I began my training contract with DLA Piper acutely conscious of, and excited about, the opportunities the firm provides for travel abroad, particularly for trainees. So, when the email from Graduate Recruitment came through, I leapt at the chance to apply for an international secondment.

Having grown up in Singapore, it could be said that my choosing it as the location for my third seat was the "safe" option. I could have applied to Moscow, Madrid or Sydney, all places, and indeed continents, that I haven’t visited. However, I was interested to experience a different side to the Singapore of my childhood, and the fact that one of the available seats was in corporate meant it was the natural choice. I had loved my corporate seat in Manchester and was excited for the opportunity to experience different types of corporate work in an entirely new working environment.

And it certainly was new. The corporate team in Singapore is small but accomplished - working on transactional and advisory work across South East Asia, Europe and the US, and often acting as the first port of call for queries concerning Asia. The number and individuality of the transactions worked on by the Singapore team is extraordinary; during my six months I assisted with Indonesian advisory work, a complex high-value Hong Kong-Singapore acquisition and a global restructuring, just to name a few.

But it wasn’t all work. All of the trainees that second to Singapore from international firms in the UK are added to a group Whatsapp when they arrive in the country, and the sixty of us made the most of travel opportunities from the island. The travel, from Vietnam to Myanmar and Japan, and the networking that this allowed for, made the Singapore secondment, in my opinion, one of the best secondments available to DLA trainees.

My secondment to Singapore was certainly the highlight of my training contract, and I couldn't recommend it more highly.