Summer vacation placement
We offer 40-50 Summer Vacation Placements of up to 2 weeks each during June or July. Our application form is open to apply from early December and closes at the end of February the following year.
Placements provide invaluable experience, allowing you to choose the right firm for you and can even fast track you to a place on the assessment day for a Training Contract.
On the Summer Vacation Placement you will experience a real week in the life of a trainee solicitor which includes real responsibility, working on real case files and attending real client meetings. You will be 'buddied up' with a trainee, who will be able to answer any questions you may have, no matter how big or small. You will also be set a mini project to complete which will help you to get to know the people in your office and across the firm whilst also getting a feel for our culture and values.
And of course, you will be invited to any number of summer socials, lunches and other activities that are happening, not only in the week you join us, but throughout the entire summer.
Our Summer Vacation Placement 'trainees' are paid £250 per week.
What our summer placement students have to say
Laura Jewels, a politics with American studies graduate attended a one week summer vacation placement in Nottingham's Commercial Team in 2011. Laura has recently completed the LPC at Nottingham Law School and will commence her Training Contract at Shoosmiths in September 2013.
"I decided to apply to Shoosmiths following an open evening at the Nottingham office which really showcased the merits of Shoosmiths as a firm. I was really impressed by the fact that the Chairman, Andrew Tubbs, was there to give us an insight into how the firm works, and I was also impressed by the office culture that all members of staff present at the evening seemed to reflect. Following a tour around the open plan office I decided that this was a firm I would enjoy working in. For me, this was the main selling point of the firm; that it is a large commercial firm with excellent clients but it is also a friendly, sociable firm that nurtures its employees.
The Shoosmiths hospitality extended to the vacation placement students being invited along to the office summer party. It was great to speak to people in a more social setting and it was obvious that the whole firm enjoyed socialising together. It is this friendly office culture that really differentiates Shoosmiths from any other firm that I have had work experience at.
I found that the work level at Shoosmiths was excellent in terms of quality of work. I was expecting to be given a very low level of responsibility, however on my first day I was given the task of consolidating a complicated contract into a manageable memo of advice for a client. This was a great experience as I saw the project through from start to finish, with the finished product being sent to the client. I have found this genuine type of work to be rare when doing legal work experience, and this set Shoosmiths apart from other work experience.
My favourite day was spent sitting in on meeting with the commercial team. I was allowed to sit in on IT training and also on a marketing meeting. It was interesting to observe exactly how a law firm also operates as a business. This is not something that is taught at law school, and as such was an invaluable experience."
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