My experience in the Glasgow Employment and Reward Team

Following a year of online University and zoom calls, I was excited to have been offered a place on the Pinsent Masons Summer Internship 2021. Although I did hope for restrictions to change, the internship was held virtually.

However, my initial worries of the internship experience not being the same as if it were in person and the possibility that I might not get the chance to network or meet as many people were quickly quashed before the internship had even started.

Before starting, we were given access to the Forage platform which had resources from the firm and our individual offices, as well as the firm’s HighQ platform to allow us to access and work on secure documents. We had a pre-placement meeting with Graduate Recruitment the Friday before we started to make sure we all had access to the relevant IT platforms and to have a general introduction to the placement before the official induction on the Monday. Everyone was so welcoming and excited to have our intake join our respective offices and spend 2 weeks working within the firm.

Prior to the placement, my Trainee Buddy also reached out to me, introducing both herself, my Supervisor, the Glasgow Employment & Reward Team and my other Trainee Buddy who was based in the Edinburgh team. I felt so welcomed by both of my Buddies and Supervisor and they were able to impart their knowledge, experience and enthusiasm for the firm through our daily catch up calls. I worked closely with both of my Buddies and Supervisor and it was great to have them a quick message or call away if I had any questions about my work.

Throughout my time on the placement, I learned a lot about the firm, its people and the type of work a Pinsent Masons lawyer carries out. We were given a timetable of events and talks organised by Graduate Recruitment throughout our placement and the rest of the time, I carried out different tasks for a variety of different people from the Employment & Reward Team. There was a perfect balance between the events where all of the interns across every office attended and the time we spent working within our teams. I really enjoyed learning more about the firm as well as getting to work on tasks that would actually assist my team with client work.

Some examples of the events I attended included a Q&A with Richard Foley, a Design Thinking Spring workshop with the Advanced Delivery Team and a Professional Services Panel Discussion. One highlight for me was attending the PM Networks and Responsible Business Networking where we were free to pop in and out of MS Teams Rooms and meet different people representing different groups across the firm. I popped into all of the rooms and found it very insightful listening to the different representatives. It was very clear to me that Pinsent Masons is a people business and truly goes above and beyond to ensure inclusion, diversity and mental wellbeing across the firm.

In terms of my work within the Employment & Reward Team, I worked with a variety of people across my team doing research, drafting and data analysis. One particular highlight was that a piece of work I assisted my Buddy with, which involved data analysis on Gender Pay Gaps within a specific sector, went into an analysis article that would be sent internally and to clients too. The team made me feel extremely comfortable and as well as giving me work, many members also took the time to have a ‘coffee catch up’ or ‘walk and talk’ with me. I also got the chance to attend the weekly team catch up and attend different junior lawyer training sessions, including one on Settlements.

Overall, my experience on the Pinsent Masons Summer Internship 2021 was thoroughly rewarding. I got a great insight into the firm, as well as experience as to what life as a Trainee at Pinsent Masons would be and would urge anyone considering applying for the internship to do so!