Summer Vacation Scheme 2023 concludes

Our popular annual Summer Vacation Scheme has concluded for another year with five students having successfully completed their two-week placements at our Norwich central branch.

The students joined our Business & Commercial, Crime & Business Defence, Family & Children, Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Medical Negligence, Personal Injury and Residential Property teams to gain practical experience working within our award-winning practice areas.

They shadowed colleagues, and helped support case work with supervised research, client meetings and administrative support. In addition they also participated in an informal question and answer session with several of our trainee and newly qualified solicitors, to share experiences and information about their career paths and routes into law.

Head of Staff Care at Fosters Solicitors, Heather Brown said: “This event is a real collaboration between our staff and the students to make the two weeks that they are with us as informative and useful as possible to help them make decisions about their future path in law.  Each student has the opportunity to go into two different practice areas and experience working life in that discipline. They also have informal meetings with trainees and staff to find out about their journey into law and seek advice about this.  Students who stand out on the summer vacation scheme also receive an invitation to our assessment day, which is linked to our training contract programme and the possibility of joining the firm in the future.

“Each year we encourage the students to suggest ways in which we can further improve the summer vacation scheme, and we take these suggestions on board and look incorporate them into the following year so that we keep growing and developing the scheme year-on-year.”

The students who attended provided the following feedback.

“My experience working at Fosters has been excellent. The staff are extremely friendly and made me feel comfortable as soon as I arrived. I have had the opportunity to sit in on client conferences, write letters instructing experts, view and edit contracts and much more. The variety of work has been invaluable in giving me an idea of what it is like to be a solicitor. I would recommend the Fosters vacation scheme to anyone interested in becoming a solicitor.”

“The most valuable part of my time at Fosters was how approachable, helpful, and friendly the staff were! I felt this made the environment extremely stressless and I was never made to feel uncomfortable for asking questions throughout the two weeks. All the staff, including firm partners, always had time to talk to me and help me with tasks that I may have found challenging. I was always given interesting work and I was able to attend lots of client meetings and court hearings, which I found the most interesting and insightful! I feel that this experience has been invaluable for pursuing my legal career as I was given personal and real-life guidance and advice on how to best achieve my ambitions from a variety of colleagues who have all taken different routes to get to where they are now.”

 “Those I had the pleasure of working with have made me feel welcome and supported throughout this experience. What makes Fosters a particularly attractive firm is the open environment in which each team works, and the way everyone communicates, as this has allowed me to learn a significant amount which I may not have otherwise had the opportunity to do. I have been treated like a member of the team and been given several opportunities to share my own opinions, reach my own judgments and conduct research to support existing cases.”

“I have really enjoyed my two weeks at Fosters. I have had the privilege of being given the opportunity to draft articles, witness statements, questions to experts, and judgement summaries. Everyone on all the teams that I have had the pleasure to work with has been incredibly welcoming, friendly, and happy to provide advice and feedback. Fosters strikes me as a very sociable place to work and getting the opportunity to talk to the trainees and partners was very enlightening. I wish to thank everyone at Fosters, particularly the residential conveyancing team, litigation and dispute team, the medical negligence team, all the trainees, and Heather Brown for this amazing opportunity.”

“I had a fantastic experience at Fosters, especially when it came to seeing the real-life implementation of the law. The kindness, warmth, and patience displayed by everyone at the firm made me feel welcomed. The work environment at Fosters far exceeded my expectations, and I was thoroughly impressed by the professionalism and helpfulness of the entire team. Not only did this experience provide valuable insights into the practical workings of the law, but it also emphasised the significance of fostering a supportive and collaborative workplace culture.”

If you would be interested in applying for our 2024 Summer Vacation Scheme, further details will be available towards the end of this year via our Careers page.

We are currently accepting applications from potential trainee solicitors looking to commence recognised periods of training in 2025. The closing date is 30th June 2023. For more information, please follow this link.