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Hi all,

I am relatively new to the forum. I am a law student studying at a Scottish University and going into my final and fourth year in September 2021. I am also an international student. I have attended a few Open days in my first and second year, however, I was unable to secure a Vacation scheme for this year. I have extenuating circumstances going on at the moment due to which I have been unable to apply for any direct TC 2023 applications either. My questions are:

1) If I decide to apply in the upcoming cycle (direct TC/ Spring or Summer VS), the only opportunities available to me seem to be for a TC starting in 2024. Considering I graduate in May 2022, I am uncertain how this will work out. Are there any firms/opportunities that I can apply for in the upcoming cycle that will enable me to start a TC in late 2023?
2) Because I am a Scots law student, will I be able to take the GDL + LPC (with some exemptions) route or will I have to take the SQE route?

I would extremely appreciate if I could get some guidance on the following. If any other final year students/international students are in the same boat, I would love to speak and get to know more about options that can be considered!

Hey guys,

Thought it might be useful to start a thread of VS application opening and closing dates for 2022...I've struggled to find any definitive dates so far but as they start coming out in the next month or so I reckon it would be helpful to have them in one thread

Hi guys. I have an interview coming up with Cripps Pemberton Greenish. Does anyone have any tips, and has anyone had an interview with this law firm and has any advice?

Thanks

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I already have an undergrad 2.1 beng in engineering from a russel group university with a first in my dissertation. I took the PGDL full time online course in January with BPP and failed 3 subjects and got a MC application for the fourth which I am due to do with the other 3 resits and the 4 core module assessments unless and until I defer the first 4 module assessments. My MC application was about the death of a close family member’s effect on my performance. The severe deterioration of that member’s health before that member’s death affected me in the other failed assessments but I did not even make an appeal for this after I figured what my results were. I thought it would be too complex and BPP would think I’m lying and so it would be a waste of my time.

Considering the PGDL average for 2 of these modules is 52 and 57 for my particular batch and around 40 for all my personal failed assessments , are firms going to consider me? The pass mark for the new PGDL is 50.

hopefully someone who did the GDL or PGDL with resits who has actually been accepted can provide their advice?

Currently completing Collyer Bristow's application and they ask for a covering letter, but I'm not really what to include because the application form already asks about why i want to be a solicitor, what qualities I have, my extra-curricular activities/interests, what areas of law interest me, and why I have chosen to apply to CB?!

Hey guys,

I have a paralegal interview coming up and it includes a scenario based test that has to be completed prior to the interview. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas as to what this could include. Any help would be much appreciated!

I'm a second-year Law student without a training contract. If I don't manage to secure a winter vacation scheme, I'm wondering how exactly I can go about becoming a paralegal and getting a training contract through that route? Do I apply in the winter of this year when I've just begun my third year?

Hi all!

I have just graduated with a non-law degree from a RG university and intend on applying for vac schemes this coming 2021 winter and next summer. I come from a low-socioeconomic background and am a first-generation uni student so have very few professional/legal contacts that could help with legal experience. I really would like to use this summer to bolster my CV and put myself in a good position for the upcoming application season and would love advice on ways I can prep before the application season begins and boost my cv and attractability to city firms? I have very little legal work experience (but extensive experience in other stuff) and have not completed any vac schemes so would love any suggestions on how non-law grads can stand out?

Any advice much appreciated!

Does anyone have any tips on the first round interview for Memery Crystal TC, please?

