of this element is that due to the length of time allocated for this activity (1hr) it was possible to join a session at a later point and there to be no other students there as they had all already left to go and eat lunch. Perhaps if the window for networking was made shorter this problem wouldn't be encountered.

Yes

Overall the experience was invaluable. The Early Talent team were very welcoming and the wide range of volunteers from across the firm made it a diverse experience. The interactive tasks, despite being too few, were well run and enjoyable. The work experience placement provided a unique opportunity to see behind the scenes at such a well renowned law firm and gave a real taste of the experience of a solicitor at such a firm.

Once you get there make sure to be as involved as possible in all the activities and sessions to get the most out of your placement. Try to ask lots of questions as you won't necessarily get an experience like this again. All the people there are will support you and so be confident in your participation. However, most importantly of all, just enjoy it!