New Threads

Hi all,

My accountability thread is very delayed but better late than never I guess! I am delighted to have secured the TCLA scholarship and I think it’s a really helpful idea to post regular updates about my journey to hopefully secure vacations schemes/TCs. I graduated with a Scots law degree this summer from the University of Edinburgh, and I am now starting a full time business development job next week onwards.

After my graduation in July, I had been looking for paralegal roles as well and also interviewed for one, however I was unable to secure anything and decided that for the meantime it would be a good idea to take up the business role I was offered and develop my transferable skills! Last application cycle, I was unsuccessful at 2 ACs and some video interviews which had me absolutely gutted, so I am really hoping to improve my interviewing and application writing skills in general for this cycle.

My plan for this thread is to update it every three days and track my progress. For the next couple of days, I plan on doing the following:

- Complete 2 ongoing Forage internships
- Complete TCLA's 'Write Law Firm Applications that lead to interviews' course
- Start with TCLA's 'Develop your commercial awareness: how to think commercially' course
- Start drafting VS apps for two firms

I think my goals aren't specific enough for now but I'm hoping to make them more SMART as I keep on updating this thread!

I am a final year law student who has, perhaps rather surprisingly, only just decided they want to be a commercial solicitor. Because of that, I am trying to do as much as I can to secure a TC for when I graduate.

In the past month:

• I have applied for the Taylor Wessing Summer Vacation Scheme and the Bristows IP Workshop.
• I have written 2 articles for my university's student newspaper about commercial topics.
• I have signed up for a Slaughter & May Commercial Awareness Workshop, and the Herbert Smith Freehills Digital Law Forage.

Apart from this, I am praying every night for a TC lol.

My goals for the rest of the year are:

• Apply for at least three more VSs
• Learn about a new commercial news story every two weeks, and, if I find it particularly interesting, to write an article about it for my student newspaper
• Do the TCLA M&A course

I started this thread to track my progress and hold myself accountable!

One of the questions CC ask for their TC is "tell us about your extra-curricular, positions of responsibility and an achievement of importance you are most proud of". The word limit is 400 words, and I can't seem to meet that, I get stuck at about 300 before I begin to ramble and add nothing to the substance of my application. Is it still worth submitting or to keep brainstorming to meet/get closer to the word limit?

Also, is it acceptable to put ranking first in my cohort for a module as my achievement? I imagine academics aren't really what they are looking for in this answer, but wasn't too sure.

Hi everyone. I have just joined TCLA and enrolled for the TCLA premium as a gold member. My name is Aditya and I am a 2020 LLB graduate from India. I came to the UK in September 2021 to pursue my LLM in International Corporate Law from the University of Leeds which I have now completed and am working full time as a paralegal at a national law firm in Leeds.

My main area of interest is mergers & acquisitions; I am very passionate about this area of practice and am actively seeking VS/TC opportunities at US law firms. I am also a member of the SEO London Corporate Law programme for 2022-23 intake and have attended two insight days at major US law firms giving me a good insight about their culture.

As for my experiences, I have a good mix of legal and non-legal experience. I have completed legal internships in India and also worked part-time in Aldi as a store assistant for 6 months giving me a good balance of technical and soft skills. Pro bono being such an important aspect of law firms’ work, I was also fortunate to complete a community engagement project with my university in Leeds as a volunteer with the Chapeltown Citizens Advice Bureau helping vulnerable clients with their PIP and ESI claims. It gave me a lot of satisfaction to give back to the community.

I have joined TCLA because I have heard great things about this initiative and I am very much looking forward to working alongside the team at TCLA to hopefully fulfilling my dream of securing a training contract in the UK. I also look forward to interacting with Jaysen about whom I have heard great things. All the best to all my fellow TCLA candidates, I hope you all achieve your dreams!!

Hi All!

Unfortunately I am a bit late to the party setting up a "journey to a training contract" thread. First and foremost, thanks to the TCLA team for awarding me a scholarship - I will be taking full advantage of the services offered!