Please state the month/year you interviewed at the firm.
May 2021

Please specify what the interview was for.
Summer Vacation Scheme 2021

Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings.
10.00 – 10.30 - Introductions and instructions, including MS Teams overview
10.30 – 10.50 - Ice-breaker
11.00 – 12.00 - Speed Interviews 1
2.00 – 12.45 - Break (offline)
12.45 – 13.00 - Welcome back and instructions
13.00 – 13.30 - Insight Exercise/Trainee Q&A
13.40 – 14.10 - Insight Exercise/Trainee Q&A 14.10 – 14.30 - Break (offline) 14.30 – 16.15 - Group Exercise 16.15 - End of the day

Please provide a summary of each assessment on the day with approximate timings.
Speed interviews - 5 minute interviews with 8 different assessors. Each assessor asks one question and then the candidate has 5 minutes to think answer the question. After the 5 minutes, you will be moved to a different online breakout room with another assessor.

Insight Exercise - 10 minutes to read through an opinion piece. Candidates then have a 20 minute discussion about the opinion piece with 2 assessors.

Group Exercise - Standard negotiation exercise. Candidates are split into two teams of 4 and given a set of two briefs each. One brief has a set of facts common to both parties while the other brief will have facts relating to your client that are confidential and unknown to the other side. 30 minutes of initial reading and preparation in a separate break out room, followed by 30 mins of negotiation in the main room. Candidates can then decide if they would like to break for 15 mins or continue with the negotiation until the time runs out.

What is your best advice for each aspect of the assessment on the day? Please break this down for each assessment. This can include advice for preparation, as well as tips for the day.
Pre-Assessment Centre preparation: I attended the briefing hosted by the HR department that gave us an idea of what the structure of the day is like and found out that the questions tend to be strengths based. Accordingly, I read up on the values of the firm and how my experiences can match those values. I also researched strengths-based questions and practiced answering them. Read up on general topics of commercial awareness.

Speed interviews advice: Keep calm and do not get distracted by having to change rooms every five minutes. Very important to build rapport with every assessor so smile, say a quick good morning. Make sure to listen to the question carefully and take 30 seconds - 1 minute to think about your answer or sketch a plan on a piece of paper (this is allowed). Make sure that your response answers each part of the question. Adopt a structured approach to your answers and always give real life examples from your own experiences.

Insight exercise advice: Spend 5 minutes to carefully read through the article to ensure that you don't miss any important information. Spend the rest of the time taking apart and analyzing the article:
1. Who are the key parties?
2. What is the key development/idea/event that the author is writing about?
3. Strengths/weaknesses of the author's views?
4. PESTLE analysis (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental implications, as applicable) 5. Long term/short term impacts?
5. What do you think about the author's views?

Group exercise: Again, make sure that you have carefully read through both briefs so that you have all the information presented. As a team, try and split up different points of the negotiation i.e. John may take lead on matter x, Lucy takes lead on matter y etc. and then back up and support your team mates while negotiating. Don't get flustered/emotional if you think the other side is not being rational or unable to see your point of view. When someone from the other side speaks, make it a point to repeat back to them what you have heard so as to double check. When presenting your argument, say "I see that you are coming at it from x point of view and that this is important to you for y HOWEVER, ......" as this shows that you are actively listening to arguments presented by the opposition.

Were you successful?
Waiting to hear back

Please state the month/year you interviewed at the firm.
February 2021

Please specify what the interview was for.
Summer Vacation Scheme 2021

Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings.
10:30am-11:00am: Interview 1 with an associate and partner
11:00am-11:30am: Reading Time
11:30am –12:00pm: Interview 2 with an associate and partner

Please provide a summary of each assessment on the day with approximate timings.
Interview 1: General CV/Resume Interview for 30mins with an associate and partner

30 minutes reading time – not law related, the short article came from the BBC on a current news topic

Interview 2: Interview based on article

What is your best advice for each aspect of the assessment on the day? Please break this down for each assessment. This can include advice for preparation, as well as tips for the day.
The partners are very chilled and questions are very ad hoc because they're responding to what you say rather than reading from a script. Just be confident about your experience, be able to talk through what you have done in the past and articulate your trajectory to commercial law well.

