My Internship Experience at MLP

In my half term, I completed a 1 week paid internship at the Head Office of MLP Law Altrincham. I applied for this program through college, got a response quickly for an interview with Samantha Kennedy (Associate Solicitor – Wills, Trusts and Probate) and Jane Hunter (Partner and Head of Private Client) who explained everything that I would do in the week very clearly. I am currently in the second year of college at Trafford College studying Applied Law and Business.

I started my first day with the Wills, Trust and Probate team and had a very warm welcome from Katie Davies (Paralegal Apprentice). Katie gave me an overview of what her team does and then I started some training, which consisted of UK GDPR for Law firms, SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority) Codes of Conduct, Equality and Diversity, Anti – money-laundering training. Stephen Attree (Managing Partner) came and sat down with me and welcomed me to the firm, this settled down my nerves as he was very engaging and delightful to talk to. Following this, I begun completing the work that had been assigned to me. First, was to send a Will Review Letter to those who had not updated their will in three or more years. It was explained to me the benefits of updating clients of any changes in circumstances which may affect their wishes.  I really enjoyed this as I gained a better understanding of the different stages of estate planning.

I assisted the Wills, Trust and Probate department in some of their everyday administrative roles. This included closing files, scanning and preparing documents for post. This gave me a good insight into the day to day responsibilities of a junior team member in a law firm and what would be expected from me. I helped with filing of important documents and post that had come in on particular files. This helped to improve my organisation skills and attention to detail, to ensure they were correctly stored.

The next day I was with the corporate team, who were also very welcoming. I was given a good explanation on what corporate law is and what kind of issues they deal with. I assisted the team with a research task about corporate law and to find out what the difference between asset sales and share sales were. This was of interest to me as I am undertaking a combined course of law and business.

Towards the end of the week I was with the conveyancing team who were very friendly and lovely to talk to. I was given an insight on conveyancing and what kind of matters they deal with. I found this quite intriguing as some of the cases that I looked at had some interesting facts and details about what both parties wanted from the matter.

Overall, I had a very positive, enjoyable and fun time at MLP law as I learned many things that would help me in college and in the future. In addition, it allowed me to gain confidence in communication and improve some of my skills like organisation and attention to detail. Everyone was extremely welcoming and helped me with all aspects of the experience. I want to give a special thanks to Jane Hunter (Partner and Head of Private Client) and Samantha Kennedy (Associate Solicitor – Wills, Trusts and Probate) for making this happen and also to Katie Davies for helping me throughout the internship with any issues that I had.