Only quality of training was considered more important. All the other things applied, but that was definitely the clinching factor. Law firms are now trying to respond to student demands and become more user-friendly by increasing the number of ways in which students can get a feel for the culture of the firm. They are increasingly offering open days, where students can come to the office and look around. Freshfields recruitment partner Tom Head sets aside a substantial part of his budget for Freshfields trainees to wine and dine university students to coax them into the fold.
Students like to get a handle on a firm by talking to people there.
But they don't want to meet crusty old partners who have never heard of The Spice Girls. We usually send a partner and trainees to get a balance between someone in an established position and those who can sell it from a grass roots position,' says Irwin Mitchell recruitment partner Jane Horton. Almost everyone I know who had more than one offer took the offer where they had a summer placement,' says future Freshfields trainee Monique Bout. The undergraduate grapevine is the best PR you can have,' says Dorita Sheriff, head of recruitment at Beachcroft Stanley. The corollary of this, explains Sheriff, is that it is vital not to alienate undergraduates.