UWL law student gains valuable experience from placement at city law firm Macfarlanes
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Second year LLB student at UWL’s School of Law (SoL) Mia Stapleton spent a week this summer on placement at London-based law firm Macfarlanes. The firm recently won Commercial Litigation Team of the Year at the Legal Business Awards 2023.
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Macfarlanes began a placement scheme for first year LLB students in 2021 with six universities, including UWL. Selection is on a competitive basis. UWL’s SoL shortlists up to eight candidates, which Macfarlanes then further shortlist for interview.
Shortlisted students are put through a rigorous training process by the SoL to prepare them for their interview, which involves a presentation at the firm on a key industry and a discussion on commercial awareness.
Mia’s placement was in the Commercial and Mergers and Acquisition Department, working with a trainee supervisor. She participated in completing due-diligence reports alongside group tasks with the other participants such as mock negotiations, and a pitch task with multiple networking opportunities.
Mia is now in discussion with Macfarlanes’ "Early legal careers" team to discuss her application for their second-year vacation scheme and get some guidance on how to make her application stand out.
Mia said:
Thank you to the School of Law, particularly Senior Lecturers Karen Shury and Mike Derks, for encouraging me to apply to this fantastic scheme and for the time they spent preparing me for my interview. The knowledge I gained, not only from the week itself but the application process, has been invaluable, and I am incredibly grateful for the entire experience.”
UWL’s Head of the SoL Philip Ells commented:
The School and its staff are delighted that Mia was selected and had such a positive and beneficial experience at Macfarlanes. We put employability at the forefront of our training of students and will continue to seek to offer them the opportunity to work in the most prestigious firms and chambers.”
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