Summer Intern Review

Legal intern across two practice areas. Mostly entry-level work: proofreading, research, gap analysis. Completing tasks for multiple members of a practice area group. Often the opportunity to shadow trainees and solicitors on client calls. The opportunity to go to court and watch a hearing.

You have a lot of responsibility towards yourself in that nothing is handed to you / you have to make sure you're looking for tasks to do / asking if people need help etc.
However, nothing you do will go unchecked by a trainee or more senior lawyer so there isn't much responsibility in that sense.

Development of attention to detail, communication, teamwork (through the group project), accountability (a lot of the work is independent if you want it to be).
Adapted skills to a new environment and adapted to new terminology as a non-law student.

There is a clear system of support (trainee buddies, supervisors, and supervising partners). However, the degree to which you receive support depends on who those people are and differs between practice area. A lot of people also felt that their buddies did not match up with the trainees with whom they were most frequently in contract professionally.

For the most part it was a great atmosphere. Most people were friendly, curious about the interns, and eager to share their wisdom with us.
One partner made it quite clear to me that he did not think the way interns were chosen was good and was quite derogatory about the Early Careers Team. He then told me his son had applied to the scheme and had not been successful. I thought this was quite a bold thing to say to an intern but did not want to risk flagging it in case it jeopardised my chances of receiving a TC offer.

I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone wondering about getting involved in legal careers. I learned a lot about different practice areas and even different legal professions.

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