Day 1 - Eversheds

April 3rd 2012- The first day of my Internship at Eversheds (London Office). Today's main focus was looking at the bigger picture, my life and what I want out of it. My obvious answer was to be successful but the question thrown back at me was "What is being successful?, When do you know when you are successful?" That was something I had a vague idea about, to me being successful meant a secure job, happy family life and financial stability; I found out later on that I wasn't alone in that idea. The next step was finding out what would be needed in order to achieve success. In a time when jobs are limited and employers only want the best of the best, what can I do to stand out from the rest of the other 5,459 students applying for a trainee contract. As Emily said Investec had 8 jobs for graduates but they had over 400 applications for that job.

What I gathered from today is that good grades, good universities and good personal statements will get you the interview but it is your personal qualities and attributes that will secure the job and make you unique. Unlike majority of internships I have attended there was no photocopying or coffee making (apart from mine) it was very interactive and comprised of many different group activities. I had talk with one of the Equity Partners at Eversheds who didn't take the conventional route of doing a LLB but started off with a Science related degree. One of the key quotes which he mentioned that stuck with me was "I grew up with a lot of people who wanted to make money, no of them ever did those that did make money had passion and when you have passion for something there is no way you can fail". That made me realise my passion and love for the law is what will push me ahead of all the other candidates. Another key point  I learnt was that the rewards in the future outweigh the sacrifices I'm making today (e.g. A social life).

The average starting salary:
> First year trainee* is £23,500- 36,000
> Second year trainee is £25,000- 37,000
> Newly qualified Solicitor is £35,000-£59,000
> Associate - £60,000 +
> Fixed Partner- Six Figures +
> Equity Partner- Whatever the company earns divided by the amount of equity partners. In 2009-2010 partners earned £552,000

Overall the first day at Eversheds was brilliant; the food was amazing. The corporate law firm environment is somewhere I can definitely see myself 5 years along the line. I have been given a litigation exercise to prepare for tomorrow which includes advocacy and negotiation. I am to analyse the information and present a case for my claimant tomorrow. 8.50 nice and early at Eversheds tomorrow :)  Learning the skills I will need to make me the successful commercial lawyer I aspire to be !

*At Eversheds