Walker Laird Welcomes Work Experience

Here at Walker Laird, we encourage work experience, as we believe that offering students the opportunity to put their knowledge into practice is very important. We also hope that the work experience we provide will be insightful and advantageous to those studying and planning a career in Law.

In this post, Anna Brown, 21, talks about her experience working within various departments and what life is really like at Walker Laird.

“I feel so privileged to have been given the opportunity to gain legal work experience at Walker Laird, a solicitors and estate agents that has been established since 1815, and well renowned in my hometown. My family have used Walker Laird for generations, so to have had the opportunity to gain some work experience from here was hugely appreciated. I started my work experience during the summer between third and fourth year of law school at Edinburgh University.

I was apprehensive at first as I had no previous legal experience, other than what I had studied at university, but from the minute I arrived at the office I was made to feel comfortable, welcome and within my depth.

Starting Work

For the first few weeks I assisted Mr. McGinlay who is a Partner and Head of the Private Client Department. I also helped out organising files for the Conveyancing Department. This was beneficial, as at University, the process of Property Transfer, and how Wills are created and operate is learnt on solely a theory basis. To see real client files containing Wills, Power of Attorney documents, Title Deeds, Dispositions, and communication between the solicitors and clients was useful. It was extremely beneficial to see how everything I had studied about property and Wills during my ordinary degree operated in practice. I felt that after a couple of weeks, I had already expanded my knowledge about these areas of law by handling client files and documents.

I luckily got the opportunity to stay on at Walker Laird for a further few weeks of summer to help out in the office. Here I worked with the reception staff, and the company’s paralegal, Rebecca. It was here where I gained court experience, by going along to court with Rebecca to observe whilst she dealt with civil matters before the Sheriff Clerk. This was really interesting as my only previous court experience was observing criminal cases from the gallery, so to see the civil cases operate enabled me to gain further understanding of what happens when civil matters reach the court, which again is not something I could have gained from a classroom.

Being based in the reception was great to see how a legal office generally operates – from helping clients coming in and out of the office with different needs and enquiries, to answering phone calls. Both of which could be about a wide range of issues as Walker Laird offers a variety of services, from Family Law to Conveyancing.

I now feel after gaining the hands on experience at Walker Laird and returning to University for my fourth year of law school, I have a better understanding of the legal system as a whole. It has helped build my confidence and I am looking forward to putting the knowledge I gained from my time here to use in my final year of study, diploma, traineeship and into my career as a lawyer.”

Walker Laird wishes Anna all the best for the future!