School of Law

Carol’s summer in Dubai

Image of Carol Carol Spaderna is a second year Law student at Bangor. She has secured a month’s work experience with Simmons & Simmons, a world class international law firm with 20 offices located in major business and financial centres throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Carol is based at the Dubai International Financial Centre. She shares her thoughts and experiences about her first week in Dubai…

I have spent my first week in Dubai and time is generally flying by here. I’m based in the Financial Markets Department at Simmons & Simmons, which is both new and challenging as I haven’t dealt with this area of law before. The people in my office are very supportive and my boss, who is a leading international finance lawyer, is just fantastic.

I generally start my day at 7.30 in the morning. I have also had to learn to cope with the crazy traffic in Dubai and have successfully driven myself to work the last few days. There are 6 lane highways here and once you miss your exit, you have to keep on going for at least 5 miles till you get to the next one.

It took me a few days to actually understand what I’m doing here, this is a different world and all of a sudden University seems miles away. And the heat is almost unbearable here.

My friends have been asking me whether I have done photo copying jobs yet - I have to admit that I haven’t even seen the photocopier yet! I was given great tasks right from the start, like writing part of an article with regard to a carbon free city, which will be established in Abu Dhabi. I also contributed to an article on future nuclear power stations in the United Arab Emirates under the 123 Agreement.

Image of Carol DIFC provides excellent facilities such as fitness centre, numerous bars, restaurants and coffee places, the high end designers and everything else that people of the high income categories can afford. It is impressive to watch the latest Maserati’s, Porsche's and Bentley’s passing by the front entrance in the morning and evening. Given the different nationalities that are present in this building, the only thing they all have in common is Blackberry's and Louis Vuitton!

Weekends in Dubai start on Thursdays and the working week starts on Sundays. And that is confusing! On Sunday I went to work, being under the illusion that it was Monday, which pretty much messed up my week as every time I was thinking of doing something I was one day ahead!

On Thursday evening I went to the Atlantis, the newly opened hotel on Palm Jumeirah, which is the exact copy of the one in the Bahamas. On Friday I went to the beach as Dubai has got fantastic beaches, still it was far too hot outside to actually enjoy the beach as the sand is so hot - you just burn your feet!

So what can you do? You go shopping. Dubai Mall - a newly opened shopping centre, which takes you days to fully discover. It took me just 15 minutes to find my most favourite shop ever so I was sorted! Dubai is just the shopping paradise and there is also a shopping festival at the moment where every Mall has special offers and sales. And all girls love a good sale, don’t they?