Internships

Naturally, as a law student it's important to think about doing internships. Although, a lot of people leave it until next year, I've decided to start applying this year because I have a lack of experience and because I want to have good chances of being employed, when I graduate. We also have to apply for training contracts in our second year, if we want to be employed by a law firm, in the year that we graduate and of course it's important to try and have completed an internship before applying for training contracts.


Originally, I focused solely on doing internships with law firms because I'm still set on working with law firms but as most of these firms won't accept many first year students, I've decided to apply to a wider range of employers. At first I wasn't so keen on applying to do internships with the banks because I didn't know if I could feign enough of a keen interest in finance/economics to make it worthwhile. I ended up changing my mind when other first years told me that they had applied to the banks and that this had in turn led to interviews and eventually some internships. I decided that I had to stop being so narrow minded, when it came to internships because I've got to try and have as much experience as possible, that relates to law because I'll be graduating in a tough economic climate, so I'll need to have the option of being employed by other firms such as banks, in the event that I can't get a job with a law firm.

I've applied to DMH Stallard because they're more receptive of applications from first years but I'm not planning on making any other first year applications to law firms. Otherwise, I'm currently applying to Barclays Corporate (ie. the part that doesn't relate to investment banking) and Deutsche Bank. I've decided to apply for internships in their risk departments because this relates to the drafting of policies, so I feel that it would be a good internship for me to pursue as someone, who enjoys contract law.

Nevertheless, when it comes to answering the questions, which require between 100-300 words, I find that I struggle. I've therefore only submitted one application so far. I'm planning to finish my other two applications but I find it hard to try and think of the qualities, which distinguish me from any other candidate. I've gotten better at answering these sort of questions now that I've had a gap year and I have a chance to get used to filling out application forms and work out what my weaknesses are, when answering questions. So from this point of view, I'm definitely glad that I had a gap year even though it wasn't necessarily the most exciting year of my life.

I found that DMH Stallard's form was the easiest to complete because they tend to just ask you why you want to work there and why you want to be a solicitor, although as a firm with a upper limit of 300 words, they've made me write the longest answers. Barclays tends to ask you more of these long questions but they ask for a maximum of 250 words. I'd tend to say that Deutsche Bank was in a way more annoying because they ask you about the way in which they're distinguished from other banks, what you're greatest contribution was during periods of work experience and if you hate maths, then be aware that they make you do a numeracy test. Nevertheless, they only allow you to give answers of 100 words at most, so there's less to worry about in that respect.