My week at Olliers as an intern – Siobhan Skudder

Last week’s intern at Olliers, Siobhan Skudder, reflects on her week with Olliers

Having done research into finding firms that seemed to focus on criminal law work and not seeming to get anywhere, I was happy when I saw a post on LinkedIn advertising the Olliers student open evening.

I attended, met several of the team and then subsequently applied for the summer intern scheme. When I applied, I wasn’t sure if I would be accepted, feeling sure that there would be better candidates than me. To my delight, I was invited onto the summer internship, and I have been on the go since walking through the front door.

The Magistrates’ Court

Within about five minutes of walking in the door on my first day I was whisked back out and off to the Magistrates’ Court with David Philpott. Here I got to see an honest look at how fast a solicitor’s day can be as we were running about between a few courts. We met with our client, had a discussion with him and took instructions. Then it was straight into the court to present the case to the magistrates.

I was fortunate enough to be back in the Magistrates’ Court with David for a second time this week, this time with him working as the Duty solicitor and if I thought Monday was fast-paced this was an entirely unique experience. Running from court to the custody cells to speak to clients, back up to court and all around the building all over again felt like the best kind of organised chaos to me. Throughout it all the quick decisions that were made by David were made with a level head despite them having to be made pretty much on the spot with limited information.

Again, I got to see the cases put to the magistrates and have each client’s circumstances advocated to get the best possible outcome for them at the time. I was able to have a conversation with David after all the cases and he patiently and helpfully answered all the questions I had thought throughout the day.

The Crown Court

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Crown Court twice on Tuesday with Martha Odysseos. The case that I was observing in the morning was a large one with several defendants, and it was fascinating to see so many barristers and the procedural aspects of the case.

In the afternoon again we were running back to another case. I got to see how the courtroom was able to work collaboratively to resolve an issue that had arisen and reschedule the case to be accommodated at the court at a later date. I got to see Martha being a reassuring presence to a defendant.

Martha patiently answered the questions and explained to the defendant (and to me) the process of what was going to happen and how they would be in contact closer to the new trial date to progress the case.

Police station visit

The first visit I got to do to the police station was to a voluntary interview on Wednesday morning with Martha Odysseos. Even though I was told this was likely to be a short interview because it wasn’t an individual in custody it was still fascinating to be told the disclosure by the police, to take instructions from the client and the police interview that followed.

The second police interview I was fortunate enough to take part in was with Helen Buxton for a suspect who had been arrested and was now in custody. After we had set off to the police station, we received a phone call to inform us that the suspect didn’t want to come out of their cell as they weren’t feeling well, so we had to think of an alternative way to deal with the interview. We received email disclosure from the police and then had a phone call with the suspect to take their instructions and prepare a written statement that could then be emailed back to the officer dealing with the case at the police station.

It was an entirely different way of conducting the interview and while its outside of the normal procedure I am glad it’s something that I got to see firsthand.

The DBS department

I was given the opportunity to discuss drafting representations to the DBS in relation to ‘minded to bar’ cases. George Odysseos explained to me how we would draft representations for the DBS based on the information received and passed on more information he’d gained from the client. The representations were confusing to me at first as it’s something that I had ever come across as part of my studies, but again it was patiently explained to me how we would deal with these types of cases.

Discussion with Matthew Claughton

On my last day Matthew Claughton, the Managing Director of the firm, took me to one side to have a chat, during which it became clear that Olliers has an interest in inspiring a new generation of solicitors. As explained above, it was difficult to find a criminal defence law firm that was happy to take interns on to see how they felt after being fully immersed in a week full of varied work, so it is incredible that Olliers provides this opportunity to the successful applicants.

I would tell anyone who has an interest in criminal law to apply for this internship scheme as you’re never going to find another experience like it. I’d also just like to say thank you to anyone involved in my internship, for answering questions, all having an infinite amount of patience and for being generally helpful.