Work Experience at Rix & Kay

Work Experience at Rix & Kay

Rix & Kay works closely with local schools and colleges to offer work experience to their students and help them get a look into the workplace and see what working life is like. We invite them to spend the week with us, spending time with multiple departments to gain a better perspective into law firms and the work we do.

We had students from Uckfield College join us for a week and share their experiences.

Shannon

I found out about and applied to do work experience with Rix & Kay through my careers teacher, who gave me the potential option of Rix & Kay for my week of work experience. I study Criminology at A-Level and part of our specification relates to law, which made me more interested in looking broadly into different law careers; I applied to Rix & Kay to look into this further as they offer a large range of individual and commercial services. After getting accepted, I was given a timetable which told us the different areas of the firm we would be looking into. I spent time in Central Support, the Family department, Private Client, Employment/Gatekeeper HR, and Corporate & Commercial. Every day we had something different to do which was very useful as it gave an insight into the different areas of work that they offer.

On my first day I was with Alex Bull in Central Support who is a Marketing & Events Executive at Rix & Kay, she gave me lots of information about their role and what it involves; for example, how Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) works and how they use it when uploading blogs onto the company website in order to make their blogs appear higher in searches online. She helped me to set up a LinkedIn profile and showed me how to navigate the site and explained to me how it is useful when looking and applying for jobs. On LinkedIn, I was able to connect with some of the people who work at Rix & Kay to make a network of connections with solicitors and other employees which will be very useful in the future.

Erin

I was offered the exciting position to be able to work alongside various solicitors and members of staff from the Rix & Kay team. This consisted of me being able to gain first hand valuable experience inside a firm as I was given the opportunity to directly shadow solicitors and gain deep insight into their specialised profession. I researched into the extensive types of law that Rix &Kay offer alongside a member of staff and we followed up the information found with a conversation to cement my findings and dive deeper into similar topics. This is something that I really enjoyed as it allowed me to be able to informally discuss with one of many solicitors and I found it to really be developing my skills.

With the variety of departments in Rix & Kay, I was fortunate enough to be able to have spent time in nearly all departments with many different people. With Rix & Kay encouraging this, I developed my understanding of lots of different pathways available to me within law and managed to decide which field of law was my favorite and am hopeful to pursue at university and beyond.

The team here were incredibly helpful and even provided me with many different pieces of advice towards further education and even shared their own pathways which have provided insight and inspiration. This week worth of work experience allowed me to gain experience in the law industry and confirm my pathway and aspirations for the future which I am very thankful for.

Felix

Last week, I completed work experience at Rix & Kay solicitors in Uckfield. It has been both a challenging and a rewarding experience, filled with new vocabulary and ideas I needed to get to grips with. I study maths, economics and politics in Sixth Form, and I am looking to move into a career in possibly law or finance, so doing work experience at Rix & Kay seemed like a no brainer. I had a fantastic and exciting time so far.

On my first day I was working in the Family department, and was helped by Janet Raeburn, the Head of Family at Rix & Kay. Before Monday, I had never even thought that there could be a side to law dedicated to family issues, but since having done a day there, it makes so much sense. I worked on a fake divorce case study, and filled out government forms based on the information I was given. It was a completely new experience, and it was incredibly interesting, as well as seeming like an incredibly emotionally-heavy subject. Janet was extremely helpful and very nice, and easily helped me get to grips with all the new vocabulary I was faced with.

From there, I was in the Corporate and Commercial department, and was being looked after equally by Jonathan Laws and Daniel Halls. My first task was to research a company’s sizing and structure, which I did through using the Companies House website. I then had to find precedents to match certain documents that needed to be sent out, and then finally I had to answer specific questions that Jonathan and Daniel had picked out for me, and had to read an article of association to help me with answering those questions. Throughout the day, Daniel was extremely kind and helpful to me, and really helped me to actually get a good idea of what corporate law is like, and now I am really heavily considering pursuing it.

I also spent time with the Private Client department, and was being helped by Helen Cottington. To begin, Helen talked me though what Private Client law actually is, and what they do in it. She talked me through how wills are created, and how Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) are created and signed legally and correctly. My first task was to read through a will precedent, and draft a will based from the information which was given to me. This was incredibly interesting for me, as I had never really considered where these legal documents come from before, so seeing how they were actually created was a really valuable insight, in my opinion. Then, I was allowed to sit in on an actual will signing meeting with Helen, which was very interesting as I got to see how these processes actually take place. Then, my final task for Wednesday was to fill out a copy of the LPA forms for both health and finances, also based from the information that was given to me at the start of the day. I found this task really quite tricky, but luckily for me, Helen was there to help me and guide me through the process really well and easily.

I worked with the Central Support team for a day, which consists of HR, Marketing and Admin. Alex Bull, the Marketing Executive, was helping me throughout the day, even going as far as to show me how to set up my very own LinkedIn profile.

DJ

I decided to go to Rix & Kay to see what I could do in the future. When I first came to Rix & Kay, I was very nervous due to having social anxiety and from having to talk to people that I do not personally know. However, after an hour of getting to know some of the staff and team members I became more comfortable with talking to them. I have found out that many of the departments here at Rix & Kay are very friendly and welcoming. The different departments include: Corporate and Commercial, Private Client, Residential Property, Family and Central Support.

Corporate and Commercial: 

During my day with Corporate, I looked through the different jobs that they do and what side of clients they deal with. To begin with I was given the task of researching a company and discovering the shareholders and subsidiaries that the company had. I also got to learn about how solicitors and other employees manage their wages and time.

Private Client: 

During my day with the Private Client department, I looked at the different types of tasks the department deals with. To begin with I met the team, as well as discussed what the Private Client department does and what I will be doing for the day. My first task was to draft a will. After that I was given the opportunity to see a couple sign their will with one of the members of the Private Client department. My last task was to look at the Lasting Powers of Attorney for Finances and for Healthcare, were I had to fill in details with information that I was given.

Residential Property Department: 

During my time with the Residential Property department I looked at the different tasks that the department undertook. I was given an overview of the department and team members before beginning my first task. I was to look through how someone sells their house and the processes that take place. My next task was to look through the purchase of a house and the tasks that take place.

Family Department:

During my time with the Family department I looked at the different tasks that the department looked at and dealt with. My task for the day was to go through the papers and forms used for divorces that married couples have to go through to agree with the divorce.

Central Support:

My last day was with the Central Support department, primarily within Marketing. During my time in the department I saw the different processes and ideas that the department uses, such as SEO, to increase the chances that the Rix & Kay website is seen on a daily basis. My first task was to create a LinkedIn account. However, there was an error and the website did not initially work so I moved on to the second task which was writing a blog about my time here and what I thought about the experience.

Interested in work experience?

If you’re interested in work experience at Rix & Kay, check out our Work Experience page to see when applications open.