My work experience.
On my very first day I was greeted by friendly staff who did a great job of incorporating me into the team right away. It became clear early on that this wasn’t just a means to pay the bills for the people working here, and during my stay I could see why.
They handle a variety of cases regarding personal injury and housing law, but they are specialised in the area of family law.
In family law the stakes are usually rather high as the outcome of a case might shape the future of a child, so they are not to be taken lightly.
What I Learnt:
I was able to see the importance of the work done here whilst doing one of the most prominent parts of being an intern: considering. Considering is the skill of going through and condensing an array of different kinds of documents. In the end there should be a simple, uniform document that will hopefully become more time efficient for the lawyers to read than the original text.
During that task I was really get to experience the reality of things which I had only ever read in text books before. It made the knowledge I’ve gathered in my years of studying seem less arcane and more like part of a really important and useful skill that I could utilise to benefit others.
To conclude
Aside from gaining a new perspective on the things I have already studied I found myself learning something new almost every day. Interns will often need to research a certain topic which can be related to law or to something very different (for example trying to find an interpreter for a Bengali dialect before an important deadline).
All in all I’ve had a tremendously educational time, the skills and insights I’ve gathered here will undoubtedly help me to adjust to the challenges to come. I am very grateful to the staff and can only recommend this experience to anyone who is interested in a law related work placement.