Is InsideSherpa legal work experience worth the effort?

Hi

I hope to attend university in September to study law. My work experience at a law firm has been cancelled. I recently heard about InsideSherpa offering legal work experience, however as it is virtual I am not sure if it will be useful for my CV.

What do you think?
Thanks

It's backed by Linklaters and seems to be fairly decent. Definitely won't hurt if you don't have much else to do while in quarantine.

I saw that! I am also worried that they might collect data of our work and I know absolutely nothing about law. I don't want to do something I don't have the right knowledge for, if that makes sense. Don't want to appear foolish.

I cannot imagine (based on actual vacation scheme experience) that you'll be given tasks that are out of your depth. I think it's definitely worth it, even if it is just for the knowledge / experience. It would also be a good idea to do other offerings available on InsideSherpa, even if they are not strictly law related as you will have a lot of time now, and it will give you a more holistic understanding of the different industries.

It's designed to be accessible to people who haven't studied law so I wouldn't worry about it. It's more business/current affairs/common sense and it's usually a video tutorial/reading through the material and then doing an exercise. I would give it a go! It is quite thorough and time consuming but very very well done. I didn't have enough time to really commit but I'd encourage you to try it. AFAIK Linklaters don't check the data like that but if you mentioned it in your application, they'd probably ask what you did/what you learned etc.

Thank you for your response.

Perfect. I will look for other courses available. Aside from being useful purely because you gain knowledge, do you think it adds value to one's CV? There are no requirements for the course, so practically anyone 18+ can sign up.

Thank you for your response.

Perfect. I will look for other courses available. Aside from being useful purely because you gain knowledge, do you think it adds value to one's CV? There are no requirements for the course, so practically anyone 18+ can sign up.

To be honest, it'll add very little value normally. However, given COVID19, it'll make you look very productive and even the non-relevant experiences can help. It tends to be more useful if you're applying to a specific firm after having done their specific virtual scheme.

I've actually signed up and done some of the Linklaters course- it's not a multiple choice type thing that you can cycle through quickly, you do actually have to put in the time and you receive marks for the tasks you complete. Personally, it exceeded my expectations for how thorough and well put together I thought it would be. Also, you will build up a lot of skills doing it- skills which help with assessment centres to actually get a vac scheme, which is a competitive process in and of itself.

At the end of the day, LegalCheek is just a blog and most of the people sneering don't even have training contract lined up themselves. Given the pandemic, I have lots of colleagues who had 'real' vac scheme offers which are now going to be conducted entirely online. I really wouldn't sneer at this opportunity to build up some experience. Lots of candidates will have done research on firms and have a whole CV of extracurricular activities, fewer will have put in the time to actually gain the kind of skills and knowledge you need to get through an assessment centre and score a vac scheme, which is ultimately your route to a training contract. As I've said, it's highly unlikely that Linklaters is tracking who has signed up and cross checking against the 1000s of applicants who apply to them, I really can't see what you have to lose by signing up and seeing what you can get out of it.

Has anyone done one of the programmes? Would you recommend it or not?

Thank you so much for replying to me.
A few questions, if you don't mind:

1) Who awards the marks? When we submit our work online, who receives it?
2) It says the 'course' should take around 5-6 hours, all modules included. How long did you spend on it yourself?
3) Are you a law student? What year? Do you think the modules can be easily completed by someone who doesn't know any law?

Thanks!

1) I never ended up submitting an assessment in the end as I was awarded a training contract elsewhere (I was flicking through it over Dec/Jan), though tbh I might go back and submit something as I do think it's a useful programme and I want to brush up my skills before I start my LPC. I assume the marking process must be automated (to award marks for key words/phrases). I highly doubt there is any human contact in the process given the number of people who might sign up and submit something.
2) I actually think it takes longer than 5-6 hours- the assessments I looked at were something like preparing a presentation/make a slideshow advising on the legal risks of X deal, for example. It requires thought and effort. Also, because the tasks are intensive, you'll probably want to do a little bit each day which will inevitably take a bit longer.
3) I'm a final year law student, however, it's quite an accessible programme and they have designed it with non-law students in mind. At some firms, half of their intake are non-law students so you're not going to be asked anything that is too technical. Corporate law is also largely about business/commercial awareness rather than pure law. For instance- if the question is about a breach of contract, they're not going to expect you to know the finer points of contract law, it'll mostly be reading over a contract and identifying the commercial issues linked to the provisions in the contract.

I would say just sign up and see how it goes. You can always leave it if you don't find it useful or accessible enough, I highly doubt it will affect any applications to LL in the future.

Yes I have I did the accenture consulting program and it was really enjoyable i am going to do another one soon maybe the kpmg one it has a wide array of choices if anyone does any dm me I'd like to build up my portfolio and get connections : ) also it isnt just law on there so check out ones u wanna do i found some on auditing, technology and software engineering.