Linklaters has revealed its plans for vacation schemes this year, and will run three online events each lasting a fortnight, instead of its usual month-long face-to-face ones.
To compensate students for the loss of the in-person experience and the extra two weeks’ income, the magic circle firm will pay as if the scheme was three weeks long instead of two, meaning students will receive a total of £1,350 – less than the £1,800 they would have taken home but more than the normal £900 for their two weeks.
Graduate recruitment partner Alison Wilson said: “We appreciate how important work experience is to students pursuing a career in law. It gives them the exposure to the way legal firms work in a way that they can’t get from the classroom. It also offers them useful insights into how we work with our clients so that they can decide if a career in law is for them. We have adapted all of the same content they would have received in our London office to be included in the new virtual vacation scheme.”
Content on the vacation scheme this year will include a choice of seat preference and insight into different practice areas, interaction with partners and trainee buddies, project work, skills-based tasks such as legal drafting, a group pitch exercise, discussions with trainees and the senior and managing partners, and online social activities. All attendees will be interviewed for a training contract at the end of the fortnight.
Among the other firms that have announced similar virtual vacation schemes are Allen & Overy, Baker McKenzie, Bird & Bird, Clifford Chance, DLA Piper, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Mayer Brown, Pinsent Masons, Simmons & Simmons, Slaughter and May, Taylor Wessing, Travers Smith and White & Case.
