Foreign seat at Freshfields' vac scheme

The firm is offering 18 students the chance to spend three weeks in either Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Paris or New York as part of their vacation scheme.

The firm runs three three week-long vacation schemes each year for a total of 60 potential trainees.  But the 18 chosen candidates will get to spend an extra week in one of the firm’s foreign offices after submitting a written application.

Ben Staveley, trainee recruitment consultant at the firm, says: “The foreign seat is an opportunity for the vacation scheme visitor to gain a sense of the international flavour of our firm.

“We're a truly international firm, in our outlook, our people and our clients. We've always believed that the most important thing a vacation scheme can do is expose the visitors to the real day-to-day life of the firm, to see whether they like the work and life that's on offer. Increasingly, that has an international dimension - most of our trainees will spend time outside the London office on secondment, either to another of the firm's offices or to a client.

“So we hope that the visitors who undertake the foreign placement on their scheme will get a better sense of what it would be like to be a trainee here, and have a chance to meet and talk to a wider range of Freshfields lawyers. The visitors can then make a more informed choice when considering whether to apply for a training contract with Freshfields. And that in turn is good for the firm - we want those who apply to Freshfields to know as much as they sensibly can about us.”