RS Group & Flex Legal: Empowering Socially Mobile Interns

The in-house legal team at RS Group, a digitally enabled global distributor of product and service solutions for industrial customers, recently partnered with Flex Legal to deliver a two-week long social mobility internship. This saw talented young law graduates and students, hand-picked from socially mobile backgrounds, contributing meaningfully to a number of key projects in RS Group’s legal workload. 

The experience was delivered in line with Flex Legal’s commitment to creating win-win scenarios. RS Group’s in-house team got to demonstrate their ESG commitment to make amazing things happen for a better world and receive the full attention of three motivated and talented aspiring lawyers. The interns got first-hand experience of working in an FTSE 250 environment, where they could practically apply the theoretical work they had undergone during their legal studies.

So, why did RS Group partner with Flex Legal?

Laura Leanca (Legal Director) and Andy James (General Counsel) of RS Group reached out to Flex Legal, having previously seen the work we have done with socially mobile aspiring solicitors as part of our Flex Trainee scheme. We were more than delighted to support RS Group’s decision to welcome some diverse and talented young legal professionals into their team. We discussed their specific requirements, and then set about screening 160+ candidates for 3 places on the internship.

Using similar vetting processes to those used on Flex Trainee, we conducted an initial review based on criteria set out by the UK’s Social Mobility Commission. We conducted bespoke one-on-one interviews with candidates who passed, and paired this with online competency testing we have refined over the last two years. This allowed us to build a comprehensive understanding of each applicant’s legal knowledge, professional aptitude, critical thinking abilities, and even their specific motivations in applying for an internship with RS Group.

Who was selected for the internship?

Finlay, Mary-Ann, and Megan have all demonstrated a continuous commitment to entering the legal profession throughout their studies, often taking on extra-curricular responsibilities around their study and work commitments to get their feet more firmly in the door of the legal sector. Not only had they demonstrated enthusiasm and adaptability in juggling multiple commitments – but they were an obvious culture fit for RS Group. We felt incredibly confident in putting their names forward, and knew they would make the most of the opportunity.

As with other internships and Flex Trainee placements we have facilitated, the interns were brought onto Flex Legal’s payroll for the duration of the two weeks experience. It goes without saying, but this further reduced the administrative and organisational burden placed on RS Group – allowing them to focus solely on working well with the candidates we had hand-picked.

In the words of Finlay, "Spending two weeks with RS has given us fantastic opportunities and exposure to a corporate working environment. It’s every lawyers’ dream to be a partner in a big law firm or work inhouse for a large corporate organisation. We got to work alongside Andy James, General Counsel and the RS in-house legal team and shadow them in their day-to-day jobs while completing a number of special projects that were given to us. I’m still not 100% sure what field I want to move into when I graduate, so having this wider exposure to so many different careers and professions is really invaluable."

What work was completed on the RS Group internship?

Prior to the arrival of the interns, Laura had sourced a variety of complex tasks from the wider in-house legal team. Each task had been set by a different colleague on projects they were actively working on at the time. Laura whittled these tasks down to a definitive 30, and presented them to the interns. In choosing what tasks to set them, she had two aims in mind; firstly, she wanted to give them a varied range of work to do – thereby affording them a broad and contextual understanding of the practicalities of in-house legal work. Secondly, she wanted the interns’ work to tangibly benefit existing colleagues at RS Group – and offer genuine assistance where help was needed.

This to-do list was given to the interns alongside information on who to speak to about each task, and where they might be able to find more information should they need it. Finlay, Mary-Ann, and Megan divided the tasks between themselves based on their own personal interests and strengths, and set about completing them.

Mary-Ann said: "RS is really helping to lead the way, providing work experience opportunities for young people. It’s a tough market out there and work experience, let alone jobs in the legal profession, are very difficult to find! Despite graduating from a Russell Group University, I have still found it incredibly hard to find a full-time role! Having this exposure and outreach over the past two weeks has been really beneficial and it will also help build my CV and hopefully broaden my scope with more career opportunities.”

All three of the interns drafted partnership agreements, and drafted clauses within formal sales contracts - specifically in regard to liability and where it should be capped. They spent one-on-one time with the Head of Group Compliance and Ethics at RS Group, learning about how the compliance function works at a large multinational company. They worked with the IT team to aid the implementation of a new centralised legal knowledge app. Most dauntingly, they were all asked to deliver a presentation to the entirety of RS Group’s legal team. This saw them each assigned a specific recent regulation change that was directly relevant to RS Group’s business – and told to summarise its effects and how it might impact the organisation.

As mentioned, each intern also picked up bespoke tasks in line with their personal interests. Finlay spent time revising a sales contract between RS Group and a globally-known car manufacturer. In addition to this, he helped draft a Request For Proposal after sitting in on a meeting with a regional law firm, who pitched themselves to RS Group to help handle a restructuring following a recent acquisition of theirs.

Mary-Ann took on a great deal of research-based work into a new EU directive that impacted RS Group’s product manufacturing. She researched what it was about, what areas of RS Group might be impacted by it, how it might impact their customer base, and relayed her findings back to senior leaders in the in-house legal team.

Megan also took on some research-based tasks, and assessed a number of Google Products being used by different parts of RS Group. She looked into whether they were GDPR compliant, and how this might impact RS Group’s work in a number of key regions. She also researched the EU Data Act and how it might apply to RS Group’s business dealings, and generated new FAQs on this for use by the non-legal areas of the business.

Where are the interns now?