Internships at Hugill & Ip

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Internships at Hugill & Ip

The importance of internship programmes

Internships are one of the best ways for law students to get practical legal experience, to begin creating a network of connections, to start understanding their interests in terms of practice areas, and to set themselves up for their future career in the legal field.

What some employers often forget is that internships also provide them with several benefits that go beyond simply getting more work done.

First and foremost, legal internships allow firms to identify — and possibly court — great talent at the start of their legal career. For example, in our experience most of our Trainee Solicitors were recruited after spending time with us as interns. The programme certainly gives – both us and the potential future candidate – time to get to know each other and see if we match each other’s expectations in terms of career aspirations and ability to thrive in the long term.

Moreover, internships every so often leave interns with a sense of great satisfaction in their work and a powerful connection to the firm. Interns can become valuable “culture messengers” for the firm, further promoting it to future interns, traineeship applicants or other legal and non-legal candidates.

What to expect?

Our internship programmes will offer you a great opportunity to find out what we’re really like and will help you decide whether we are right for you.

You will shadow our trainees and work with our associates and partners in servicing clients. You will also be able to advance your practical legal as well as soft skills by completing tasks including legal writing, research, presentation skills and client service.

You will also attend social events where you’ll be able to mingle with other members of the firm, peers, business partners as well as clients. We believe developing strong social skills is as important as being involved in day-to-day legal work. 

Internships as a reality check

Whether you aspire to enter the corporate law world or become a litigator or be a divorce lawyer, internships are equally important and pervasive in nature. Being acquainted with practical court procedures to sealing an M&A deal are aspects that one can develop a knack over in an internship.

The internship period is a blessing in disguise for law students as it provides the opportunity of including a change in their set, sometimes mechanical or even boring, routine.

During an internship, you also meet different interns and trainees from different law schools and networking with individuals from different cultures and backgrounds. This exposure to diversity in nature, behaviour and perception helps you grow both as a person and as a professional.

Adding value to your profile

Before becoming a Trainee Solicitor at Hugill & Ip, I interned at the firm for four weeks with a specific focus on Employment law and Estate Planning matters. The experience allowed me to get a feel about the firm and it also made me very keen to apply for a training contract.

Law students have to consider their CVs when it gets into the hands of a potential employer; it is very often a one-time chance which determine one’s career trajectory, especially if they are very passionate about a particular practice area.

Applicants should highlight why they have been keen to intern with a specific firm or in a particular area of law; you should showcase what you have learned during your internship and what perhaps could have been done better, either by you or the firm, or both.

The right place at the right time

I’ve joined Hugill & Ip as an Intern in Summer 2021 and then stayed on as a Paralegal until I’ve started my training contract in April 2022, so I had the chance to be exposed to several practice areas: Corporate & Commercial, Employment, Private Client and Contentious Trusts & Estates.

Choosing the right internship at the right time is key to a law student’s enhanced skill set and experience – consider how your academic life is going to be enriched by your internship and what you can bring to the table to a law firm or barrister chambers considering what subjects you have already familiarized during your studies.

I can consider myself lucky to have been able to enjoy a wide exposure to different environments where I interned before starting my full-time career – which included chambers and law firms with different focus areas and structures.

 

This video is for informational purposes only. Its contents do not constitute legal or professional advice.