By way of background, I am currently a student studying for my LPC + LLM after completing my undergraduate degree in law a little over a year and a half ago. I took a year out in-between my undergraduate and postgraduate studies to gain some experience at a global bank based out of Canary Wharf. I thoroughly enjoyed this work, gaining exposure to different areas of banking and finance law in several jurisdictions.

I write this post to hold myself accountable in both VC + TC applications, to share my thoughts along the way and track my progress to see how I improve over the forthcoming months.

I feel it is important to share some key facts about myself, which may motivate others sharing a similar background / story:

I attended a state school;
I attended / attend a non-Russell group university;
Neither of my parents, nor do I know any family that have worked in the legal profession; and
I achieved C, D and E in my A-levels (albeit mitigating circumstances).

I know the journey ahead will be tough, but I full faith in myself that I can achieve a training contract. My applications will be tailored towards firms offering services in all financial related areas, and general corporate and commercial areas too. I will start by delving deeper into TCLA's courses content... update in due course (pun intended).

Anyone feel free to comment on this thread, or reach out to me on LinkedIn if you want to discuss your own journey / thoughts. Always open to tips, advice and feedback!

Jack

Hi!

I am posting here because I am hoping to get honest opinions on my chances of getting a Vacation Scheme in London this year. Being a bit of an outsider, it is quite hard for me to estimate whether it is worth the effort at all. Also quite hard to figure out how my education would be evaluated.

My background:

• I have been educated in Switzerland and followed the traditional state school route there, for the equivalent of GCSEs and A-levels, both with results averages of 5 out of 6, which equals 75% according to Wikipedia.
• I have graduated from a law degree in Switzerland (Civil Law Jurisdiction) with an average of 5 out of 6 as well, which would count as a 2:1. I have then spent a year doing a Master's Degree in Switzerland as well, one of my module was an introduction to Common Law.
• I have now just finished an LLM in London at KCL. So far I received the grades for 4 modules out of 6 and they were all above 70.
• I have short term legal experiences in Switzerland, but not in the UK.
• I have been part of different committees in students associations back home, and worked for the Law Clinic of my uni when I was in London.
• I am fluent in English, French and German, and can converse in Italian.

I would say that from my experience and what I hear around me (impossible to find proper evidence of that obviously...), education in general and the undergraduate law degree is harder and more demanding in Switzerland than the UK. Additionally, I doubt that Rare Contextualized Recruitment would be of any help to me.

I plan on applying to plenty of city law firms as well as US based, for a vacation scheme in London, with the goal of qualifying as a solicitor there. I would estimate that I score average in SJTs and excellent in Watson Glaser type of assessments.

If I was invited to a Vacation Scheme, I would (obv) do everything in my power to convert it into a Training Contract and I would then study the SQE. I would need the firm to sponsor me and provide work permit during the training contract.

Given all of that, and assuming that I send out ~25 well researched applications (I have a lot of time on my hands right now), is there any chance for me to be successful somewhere?

Thank you for reading

Would opting out of Rare Contextual questions harm your application in any way?

Hi Everyone! I am currently a BPC student, but I am looking towards transitioning into the solicitor route by taking the first baby step of applying for VC. A huge shoutout to TCLA, which has been a really great resource in helping me to grasp the basics of applying for VC!

With my current heavy BPC workload, I believe setting realistic and achievable goals are important in holding myself accountable. My plan is to mainly apply for international firms (a mix of UK and US firms). I'm still in the process of researching these law firms, and plan to begin drafting my application this week. In the mean time, I also try to keep myself abreast with the latest commercial news, while researching some financial jargons as well.

Will update this thread on a weekly basis pertaining my progress!

I am a penultimate year law student from the university of Surrey who is in the process of applying for vacation schemes specifically at magic circle law firms. I aim to improve my commercial awareness and time management skills this year as this will enable me to be more able when and if I get an offer from my applications.

