I am now in the second year of my training contract and about one month into my third seat – on secondment to Shell’s legal team. Looking back on my decision to join EAPD (or Kendall Freeman as it was then), I can say I made a great move.

I read Modern History and German at Oxford, and during that time was very much focused on my degree. After my finals were over, I got work experience at an international public relations firm in Munich. Fairly quickly, I decided that PR was not the industry for me, and I began seriously to consider a career in law. I did a two-year legal masters degree at Bristol University, and chose the Kendall Freeman training contract at the end of my first year there.

The firm stood out for several reasons. My experience at interview, in contrast to the process at many other firms, was that I was challenged and tested but also questioned seriously about my capabilities, interests and experiences. I was attracted by the firm's areas of work: it was recognised as a litigation firm, with particular expertise in commercial and insurance litigation, and also with strong capacity in corporate, regulatory, employment and public international law. The quality of work also seemed to be very high: Kendall Freeman was an elite City firm, specializing in technical and high value work with insurers, banks and other sophisticated corporate and state clients. And, as such, the firm was prepared to compete for top quality graduates. That interest and quality, combined with the culture and team spirit of a smaller firm obviously committed to offering outstanding training, meant that their training contract offer was irresistible.

Since then, the firm has become Edwards Angell Palmer and Dodge through the merger which took place on 1 January 2008. We trainees are part of an exciting project. The old advantages remain: the London office has a friendly, relaxed culture and within a short space of time you can feel part of the whole team. And now we benefit from international capacity and breadth, an even higher quality of work, the opportunity for secondments abroad (New York, anyone?), and the chance to form transatlantic working relationships. Just in the year since I started, the London office has experienced rapid growth, expanding its glamorous intellectual property and life sciences practices and growing its corporate offering, as the firm reaps the fruits of the merger.

In my first year, I focused on litigation. In insurance litigation, I worked on a massive and complex £500 million international case. I experienced insurance disputes in the engineering and pharmaceuticals industries and worked for some of the giants of the insurance world.

In commercial litigation, I went to court on a whole range of matters, and experienced extremely high-stakes and high-pressure disputes. I gained fantastic experience of large and high-value disputes, and also of some smaller matters. I even appeared as a witness in one of my cases, and I relished the independence that this entailed.

On secondment to Shell, it has been great to compare working in a huge multi-national group with the more intimate experience of our London office. I am gaining a wealth of experience in commercial law, and especially in drafting and reviewing commercial contracts. It is a fascinating contrast to be trying to prevent disputes ever happening rather than trying to solve them after they have occurred.

My training contract has challenged me with interesting and demanding work. All my supervisors have been absolutely lovely, and have supported me completely. I have enjoyed EAPD's positive work-life balance, where you are expected to perform your work to a high standard but not to stay late for the sake of being seen. And I have become part of a close-knit group of trainees which itself is part of a London and worldwide team.

If you're looking for stimulating and absorbing work, you want to be part of a close team and positive culture, and if you'd like to keep a decent work-life balance, then I think EAPD is a really great choice.