Baker & Partners Student Placement Scheme

Amelia Clegg, Barrister

"During my pupillage with 23 Essex Street, I was offered the opportunity to undertake a secondment with Baker & Partners."

This secondment was hugely beneficial for me. I was exposed to many areas of law including insolvency, commercial litigation, and trusts disputes, most of which I would never have experienced in my first year of practice at the junior criminal Bar. The Partners and Senior Associates fully committed to mentoring and training me, even though I was not a permanent member of the firm. I am also grateful to the paralegal team for taking me under their wing and teaching me everything I needed to know about preparing documents and bundles for court. This was an invaluable learning curve for me and one which has made me think much more carefully about how I draft a skeleton argument.

I regularly accompanied advocates to court and was included in their case strategy decisions. These opportunities enabled me to develop my advocacy skills and provided a very similar experience to my first six months as a pupil. Baker & Partners, in my opinion, retains the collegial and familial support of an English chambers whilst providing the opportunity to work on exciting and cutting-edge litigation at all stages of a case.

My experience at Baker & Partners broadened my horizons to such a great extent that I chose to undertake an LLM at the University of Pennsylvania, USA and to study for the New York Bar exam, with the intention of working as an attorney in the United States. I can say without exaggeration that my time at Baker & Partners changed the trajectory of my career. I am extremely grateful to Baker & Partners for all of the knowledge and experience I received during my secondment, however my particular thanks go to Steve Baker, William Redgrave, Charles Sorensen, Charlotte Cullen and Louise McNamee for their support, guidance and encouragement.

Amita Chohan, Barrister

"I trained as a barrister at Baker & Partners in 2017/18. In my experience, the firm actively cultivates and fosters a unique culture of learning."

This culture very much reflects the vision of the firm’s founding Partner, Stephen Baker, and his commitment to the development of future lawyers and those that are curious about the law in practice.

It is important for future lawyers to gain experience in law in an approachable and supportive environment. Baker & Partners offered me this during my pupillage and that experience continues to be truly integral to my career as a barrister today. The firm’s lawyers (from junior to Partner level), paralegals, support staff (including secretaries, the business development team, reception team, accounts and HR team) collectively form a strong, fun and close-knit team which makes it easy to integrate for any trainee or work experience student.

The two key differentiators about Baker & Partners, for me, are: (i) the types of practice areas and cases that the legal team at Baker & Partners deal with are extremely eclectic so there is always an opportunity to get involved in challenging and interesting work; and (ii) you can comfortably walk into the office of any Senior Associate or Partner at the firm (including the founding Partner) to ask a question and no question goes unanswered!

I undertook my training under the supervision of Simon Thomas, a Partner at the firm. From patiently taking the time outside of his busy day-to-day work schedule to review my work, provide me with feedback and discuss his approach to different types of tasks at length, to actively providing me with the freedom to suggest ways forward and contribute to case strategy without any hesitation, there was always an opportunity for me to enrich myself and further my skills at the firm during my training as a barrister. Simon’s approach echoes the approach of the firm’s legal team, as a whole.

Baker & Partners should be the first choice for anyone on the island, or from abroad, looking for a unique opportunity to gain experience of the law in practice.

Gabriel Moulinec, Student

"During my Law degree, I applied and was selected to work as a legal assistant at Baker & Partners."

This one-year experience represents one of the key points of my early legal career: it allowed me to enhance my legal professional skills and was a great opportunity for my career development.

During this part-time experience, I closely worked with both lawyers and paralegals and I enjoyed a very wide variety of tasks ranging from legal research, supporting the team on legal matters, attending court, and participating in business development projects.

The opportunity to attend court and meet some clients, as well as working closely with the lawyers on cases and participate in the drafting of legal articles is really something that has contributed to my development as a legal professional and I am pleased to have been given this opportunity.

I also really want to emphasise how great the Baker & Partners’ work environment is. Everyone is very friendly and always ready to help you. It was great to be part of such a wonderful team.

Finally, for students considering a career in law, I cannot put enough emphasis on the benefits of seeking legal work experience. Such experiences really allow the student to understand what the professional legal world is like and provide an excellent way of applying the legal knowledge acquired during studies in concrete terms. As such, I really recommend students to apply for the Baker & Partners student’s programme.

Sarah Tulip, Barrister

"While studying for my degree, I was offered a Bursary Placement at Baker & Partners. As part of my placement, I worked as a junior Legal Assistant with the legal team at the firm during the holidays."

This experience fostered my overall legal development and gave me great insight into my opportunities for the future. I worked with solicitors, barristers, and Jersey advocates.

