I personally have never worked there before, but am looking to work in the future, having attended interviews and open events. I personally really enjoyed all the events, and it seems to me like a really high-quality, clearly prestigious and excellent firm, with, in my experience, quite a friendly and supportive culture. Especially with things such as no billing hours, which seems to encourage collaboration, alongside things such as working in an office with a trainee and supervisor and what seemed like a real open-door policy, why do people often see it as such a daunting and seemingly terrifying firm? I understand it may be somewhat intimidating to interview and require a lot of work throughout the program, and be somewhat conservative, but are most magic circle firms or similar level firms not going to have a rigorous application process with a somewhat elitist air to them and require a lot of work? I just wonder why it seems to have a bad reputation whenever I see someone mention them, especially with how prestigious they seem generally and how I never really found them to be much more daunting or difficult than any other elite firm, which is always going to ask a lot from you.
u/Alone_Proof_8100
Hi everyone, I love this reddit found it really helpful for figuring out firms to apply for and general views for someone who before now has never really known anything about corporate law or firms. I was really lucky to get my first choice of uni and apprenticeship after applying to both, a 6 year solicitor apprenticeship with a MC firm and an oxford law offer, I am really happy with both of these but need to make a decision incredibly soon and was just wondering how people would think these compare. I think my ultimate goal would to be a solicitor at a mc firm (hopefully partner but obviously this is miles away) which is why Im leaning towards the apprenticeship as it seems quite stable with really high retention rates and basically already a training contract alongside no debt benefits and a decent bit of cash for someone who beforehand has only worked at a greggs, but am worried about the general stigma of apprenticeships and wondering if in the long run it may be best for me to go to oxford hope for a first and try get a training contract at the firm later on maybe with a bit more prestige and long term career potential. I am not too academic in general so I wouldnt enjoy oxford too much more than just jumping into a firm, main priorities is just long term corporate sucess. Apologies for the rambling Im just not too sure about these decisions so hoping maybe I could some advice about which path to take for people who I am sure know much more than I do.