Vacation scheme

[SM2001]

Hi everyone, I have a vacation scheme coming up next week and I’m sitting in the employment team. I would be grateful for any advice of how to prepare and what sort of tasks I might be given. Thank you very much in advance.

 

[Abbie Whitlock]

Hi everyone, I have a vacation scheme coming up next week and I’m sitting in the employment team. I would be grateful for any advice of how to prepare and what sort of tasks I might be given. Thank you very much in advance.

Hey!

I've just replied to this on the other thread - just shout if you have any further questions, and best of luck!

Hi!

Congratulations on the vacation scheme! I've always found employment a super interesting area as you can get a mix of advisory, contentious and transactional work.

For preparation, I wouldn't try to memorise employment law or technical concepts - instead, I would focus more on understanding the team and the type of work that they do. Personally, I would:
1. Have a quick look at the firm's employment page and recent matters, and think about the types of clients they advise (e.g. employers, sectors, cross-border work, etc.)
2. Refresh the basics of unfair dismissal, discrimination, TUPE, restrictive covenants, and employment tribunals (you don't need to know everything, just enough to recognise concepts if they come up)
3. Read a couple of recent employment developments in the news and think commercially about how that might impact the firm's clients (e.g. opportunities and risks).

In terms of the tasks you might be given, it is likely to be pretty similar no matter the department you are in. Common VS tasks include research notes, summarising legislation or cases, drafting emails, proofreading documents, attending calls/meetings and taking notes, etc. I wouldn't worry too much if you haven't done these before, as they won't be expecting this from you - usually they care more about your approach rather than perfect technical knowledge.

My biggest practical tip for the scheme would be to ask good questions, clarify instructions and deadlines at the start, manage expectations on timings (it's better to let them know as soon as you can if you can't meet a deadline!), and show curiosity about how the legal issue links back to the client's commercial objectives. Generally speaking, people remember the engaged and proactive vac schemers more than technically perfect ones who don't seem interested!

I also previously made a post sharing similar tips in the past, which I have quoted below in case it is useful.

Wishing you the best of luck with the scheme - I'm sure you will smash it, and I hope you enjoy it too!