I was provided with valuable mentoring throughout my placement. I was given a really good level of responsibility and gained exposure to a wide range of litigation: from crime, to family, employment, civil fraud, and trusts disputes. It was always fascinating to watch the advocates arguing their cases in Court. One of the highlights of my placement would be working on a substantial asset recovery case for the Federal Republic of Brazil (Brazil v Durant) which raised some fascinating legal issues – and went all the way to the Privy Council.

After finishing my degree and completing my placement at Baker and Partners I trained as a barrister, and currently practice from 3 Verulam Buildings in London.

I would encourage students who wish to pursue a career in law to take as many opportunities as possible to gain legal work experience and would very much recommend applying for placement at Baker & Partners.

Aaron Mayers, Pupil Barrister

"As a pupil barrister currently building a practice in commercial and chancery litigation in England, I often reflect on how my year at Baker & Partners was invaluable."

One of the benefits of the streamlined and focused litigation team at Baker & Partners is that you can quickly find yourself working with almost everyone and consequently building working relationships with everyone at the firm. This is an ideal environment to benefit from observing and absorbing character traits and professional habits, from colleagues at Partner level right through to the junior fee earners.

During my time at the firm, I always felt supported by numerous fee earning colleagues as well as the administrative team. Being a paralegal at the time, it was great to know that I was surrounded by supervisors that I could learn from, and other junior fee earners that I could work collaboratively with to discuss client issues and tackle problems as a team.

Competence Outside of my Comfort Zone
Prior to my time at Baker & Partners, I undertook my law degree and completed my Bar exams in England. Coming to the Channel Islands and working on multi-jurisdictional issues with international clients was a significant step outside of my usual comfort zone at the time. However, this proved to be a unique opportunity to discover new ways of working in a new place.

Jersey is a jurisdiction which excels in attracting business and clients from all over the world. This is exactly why I decided to work for the firm and looking back, it did not disappoint. The variety of work at Baker & Partners – from asset recovery, serious crime and civil fraud, through to commercial and trusts litigation – will ensure that any aspiring lawyer working at the firm will have the opportunity to build real competency in any of these areas.

Having arrived in Jersey with academic legal knowledge and limited experience of commercial proceedings, I left with a thorough understanding of what Advocates do on a daily basis, how leading litigation teams prepare their cases, and how to provide excellent client care.

If you are a law student who is hardworking, focused and eager to learn, joining the Baker & Partners team will provide you with the opportunity to reap all of the benefits set out above, and more.

Andrel Niveaux, Student

"When one chooses to start law studies because he/she decides to pursue a career in law, it can be quite daunting. Law studies combined with practical exposure are vital to a good start."

When you start working at Baker & Partners law firm, you can expect to receive a warm welcome from the team. Each member of the team remains down to earth and accessible offering their high level of expertise regardless of their workload.

Shortly after your arrival, you will have the opportunity to get involved in a variety of cases, helping you grasp at an early stage a broad scope of the Law. Whether, criminal law, commercial, trusts or family law; Baker & Partners has specialists in each. Throughout my year at this firm, I have had the opportunity to work with most of the practitioners. This has been helpful in developing knowledge for the benefit of my studies as well as narrowing my choices regarding the specialty I will choose for my future studies (Master’s degree).

I believe that a placement at Baker & Partners is helpful in acquiring both the skills and the experience necessary for a meaningful career. It is a great opportunity to receive insight from experienced professionals who entrusted me and displayed great patience. Thanks to my time at Bakers, I am now sure that even though law studies are not always easy, it is well worth the reward gained.

Even now that I am no longer at Baker & Partners, I know I can go back to anyone at the firm for advice on continuing education or career choices. I believe that what you get is what you put in, but I have been given much more.

Audrey Smith, Student

"Coming from the United States, studying worldwide was quite intimidating; however, Baker & Partners made the transition very easy."

Whilst studying for my law degree in Jersey, I was fortunate to get the opportunity of doing a six-month placement with Baker & Partners, which introduced me to the legal world.

The placement both encouraged my curiosity and helped me develop my legal skills. I could apply what I had learned from lectures and textbooks to real life situations. This, as well as the very supportive staff, reassured my decision to pursue a career in the legal field.

There is a strong sense of dedication in the team to supporting new students. From bringing us to court to taking the time to answer any questions and patiently explaining new concepts, the staff are always willing to lend a helping hand.

I am extremely grateful for the opportunity, both educationally and for my confidence, and I highly recommend for law students to apply for a placement with Baker & Partners.