Work Experience Blog - Natalie Bartlett

August 2010

I have recently come to the end of my work experience placement at the Hull office of Rollits. I was nervous on the first day, as I did not know what to expect. I quickly found that I had no reason to worry and that the friendly and approachable nature of everyone in the firm meant that I was put at ease and was made to feel like a part of the firm from the very first day.

Throughout my first week, I spent some time in the Dispute Resolution and Company/Commercial departments. I really enjoyed these areas in my LPC and was given lots of work to do by the trainees and other lawyers, from researching a point of law to drafting a Defence and completing Companies House forms. I was also lucky enough to be able to go to a client focus meeting where many of the fee earners sat and enjoyed a tea or coffee and cakes whilst learning about the work that Rollits does for a particular client, and about what that client's business involves. We also were given talks on how the firm operates as a business and how the IT system works, which I thought were very informative and gave a real insight into the things that a law firm needs to do to be successful.

During my second week, I spent some time in the Property/Private Capital and Employment departments. I found this time to be very useful too, as I was given a lot of work to do in Property which involved drafting transfer forms and filing SDLT returns. The other work experience students and I were taken to the York office to receive a talk on Marketing and to complete a marketing exercise, which I found to be really interesting, and I learned that the marketing of a law firm needs to be done at every level.

I would definitely recommend the placement to other students wanting to pursue a legal career. I found that every member of the firm was approachable and happy to answer any questions I had, whether related to the work I was given or just a general interest in their experiences. It was a very rewarding experience and I feel that I was able to gel with the other work experience students as well as the trainees, solicitors and other staff in the firm.

It was a really well organised and I really felt that everyone made an effort to ensure that I felt welcome. I really enjoyed my two weeks at the firm and could tell from the people who worked there every day were happy to be there too.