The second article based interview was not legal at all and hard to prepare for. The article was super short and it took me about 10mins to read and make some quick notes. I started the interview by giving a summary of the article and my initial thoughts. After that we had a true back and forth about our opinions with the partner and associate and they didn't have prepared questions so they were asking ad hoc questions based off what I was saying. It's important to be responsive to the partner's/associate's questions and it's ok to change your mind as long as you're able to articulate your points eloquently. I found that it really helped to think about it like a seminar/tutorial/supervisions and you're debating with them.

Both of my interviews really run up to the last minute and I only had 5 minutes to ask questions but the partners were super chill and happy to answer questions over the allotted time.

Were you successful?
Yes

I'm a career-changer looking at training contracts and hoping that the TCLA forum will help improve any applications and be beneficial to me as a candidate. Looking forward to getting to know you all!

Hi there folks – I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on the following.

I have just graduated with a 1st (in a non-law subject) from a great uni.

I have been interested in law for a couple of years but only started making serious applications in September 2020. However, I failed to secure any VAC or TC offers, and only had one interview. As a result, I have no funding for my next step – the GDL.

I was initially interested in BPP because they provide the option of upgrading their PGDL to an LLM, making the course eligible for Masters funding.

From my research, ULaw do not seem to provide this option.

However, I’ve come across a lot of negative press surrounding BPP recently, and am scared that it is a bad choice of institution, especially given their lack of physical course materials (the last 18 months of remote learning alone have seen my glasses/contacts prescription worsen considerably!).

Also – I am uncertain whether to opt to study online. Although BPP have said they are ‘optimistic’ about a return to in-person teaching come September, there is no guarantee of this and I doubt they’ll confirm their plans until they’ve seen students’ money (but perhaps this is cynical and unfair of me…). However, I don’t want to uproot my life to live in (pricey) London if COVID still necessitates online teaching in the future.

Will the quality of teaching be poorer online? Will I miss out on any careers advice or pro bono opportunities by not studying in London? Does anyone have any advice on this?

Thanks in advance

*[EDIT – I’ve just stumbled across ULaw’s MA Law course which appears to provide a non-law route to the LPC?? Does anyone have any experience or advice about this course?]

Hi all! So I have just received an opportunity to intern at a venture capital firm for the next 6 months. As I am taking a gap semester, this is no problems in terms of studies.

However, I had been planning to use the upcoming September-December break to really grind my law applications and get them up to par. With the internship, this would be a lot more difficult. I was wondering if anyone had any insights balancing their full time jobs with applications? Is it too difficult that I should give up this opportunity? Really wanted to try working in a finance capacity and I feel it could help me in my applications, but I don’t want to miss out on law apps.

Hi, does anyone have any experience of Peters & Peters' written exercise? Can't find anything anywhere to aid preparation

Aren’t you just applying to our law firm for the money?

So… how many mobile phones are there in the UK?

Your corporate client is lying to Morgan Stanley about the ESG considerations of an investment. How would you advise them?

Could you answer these curveball questions in an interview? They seem hard, right?

We spend most of our time at TCLA guiding you on questions you can expect. This way, you can ace motivational, competency, scenario, and general commercial questions.

But what about the questions you cannot possibly prepare for? The outside-the-box business questions? The complex ethical dilemmas? The most challenging brainteasers?

In this interactive webinar, the TCLA team will walk through some of the hardest interview questions they’ve ever seen or faced and break down their thought process.

The goal is to teach you lasting strategies so that you can provide exceptional answers to questions you never believed you could tackle.

500 places are available, completely free for all. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wfaTtgXDRzKqmQyZ_TJfXg.

We expect to reach maximum capacity for this webinar, so please book early to avoid disappointment. A recorded version will be circulated to TCLA Premium members.

We can't wait to hear from Alice Gossop, Jessica Booker, Dheepa M and Jacob Miller!

'Describe an important event in your life. Why have you chosen this particular event?'

I was wondering if anyone had any good tips on this Q, please? I don't know if they mean a personal event or an academic one?