We’re committed to creating an environment where people can lift themselves out of the traditional view of law and instead see that there are a lot of different ways of accomplishing things by looking from a different perspective.

To succeed, you’ll still need the rigour, the grit and resilience that forms a good lawyer, but you will be able to blend that with being open-minded, unafraid to try new things and be a passionate agent of change. I don’t think tech skills are the be all and end all, I don’t have any STEM skills for example, but I do have the above, and those characteristics are important in not just coming up with a great idea, but being able to put that into planning and execution.

What I particularly love about this programme is that you get to be at the helm of changing things. Here you get to be part of looking at the problem, choosing the tech and being part of the solution. It’s empowering and a very rare opportunity to understand a vast plethora of things that feed into law. There are so many multidisciplinary teams required for a law firm to function effectively and this is an opportunity to get a seat in the tech focused departments. It develops a real variety of skillsets and offers a broad view of different practice groups through the lens of resources, project management and tech.

As a chemistry graduate from Cambridge, I was unsure if it was even appropriate to apply for the programme as I’d never studied law, but I was interested in legal tech and the role of tech in finance and business. Having been in the role for two years, I can say that it was a great decision to go for and I’ve really enjoyed my time here.

I’ve now applied for a full-time role in the project management team. What I like about project management the most is that there isn’t any typical work that the team does. We work on the largest matters in the firm, often multijurisdictional, coordinating lawyers from different departments.

While it helps to be inquisitive, analytical and entrepreneurial, there is no one type of person who would be perfect in the programme. People are varied and their interests are different. It is not essential to have legal knowledge, a lot of the work is advising on new tech so an analytical approach spotting places to advise on and build out, and an interest in new and emerging technologies, would be beneficial.

A&O prides itself in the training of their graduates and I’ve learnt so much due to the massive focus on development. My managers are a key part of this, taking time out of their day to discuss learning objectives with me and generally checking in on work. The project management are an especially great team of friendly, sociable people.