When I first stepped into the firm, I had no idea what to expect beyond a lack of paper. I spent 12 weeks with VanillaLaw LLC as a Paralegal and throughout my time, I’ve learned and experienced many new things. The people in the firm, especially the business team, were all very friendly and hospitable. In addition to practical knowledge, they were also willing to teach me about various life skills.
Personally, the greatest impact from my experience was the sense of fulfilment I felt through interacting with real clients rather than scenarios crafted by my tutors. This practical experience where I could see the effect of my work on other people’s lives is definitely what I was looking for in my internship and I hope to experience this more in the future as I explore the different practice areas.
The degree of interaction allowed to interns is definitely high as I sat in on numerous client meetings and communicated with them on a regular basis regarding their cases, allowing me to feel like an actual member of the team.The firm’s paperless technologies are definitely one of its strongest points. Not only is there a cloud database that makes it extremely convenient for the lawyers to work from anywhere, the dual screens assigned to each staff member enable them to refer to multiple documents simultaneously in their work without the need for physical copies to be printed and shared around the office.
The large variety of work is also welcome for those willing to learn as I was tasked to do not just legal work, but also Accounting and HR. The Business team of the firm played no small part in this as I was also involved in Marketing and Design work, which allowed me to put the skills I learned from both sides of my course to use, rather than just the law modules.The interaction between the Business and Legal team is definitely something you’d be hard-pressed to see anywhere else as the diversity of the firm allows it to be immersed in the businesses of its clients and offer better advice for the long term, aiming to solve the root of the issue rather than just the legal suits that arise from it.Lee Zheng WenTemasek PolytechnicParalegal
Lee Zheng Wen
Temasek Polytechnic
Paralegal
