SJ Berwin was 'wrong' to ask summer student to do an all-nighter
SJ Berwin has admitted that the firm “got it wrong” when a summer vacation scheme student was asked to work until the early hours of the morning.
Nicola Bridge
A female student is understood to have worked until five in the morning after being asked to help another female colleague on a document for an international arbitration.
SJ Berwin’s graduate recruitment partner Nicola Bridge said in a statement: “Vacation students are sometimes invited to take part in work such as deal completions and trial preparation, which can run into the night, and we’re keen to offer them the opportunity to observe and help with some of the more exciting parts of the job.
“But as a matter of policy we shouldn’t go beyond invitation and directly request that vacation students work into the night, and on this occasion we got it wrong.
“Last week a student worked through the night on a document for a big international arbitration. She willingly stayed and worked with a female colleague and did a great job, but she was actually asked to do so and that shouldn’t have happened. In future we’ll stick to our policy so this doesn’t happen again.”
In line with its rival firms SJ Berwin’s placement programme lasts for two weeks. Summer vacation scheme students in City firms are typically paid around £300 a week.
The student was not available for comment.
Readers' comments (75)
anon | 27-Jul-2011 11:48 am
what is the relevance of the collegue she worked for being female ?
what is the firm trying to say here ?
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El Guiri | 27-Jul-2011 12:03 pm
Oh, and she wasn't working in the corporate dept by the way. Not that it should make a difference
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Anonymous | 27-Jul-2011 12:18 pm
This vac student did not work an all-nighter (unless she arrived in the office at 5 a.m.). See definition below.
"All-nighter" means working 24 hours inc admin/lunch/dinner/breakfast in or near the office from the time at which you arrive at your desk.
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Anonymous | 27-Jul-2011 12:31 pm
Wow, who would have thunk it. A whole bunch of lawyers sitting around self servicing about how hard are and how they've done it, and how important they are and how the world would stop turning if they didn't work all night to keep the wheels moving.
Get over yourselves, City law is a joke and you are nothing more than overpaid document monkeys. In fact we all are.
So you all just keep telling yourselves how good it feels to get totally shafted night after night after allnight.
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Anonymous | 27-Jul-2011 12:35 pm
Difference between being asked to stay on and given the choice to volunteer when you're trying to get a job:
Zero.
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Anonymous | 27-Jul-2011 12:40 pm
Anonymous @ 12:18pm
I'm sure the student concerned would be mightily reassured by the fact that the 20 hours (guessing a 9am start the previous day) she worked didn't actually constitute an all-nighter! I'm with El Guiri; this isn't something that should be condoned or supported, and it's not a great advert for the profession that all-nighters (or working until dawn) is so readily accepted by everyone.
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Anonymous | 27-Jul-2011 1:08 pm
I was on this vacation scheme and I can assure you that the individual in question definitely was not "in floods of tears" like one previous commenter has been misinformed. She stayed willingly and without fuss just like a number of us did in other departments when transactions were being completed and more hands were needed than usual.
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Anonymous | 27-Jul-2011 2:16 pm
The suggestion that a student has any genuine option when it is so much as suggested that they do anything at all, is utterly ridiculous. I can't believe the partner tried to defend their position, vac schemers should be sent home at a decent hour. When I was on vac scheme at a top ten firm half of the fee earners nearly demanded that I go home before 7. And I highly doubt the student was offered a TC if this story has appeared. The big firms have completely disappeared into their own reputations. Vac schemers are not there to work all night, whether the partners consider it 'exciting' or not!!
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Anonymous | 27-Jul-2011 2:17 pm
Anonymous @ 12.31pm
'Thunk'? Hillbilly much?
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Anonymous | 27-Jul-2011 2:24 pm
This has been blown so out of proportion. It's actually unbelievable that people are even giving this "story" the time of day. Why SJ Berwin felt the need to give a statement is beyond me - it just adds more fuel to the dwindling fire.
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