Vacation scheme and training contract application reviews

Law firms receive thousands of applications for vacation schemes and training contracts every year. To get invited to interview, you need to learn effective application technique. 

But application technique isn’t about applying a set of rigid rules to your applications. It’s about presenting who you are on paper. It’s about showcasing your motivations, experiences, and potential to a recruiter. It’s about knowing how to tailor your applications and stand out from the crowd.

We at The Corporate Law Academy know how competitive it is. We take your application reviews very seriously.

Candidates come back to us because they know we provide the gold standard of application reviews. We have a deep understanding of exceptional application writing and know how to bring out the best of candidates in an application.

Our thorough and personal application review service, offers you detailed, line-by-line comments on your vacation scheme or training contract application. These reviews are firm-specific and cover the following areas:

• how well you answer the question[s] asked;
• your use of language and your overall structure;
• how well you’ve tailored your application to the specific firm; and
• how well you’ve met a firm’s competencies.

Many of our students go on to secure training contracts at top commercial firms, including the magic circle and New York’s elite law firms.

So, how does the application review service work?

Our fast-track application review service will provide you with detailed line-by-line comments on your applications in one working day. You will then be able to edit your application based on our comments, improve the quality of your application, and submit it with plenty of time to spare before your deadline!

TCLA Premium Gold Members receive exclusive access to one free fast track review each month, as part of their premium subscription. If you are not already a member, sign up here! Alternatively, you can purchase standalone reviews here.

How do I submit my application?

1. Read the terms below to make sure your application meets the requirements.
2. Submit your application via the form below by 4pm for a next working day return.
3. Receive our confirmation email within the same day.
4. Receive our detailed review of your application the next working day (anytime before midnight).

Submit Your Application

Why use our application review service?

We’ve reviewed thousands of applications since 2017

In the period between October 2020 and January 2021 alone, we reviewed over 1,100 open day, vacation scheme and training contract applications. Our experience has taught us what works and what doesn’t. We know how to sell your experiences, demonstrate your motivation and make an application stand out. We don’t just talk the talk either. We’ve been through the process ourselves: our reviewer secured 13 interviews with top commercial law firms.

Comprehensive feedback

Due to the volume of applications we receive, we are able to benchmark the strength of your application against other candidates applying to the same firm. In addition to our line by line comments, you’ll receive practical guidance on how to apply our feedback to future applications.

High-level, specific, actionable advice

There’s a reason we only review law firm applications. That’s our niche and we’re good at what we do. We’re not here to give you generic advice on your applications. Instead, we provide bespoke, actionable advice based on your existing application answers, your experiences and motivations, and the firm you’re applying to. We very rarely come across a firm we haven’t reviewed hundreds of applications for!

Finally, note, the purpose of our reviews is to help you get your applications into the best shape you can. We’ll point out red flags and advise you on how to improve your answers, however, we cannot guarantee you will move onto the next stage.

Confidentiality and Data Protection

All applications submitted to TCLA for review are shared only with our application review team for the purposes of reviewing your application. We will not share your applications with anyone else. We store applications on our project management software for eight months so we can handle follow-up queries and cross-reference your future application reviews with any older submissions. Thereafter, they are deleted.

Need help?

Please drop us an email at [email protected]

Terms – please read 🙂

We have introduced the following terms to ensure that we can give you the best possible application review.

• We will return an application by midnight the next working day provided it is submitted by 4pm. If you haven’t heard back from us during the day, please know we are still in the process of reviewing it and we will have it back to you by midnight. If we miss the deadline, we will offer you a free review. Applications submitted after 4pm are considered submitted the following working day.
• We only review the application questions in a review. Please send over your application as a Word document with only the application questions and answers included. This ensures we are only processing the information necessary for the review of your application.
• Please note that we can only accept applications that are within the word count. We kindly make this request so we can provide you with a quality review. If you send us an application above the word count, we will kindly ask you to re-send your application to us or purchase our word count reduction service.
• If you would like your work experience or CV reviewed, we can certainly do this, but this will count as its own separate review.
• Free fast-track application reviews for Gold members renew each calendar month. Fast track reviews that are not redeemed within the month do not carry over into the next month.
• If your fast-track application is over 1,500 words, we may ask you to purchase a Gold upgrade pack. This allows us to dedicate the time to providing you with a quality review.
• Please only submit one version of an answer for each application question.
• If you have any issues submitting your application via the form, please email it directly to [email protected]
• We are happy to answer individual follow-up questions, but we cannot provide a further review of an application unless an additional review is purchased here.
• Need more support? Anyone is entitled to purchase additional application reviews. Standard application reviews, application packs and advanced reviews will be returned in three working days.