Jonathan's Work Experience at Fiona Bruce Solicitors

We recently had the pleasure of welcoming a work experience student to the team. He was kind enough to write up a wonderful piece on his time at the firm:

My name is Jonathan and I am currently studying for an LLB in Law at Lancaster University, with the ultimate goal of practicing law as a solicitor. I was lucky enough to gain a week’s work experience at Fiona Bruce Solicitors in April 2018 and this is a little of my experience throughout the week.

I decided to apply for work experience at Fiona Bruce Solicitors mainly due to the firm’s great reputation which, being local to the firm, I had heard much about while growing up. As someone who greatly enjoys studying contract law, the firm’s Commercial Department was particularly appealing to me. I decided to email the firm with my CV and a cover letter enquiring specifically about work experience within the Commercial Department. I was delighted to receive a reply offering me a week of experience during the Easter holidays.

I arrived for my first day with high expectations of what the week may hold for me, yet they were still surpassed. After meeting Catherine Gibbons, who had organised my experience, I was welcomed to the firm with a tour and I was introduced to the members of the firm all of whom were friendly and approachable.

Each day I was given a different timetable within which I got to experience multiple different aspects of the firm’s day-to-day functioning. This included regular client meetings that I was able to sit in on, not only with the Commercial Department as I had initially requested, but also a number of meetings in other departments such as Wills and Probate, Residential Conveyancing, Private Client and Litigation. These meetings allowed me to have contact with clients and helped provide context to the issues at hand. Follow-up discussions with the solicitors ensured that I had a full understanding of these issues. 

Another great part of the week was my participation in the firm’s weekly Free Legal Advice Clinic at Birchwood Community Church. Here I was able to experience legal issues at initial discussion and see first-hand the process of establishing the relevant legal issues from a wider context. This experience was also extremely rewarding as it allowed me to see legal help given to those who truly needed it but would not otherwise have access.

Throughout the week, I was set various tasks to complete independently working around the scheduled meetings and activities planned for me. These tasks included research on new areas of the law, relaying information on correspondence with third parties, calculation of assets and suitable approaches for drafting contractual terms, all in the context of a genuine case.

My week was made even more enjoyable by the fantastic interaction with staff from across the firm – whether that be partners, associates, assistants, trainees or admin staff – all of whom made me feel welcome and took the time to engage with me and ensure I was getting the most from my week.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Fiona Bruce Solicitors. It allowed me to experience new areas of the law, as well as affirm my desire to work in a small/mid-size law firm with a strong community presence. I would recommend experience here to anyone with an interest in the law and the local Warrington community.

Thank you very much to all the staff who made my time here so great!

– Jonathan 19, First Year Law Student Lancaster University

Please feel free to contact us if you’re an ambitious law student looking for work experience or advice.