What a difference a week can make

Monday the 19^th June began an amazing week of personal learning and new experiences. Walking into the Gilson Gray office on Monday morning I was still unsure if I would even enjoy this week never mind pursue a law career for the rest of my life. However, the week at Gilson Gray has opened my eyes to the world of law and all the many different paths it can lead me.

I began my week in the conveyance department, a seemingly non-stop busy department gave me a real buzz for the fast moving pace of the department. Tuesday came around quickly and I was introduced to the marketing team at Gilson Gray, an interesting department gave me a taste of the importance of social media to the firm in the modern day world. I found that being a newer firm, Gilson Gray gives a nice, fresh approach to marketing on social media especially. In the afternoon I spent time with the family law department, getting my teeth into some real case research. It was so interesting to see how indepth the research goes for cases and how every piece of information no matter how small could be so important to the cases. I really enjoyed analysing documents scouring for pieces of information, really trying to decipher what to document meant to the case.

Wednesday took me to the Glasgow office where I got to experience a real mix of different parts of law. I started with doing some work for corporate property law and then proceed to work for private client team where I got to draft up a mock will. This really showed how to follow the rules of writing a will to suit both the client and the legal requirements. After lunch, I did some work for litigation again getting stuck into some legal research and trying to decide what the best next steps for the client to take are. On Thursday I got to take a trip to sheriff court to see how hearings in court are carried out. Such a variety of cases came through the court it was great to see how so many different cases are handled. Following the court visit, I did more legal research for the litigation department in Edinburgh, this time we got to go through a database of cases finding relations with the case we were handling. In the afternoon I attended a property conference for the ESPC, this was great as I got to see how property law is developing with the modern world especially technologically.

This experience has really helped me get an insight into law and listening to the advice from the staff at Gilson Gray, they have helped me to understand what studying and working in law is like. I have had more fun this week than I could have ever hoped for so thank you to all the Gilson Gray staff for a great week and helping me decide that I would like to study law.

By Katie Walker