No kind of fault nor flaw...
On the basis that it might be an interesting experience, on Monday I attended an open day at one of many absurdly named city law firms, Denton Wilde Sapte. Such things are rather illogically organised - unlike any other open day, which welcomes large numbers of people, these ones actually demand that you apply for them. It doesn't make you cheerful about the prospects for legal employment when you're faced with a system that requires a CV and detailed application just to look around. Anyway.
I got off to a good start by turning up at the wrong building. Fortunately I'd foreseen such incompetence in advance and arrived with half an hour to spare with which to find the correct one. I just made it in time.
First impressions: nice view from the windows, generous goodie bag: mug, pen, post-its, stress ball, mini radio. Free lunch, travel expenses. So far so good.
Actual, meaningful impressions: Not bad. A decent mix of people working for them - not all square-jawed rowers and impossibly blonde blondes. They claimed repeatedly that they didn't work ridiculous hours and that it was perfectly common to leave at 5.30 or 6. I'm not entirely sure I believed them, but they went into some detail on the subject. They also devoted some time to their remuneration scheme, which was so patently ludicrous that I could tell that I was rather out of my depth. Social event descriptions sounded fairly alcohol-heavy, but apparently that's a feature of the Real World (tm) and shouldn't be held against them. To their credit, I did overhear one solicitor worrying that the previous night's Christmas Party might have been a bit on the sexist side - apparently belly-dancers aren't the universal symbols of gender equality they once were.
Things to do during the day: Two work shadowing placements with current trainees. I spent the morning in the Corporate division, which is possibly as soul-devouring as it sounds, though all I got to do was some research on Mohamed al Fayed. The afternoon was spent with Dispute Resolution, which is the modern, fluffy-bunny way of saying 'We Sue People'. To be fair to them, the case I was looking at involved them pursuing some extremely dodgy company directors who'd fleeced their shareholders and then driven their firm to bankruptcy. To be unfair to them, the next case I looked at involved a remarkably similar set of company directors, who must however have been completely different, since they were being defended instead.
In between these two placements, we (the 11 people on the Open Day) were set a negotiation exercise. I'd been dreading it for some time, having no idea of its content or format, and expecting to be plunged into a high-profile situation where I'd be the centre of attention and unable to come up with anything. As it turned out, in fact, it was a bit of a confidence booster - we were split into two teams, each defending a particular side in a dispute, and we had to negotiate, over the course of an hour, the best deal for our side. The confidence boost came from the sudden realisation that a) I was at least as good at this as all the smartly dressed, highly qualifed people around me, and b) They seemed to think so too. We ended up getting a substantially better deal than the other side, and for once I wasn't the one sitting on the sidelines muttering occasionally. A really fun experience.
Overall, quite a good day. I'm not sure if it's made me any better disposed towards big firms in general, but they seemed pretty nice and I got an insight into how such places work that should be useful in future.
I got off to a good start by turning up at the wrong building. Fortunately I'd foreseen such incompetence in advance and arrived with half an hour to spare with which to find the correct one. I just made it in time.
First impressions: nice view from the windows, generous goodie bag: mug, pen, post-its, stress ball, mini radio. Free lunch, travel expenses. So far so good.
Actual, meaningful impressions: Not bad. A decent mix of people working for them - not all square-jawed rowers and impossibly blonde blondes. They claimed repeatedly that they didn't work ridiculous hours and that it was perfectly common to leave at 5.30 or 6. I'm not entirely sure I believed them, but they went into some detail on the subject. They also devoted some time to their remuneration scheme, which was so patently ludicrous that I could tell that I was rather out of my depth. Social event descriptions sounded fairly alcohol-heavy, but apparently that's a feature of the Real World (tm) and shouldn't be held against them. To their credit, I did overhear one solicitor worrying that the previous night's Christmas Party might have been a bit on the sexist side - apparently belly-dancers aren't the universal symbols of gender equality they once were.
Things to do during the day: Two work shadowing placements with current trainees. I spent the morning in the Corporate division, which is possibly as soul-devouring as it sounds, though all I got to do was some research on Mohamed al Fayed. The afternoon was spent with Dispute Resolution, which is the modern, fluffy-bunny way of saying 'We Sue People'. To be fair to them, the case I was looking at involved them pursuing some extremely dodgy company directors who'd fleeced their shareholders and then driven their firm to bankruptcy. To be unfair to them, the next case I looked at involved a remarkably similar set of company directors, who must however have been completely different, since they were being defended instead.
In between these two placements, we (the 11 people on the Open Day) were set a negotiation exercise. I'd been dreading it for some time, having no idea of its content or format, and expecting to be plunged into a high-profile situation where I'd be the centre of attention and unable to come up with anything. As it turned out, in fact, it was a bit of a confidence booster - we were split into two teams, each defending a particular side in a dispute, and we had to negotiate, over the course of an hour, the best deal for our side. The confidence boost came from the sudden realisation that a) I was at least as good at this as all the smartly dressed, highly qualifed people around me, and b) They seemed to think so too. We ended up getting a substantially better deal than the other side, and for once I wasn't the one sitting on the sidelines muttering occasionally. A really fun experience.
Overall, quite a good day. I'm not sure if it's made me any better disposed towards big firms in general, but they seemed pretty nice and I got an insight into how such places work that should be useful in future.