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For anyone who has applied & possibly gotten through most/all rounds of the L&W first-year scheme, can you please summarize the process?

anyone heard back from mishcon post VI?

Anyone took the VI already?
What was the process like - how much time to think and how long to answer?
What questions did they ask?

nul

Hi there,

I'm looking at a question which says "Please write about a current issue or news story that has interested you and explain how you feel that subject matter is relevant to [insert firm]"

The trouble is I don't know where my logical starting point is when researching a question like this.. Any advice?

Furthermore, is there a specific kind of structure I should adopt?

Help will be greatly appreciated!

.

How to be More Confident in Law Firm Interviews​

Hi everyone, I hope you're all having a brilliant start to the week.

For those of you that couldn't make it to Jaysen's workshop on Friday - here is the recording of the session!

In this session, Jaysen discusses and shares his advice on how to push back the inner voice that tells you you aren't good enough to be here (you are!) and how to turn those nerves around to present the best version of yourself during your interviews.

Jaysen talks about:

• What do you do when you lack confidence in yourself?
  
  
• What strategies can you use to handle the pressure of curveball interview questions, commercial questions and law firm case studies?
  
  
• How to lean on your strengths and use authenticity to battle nerves in an interview.
  
  

Hello, I've only recently completed my LPC LLM with a Merit and currently looking for paralegal experience whilst applying for TC. However, most positions do require experience and I only completed a 6 months internship. I have edited my CV and Cover letters several times but my application would not even progress to the interview. Since I started the job hunt, I have only received 3 calls. Is there any advice you could give me? I think I am missing something.

To clarify, I have been unemployed for over 5 months now. I don't know what else to do and how I'm meant to explain my unemployment period. I have joined TCLA recently to expand my knowledge and get advice. I have completed virtual internships for some Leading law firms.

Are there any trainees currently studying an LLM/PGDip alongside their TC, or any qualified solicitor who did so? If anyone has done so could you please share which course you took, your experiences including the challenges you faced, and your reasoning for doing it?

Hello, nice to meet you! I am a LLM Intellectual Property Law student with a slight obsession with dinosaurs (you couldn't tell, could you?). I have decided to join the forum after visiting it as a guest for the past year or so. Its been a very helpful source for me so far to keep myself motivated while applying for vacation schemes with the firms I decided on and I plan to use it as accountability tool to work more on my commercial awareness as well as Watson Glaser tests (I always do worse in the actual ones and I got to figure out why) throughout the months where the firms I'm interested in dont have any open VC applications. And obviously I'll also be here to hold myself accountable in the new application cycle!

My goal is to get a vacation scheme and training contract next year latest. I still have one application process out in the void for this year (with Osborne Clarke, post first AC), but while I would love to get a vacation scheme with them, as the firm is one of my favourites, I want to be ready for the (sadly likely) event that I will not. But fingers crossed, that maybe I am lucky and get a chance to prove myself at the second AC.

Either way, its good to meet you all and I hope I too can successfully complete my path towards a TC (either this year or next year)!

Hi friends, I've recently been invited to a video interview with Bird&Bird and was wondering if anyone who had already done it could provide any insight or tips?

Anything would be greatly appreciated, thank you so much!

,

Hi!

This is my first post on here, so by way of introduction, my name is Ella, I have graduated with a 2.1 from Bristol Law School, and am doing my LLM in Commercial Law currently.

I am wondering if anyone has any tips or advice on how to develop my commercial awareness ahead of my assessment centre at Mills & Reeve. I really, really, really want to succeed at the AC, however I find it hard to be commerically aware, it is a very ill-defined term in my opinion, and find simply reading the FT has not given me sufficient knowledge in the past to convert interviews into TC's.

Should I focus on the sectors that M&R work in, or the services they offer? It's worrying me how to apply the things in business news to how a law firm would be affected by these issues.

Any advice would be appreciated because I'm stressing out at the classic advice hasnt worked for me thus far.

Thanks!

I am in the process of drafting a cover letter for a paralegal position that has caught my eye.

& I was wondering whether you may be able to help me with this @Jessica Booker?

- How long would the ideal paralegal cover letter be in your opinion (word count)?
- Should it still follow the traditional cover format, or is there anything different about a paralegal cover letter?
- Could you mention that you have applied for a TC with their firm as well?

Thanks!

Hi!
Just got through to the Vinson & Elkins video interview stage for 2023 summer vac scheme.
Was wondering if anyone has any advice?

Thank you!

