Don’t sneer when you’re asked to do the photocopying on your summer placement; make the most of your experience and learn what it is solicitors and barristers actually do. It will increase your chances of success, says Melissa Hardee

When you picture your career in the law, you see yourself suited, booted and dynamic, impressing clients or judges with your legal expertise as all around applaud your intellect. This vision of success drives you to work hard at law school. So when, on your first day on a vacation placement or mini-pupillage, you are asked to make four coffees and photocopy a batch of documents twenty times, the sound of your glitzy dreams crashing to the floor may be deafening.