Is it really like the movies? Tales of life in a New York law firm

New York law firms have featured in many films, television shows and novels over the years. Here they are portrayed as exciting, fast-paced and glamorous. But is this actually the reality? And how does a budding attorney from the United Kingdom give themselves the best possible chance of getting an opportunity in the Big Apple?

In July, Proceed UK secured an internship for Nottingham Law School graduate Hilly Redgrave with New York firm Weinberg, Zareh & Geyerhahn LLP, and she was able to discover first hand whether the life across the Atlantic was all it was cracked up to be.

Firstly, how does a British student go about securing an internship?

It goes without saying that this kind of opportunity is extremely rare and competitive. It is therefore imperative that you can market yourself as the perfect candidate. This means using social media sites like Twitter and LinkedIn to engage with potential employers and post engaging content which is relevant to the sector. And don't forget that cover letters, emails and CVs need to be tailored specifically to the firm and position you are applying.

One of the things that separated Hilly from the hundreds of other applicants to Weinberg, Zareh & Geyerhahn LLP, was her specific interest in the position itself rather than simply the glamour and appeal of New York. When interviewing for an internship, you need to emphasise why this firm and this role is a perfect fit for you, and how the experience on your CV will help you contribute to the organisation's success.

So is it really like it is in the movies? And what skills do you need to make it over there?

Life in a New York law firm is often portrayed as faced-paced and cut-throat, and indeed the New York legal landscape affords little time to rest, as Hilly discovered. "Straight from the off I was attending important meetings covering a huge range of topics, from cross-border intellectual property matters to contentious legal issues between two former business partners," she explains. "The meetings involved travelling through the heart of Times Square and into downtown Manhattan, and it is fair to say that every day was tiring yet inspiring, and jam-packed with both telephone meetings and face-to-face interactions with clients."

Clearly, one of the key skills for any law graduate in the United States is the ability to learn extremely quickly about many different corporate sectors. "An understanding of business and the particular industries in which clients operate seems to me to be as important as a knowledge of the law itself" she continues. One example of this was a morning I spent researching points of defamation law to establish whether certain false reports concerning a client of the firm could be easily removed from search engine listings." This highlights how quickly an employee must get to grips with a new law so that the firm can offer advice to their client.

Perhaps most importantly for any graduate hoping to launch a legal career across the pond, it is vital to be a well rounded and open-minded individual who has the skills to communicate with clients in different sectors. "The meetings I had in New York opened my eyes to the importance of building relationships with people as potential clients," says Hilly. "Every one of them was extremely interactive and highlighted the very entrepreneurial side of New York businesses and the importance of networking."

It's clear that life in a New York law firm is just as hectic in reality as it is portrayed in the media, not just in terms of the quantity of work, but the sheer amount of new things to learn about different business sectors. However, for Hilly Redgrave, it has more than matched her expectations: "It has been the most exhausting, but incredible time of my entire working life. I have fallen in love with New York City and it is very much somewhere I would want to work in the future."

David Press is CEO of Proceed UK.