I'm going through the Vero screening process and for the activity tab it's only letting me input my education till date and not any extracurricular/volunteering history (which I put on my application form). The section says it only requires basic activity from the past 6 years with no need for references. Is it okay just to proceed with the education?
Also I haven't had any employment in past 6 years, just school straight to uni so there would be nothing to add (asides from the volunteering activities I've done at uni).

Does anyone have any advice or guidance on this?

Hi,

I thought I would post on here as I have seen other people do the same and it is very motivating to see people stick to their goals and update everyone as they go.

I am a current LPC student. I decided to self-fund the LPC after getting a high 2:1 from a RG university and then a master's in corporate law from another RG university. I wanted to paralegal in London after university initially but my mum needed me to stay home for a year after being away for 4 years so I decided to do the LPC remote. This is because my city does not have that many legal opportunities and I wanted to stay somewhat close to law and the career.

Throughout my studies, I never really took applying for VS' and TCs seriously as I thought this was what people did once they graduated.

However, in my second year, I sent 5 applications off but all were instantly rejected mainly for them being plagued with typos. In my third year, I did not apply at all.

During my master's, I sent off a grand total of one application which was also rejected.

However, this year during my LPC I have made a real attempt at sending off applications and attempted to learn more about the career through Aspiring Solicitors, Legal Cheek and of course TCLA.

This year I have set myself the goal of attending at least one AC which would also be my first ever!

So far I have sent off applications to:

GOWLING (REJECTED POST ONLINE TEST)
IRWIN MITCHEL (REJECTED POST ONLINE TEST)
CMS (COMPLETED WG, AWAITING RESPONSE TO SEE IF I HAVE SECURED A VI)
BRISTOWS DIRECT TC (REJECTED AFTER VI)
CLYDE & CO (COMPLETED VI, AWAITING RESPONSE TO SEE IF I HAVE SECURED THE AC)
DWF (INVITED TO COMPLETE VI)
ADDLESHAW GODDARD
WFW
TRAVERS SMITH
WHITE & CASE
BDB PITMANS
CHARLES RUSSELL SPEECHLYS DIRECT TC
PINSENT MASONS DIRECT TC

I still need to apply for:

WOMBLE BOND DICKINSON VS
BAKER MCKENZIE DIRECT TC
BCLP DIRECT TC

I have celebrated my successes so far. After feeling like I would never get past the application stage I have managed to do so on 6 occasions this cycle. This felt amazing. I then completed a few VIs which felt so hard but was also proud that I was invited to complete them. I hope they continue to come and I perform well enough in one to get that elusive AC and possibly the VS or TC.

I will use this thread as a personal journal that people are welcome to comment on. I have found reading other people's goals and progress to be very encouraging and hope I can do the same for others.

So here it is, onwards and upwards!

Hi everyone!

My name is Maria and I am a Product Lead at TCLA and future trainee.

With assessment centre season well underway and many of you wanting to start preparing for your training contract applications, @NatashaS98 , @Orla , @Erin and I have been thinking of ways to provide you with opportunities to practice your commercial awareness.

I wanted to start by giving you an opportunity to conduct a PESTLE & SWOT analysis. This is commonly used in group exercises or individual assessment centre activities, mainly because it allows recruiters to see your ability to think commercially and consider current news stories that may impact clients (both positively and negatively!). You can find a quick summary of what each acronym stands for in the PDF below.

Here is a scenario that you could be given in a law firm assessment centre:

You are an entrepreneur seeking to start your own independent coffee shop in London. Using PESTLE and SWOT, what are some factors that you would consider when building your business plan?

Make sure to share your ideas on this thread, and we’ll be sending everyone who participates an email with a summary of our team’s answer to this question by next Wednesday, the 8th of February.

------

Quick note:

Don’t worry if you find this hard, this is normal! There is also no such thing as a “perfect” answer here. The most important thing is to give this practice exercise a try!

Also, there is no need to use both PESTLE and SWOT or to consider every single factor of each - feel free to refer to as many points as you want! In fact, as you can see, both Strengths and Weaknesses refer to an internal assessment of the business, while Opportunities and Threats relate to external factors. Because we’ve given you little information about the business, it is normal if you can’t think of many strengths and weaknesses, so don’t worry about that!

Looking forward to seeing everyone’s thoughts!

I am filling out an online job application for a law firm and there is a 'box' for a covering letter. As it's obvious the position I am applying for and who I am, should I start with the usual paragraph of introducing myself and what job I am applying for, or can I go straight into the main part of the letter i.e. why I am perfect for the job.  There is a limited word count, so I don't want to waste words unnecessarily. Any thoughts?