Does anyone know how long the SQE2 course is?

Hey everyone!

I am a career changer looking to successfully apply for a training contract this year. Is there anyone else who is a career changer?

Perhaps we can set up a Whatsapp group to encourage and learn from one another. I know the struggle is hard especially when working fulltime/studying parttime.

Hi! Been scrolling the forums a little bit and thought it'll be great to register and ask.

In pre-employment background checks (for VS/TC), does the background check company go to the law firms with which I did vacation schemes before and confirm my TC offer status?

In my circumstances, I signed a training contract at an international firm's overseas office (in Hong Kong), but now I prefer to come back and work in the UK. I appreciate reneging my Hong Kong offer is not ideal but there are personal family reasons for my move.

Obviously, I will not want to alert the firm's Hong Kong office if the background check company goes to them and asks if I interned there and/or signed a training contract with them. In the worst case that I do not get a UK TC offer, I will still not want to lose the Hong Kong offer.

Should I just not disclose my vacation scheme and/or training contract overseas early on in the application stage?

Currently redrafting my CV for DLA Piper’s Summer Internship and am struggling to fit in transferable skills in a way that reads well. I’m not keen on a ‘key skills’ section, but my other approach of just tacking on ‘…, improving/developing [x]’ at the end of bullet points doesn’t read particularly nicely. Anyone got any solutions or tips? Thanks.

Hi there,
I've just received an automatic video interview invitation for White & Case winter vac scheme.
Anyone has experienced this before ? Any recommendations or tips about this type of interviews or the questions that could come up ?

Thanks,
Ghassen.

Hi!

There is a question on my CMS Academy application that I'm stuck on.

The question asks 'In your view, what steps should a law firm take to put client relationships at the forefront of its strategy?'.

Do I talk about innovation or seeking to understand the client holistically as knowing the client's strategy will help provide better service? I'm not too sure what route to go down here, or if the question is asking something completely different.

Thank you!

For the next few weeks, I have certain goals that will help me gain a vac scheme with my desired firm.
1. As a second year law student, I aim at improving my academics. I aim to achieve this by improving my critical thinking.
2. As the application season has started of, I aim at improving my commercial awareness and writing in a clear and concise way.
3. I want to improve my time management. I want to ensure that I keep a good work-life balance. This is crucial as an aspiring solicitor to ensure efficiency and professionalism.
4. I aim at increasing my pool of opportunities (quality + quantity). This is so that I can improve my skills that take me forward in my career.

I completed my situational judgement test for A&O last week and this week I have regularly listened to BBC global news, FT news briefing, Watson's daily, and Bright Network's Think Commercially podcast. All of these things are part of my goal to securing a training contract. In the upcoming I want to be preparing for an Assessment Centre.

Hi,

On the Pinsents app the questions are stated as having a 1500 character limit, however, when entering an answer it becomes clear that the limit is in fact 2000. Has anyone got a view as to what is the correct number? I'm assuming it's the former.

Hi everyone, I'm Jiya.

This year I am trying to improve my commercial awareness and success at AC's as these are the areas I fell down on last year. I will achieve this by:

• Completing at least one lecture of the courses offered by TCLA each day to have a continuous top-up of general commercial knowledge.
• Finding at least one article that interests me each week and writing about why it is important to businesses and why it is important to law firms. I may post this on LinkedIn to ask my connections if they have further ideas about my thoughts, but I may do this once I feel a bit more confident about my abilities!
• Making myself a booklet for each law firm I've applied to with bullet points of answers to questions they could potentially ask, as well as a reminder of why I have chosen to apply to that firm. For example, each of the competencies they look for, why law, why the firm, and general commercial questions. I will aim to update these at least once a week and treat it almost like a revision book where the ideas I write down can be developed in an actual interview.
• Only making applications to law firms that I can genuinely see myself at, and ensuring that I have finished my applications for them at least 1 week before the deadlines to have time to properly check them.

Good luck with TC hunting everyone!