Video insight into our training

My name is Alastair MacKenzie. I’ve been working at Hogan Lovells since February, so just coming up for six months now.

You might have initial apprehensions the night before you start, and you think, oh there’s so much to learn, there’s so much to do, but the way the training was actually structured at Hogan Lovells meant that you had the initial two-week period where they got you up to speed with pretty much everything you’d need to know to hit the ground running when you start in your department, and then you have your departmental specific training over the next month after that.

There’s a really open and friendly environment at Hogan Lovells, so if I was stuck on something, I could ask my supervisor, I could ask another associate. It’s an open-door policy; you can just walk in and speak to a partner.

A lot of my intake are always emailing round, so if there’s people who’ve done things that other people haven’t done before, then somebody will send a group email round, so that’s really, really supportive.

The way the training contract actually works mean you experience four different areas of the firm. You can choose any one of the four areas to actually quality into. You get an idea of what has interested you the most, and then you’ll apply to that department, and then you truly start to hone your skills in that area. The training contract gives you a broad range of experience over four different levels, four different departments to allow you to best make up your mind. So you have this focused training in each area and get some of the best experience you can out of it, and that helps you make an informed decision at the end as to what you really want to pursue with your career.

I feel that the training I’ve received so far is really sending me in the right direction and I’m learning as I go along. I feel like the training that I’ve received has definitely given me the tools to continue and build on that for the rest of my training contract, and then after that, for the foreseeable future for the rest of my career. I want to become as good as I can at my job. I want to learn from the best lawyers. I want to work on high profile deals, and I want to really hone my knowledge in that area, and become an expert, and just enjoy being around people who have those same interests for their career.