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Hey Guys

Its been about 3 weeks since I've completed my Watson Glaser for the Dentons direct TC, and still haven't heard back. How long do they usually take?

Thanks!

Vacation schemes can be overwhelming and daunting.

How do you show a law firm that you are capable and motivated? What do you need to do to excel from day one? How do you deal with the doubt and self-talk?

For the first time, we’re sharing our best advice on how to:

• prepare to stand out
• build a mindset to deal with feelings of ‘not being good enough’
• perform exceptionally in conversion interviews; and
• excel in team-based assessments and deliver work to a very high standard.

REGISTER HERE

The webinar is led by TCLA’s forum team, with experience in converting multiple vacation schemes, assessing vacation scheme candidates, and advising hundreds of aspiring lawyers through the TCLA forum.

The goal is to leave you inspired and empowered to convert your next vacation scheme into a successful training contract offer.

This session is completely free to all, however places are capped. A recorded version will be circulated to TCLA Premium members.

Introduction​

After a great recent discussion about women’s clothes options for vacation schemes, I was reminded of some of the challenges I had when I was first building up a wardrobe of formalwear, both in terms of finding clothing options at an accessible price and actually putting together formal outfits. As such, I wanted to put together a little guide on how to shop for formalwear at different price points, what to look for, and some general pointers in constructing a formal outfit.

Sourcing formalwear​

One of the major barriers to entry with formalwear, often, is cost. I’ll quickly cover some options for formalwear at different budget levels, giving a few ideas at different price points for both suits and shoes. Before I go any further, though, there are two very important principles to remember when planning formalwear in advance of a vacation scheme or even starting a new job. Firstly, you will absolutely not be judged negatively on your appearance so long as you are dressed appropriately - firms are far more interested in who you are as a person than how you look. Secondly, you do not need to spend a huge amount of money on formalwear to look smart and feel ‘the part’.

On a constrained budget (£0-£60 per suit):

If working on a tighter budget, fear not. As mentioned above, there is no need to spend a lot of money on formalwear. For those who are in the most challenging financial positions, there are some organisations who will assist candidates with free or vastly discounted formalwear (see, for example, Suit2Go and Suited & Booted) for things like interviews and internships.

If you don’t mind buying second hand, charity shops can often have absolute bargains if you know what you’re looking for. Obviously, you’ll want to check carefully for any obvious marks or wear, and non-smokers ought to check for smoke smell (as this can be hard to remove). Nevertheless, charity shops often have brand new or barely worn items on the shelves for a fraction of their RRP.

If you’re looking to purchase your formalwear new, but are nevertheless working on a slimmer budget, supermarkets are often a good starting point. At the time of writing, you can purchase a black suit jacket and trousers for £32 from George. Some online retailers and more budget-friendly high street shops also provide formalwear which looks great and won’t cost the earth. I’ve personally had suits from Primark and ASOS in the past – at the time I bought them, I was able to pick up a jacket and trousers for around £50, even less with a student discount. Both options fitted well and lasted a good amount of time, too.

In terms of shoes in this market bracket, Shoe Zone have some £10-15 pairs, Matalan have some great options at less than £20 per pair and Samuel Windsor also represent great value with pairs around £25. Whatever you go for, I would always recommend ensuring that you try shoes on before extensive use – the last thing you want is to be on the second day of a vacation scheme with blisters! If you’re worried about this, though, carrying a pack of Compeed blister plasters is worthwhile.

On a mid-level budget (£75-£100 per suit):

If you have some more money to spend, there are a number of high street stores which will give you a lot of bang for your sartorial buck. At Topman, now owned by ASOS, a grey two-piece suit starts around £100 at time of writing (they also have a sale on with loads of formalwear much cheaper). H&M, another high street stalwart, come in notably cheaper with a two-piece suit starting at around £75. At this market bracket, my personal favourite option is M&S. A two-piece suit starts around £80 and, in my experience, their suits are great quality and probably represent some of the best value for money on the market.

In terms of shoes in this budget bracket, there are a lot of options. Again, M&S have some great options starting around £30 per pair. I’ve also had shoes from Next before which were around £45 at the time of buying (albeit a few years ago now) and lasted quite well despite daily use and abuse.
Speaking from personal experience, investing in a good pair of formal shoes is great where possible – from a comfort perspective, as well as longevity, better shoes are likely to last a lot longer and get more comfortable as they wear in.

On a higher budget (£120+ per suit):

If you’re in the position of being able to spend a some more on your formalwear, there are myriad options to consider. Again, M&S deserve a mention here with options around the £120 mark for a two-piece, and ‘Ultimate’ collection suits around £150. TM Lewin also have options in this price bracket – they’re also usually quite good for sales and offer a 10% student discount.

In terms of shoes at the higher price bracket, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, M&S have some great options around £60. If you’re really looking to make an investment in your footwear, I’ve had some fantastic results shopping at outlet stores of otherwise-expensive brands – I recently picked up a pair of Oxfords at around a 75% discount!

Finishing touches​

Alteration

Having the fit of an off-the-rack suit altered by a local tailor is a great way to make a suit look like a custom piece. Some simple jobs, like having trousers hemmed or a jacket taken in, are not particularly expensive and can be genuinely transformative to a formal outfit.

Multiple outfits from one suit

Buying multiple suits is where it’s particularly easy for budgets to spin out of control. Rest assured, though, there are lots of things that can be done to make multiple outfits which look very different using the same base suit.

The first, and most obvious, is by having multiple shirts in different colours and designs. I personally keep a combination of light and dark blue, plain white, striped, pink, and lilac shirts (for wear with mostly charcoal and navy suits) – you would be surprised how something as simple as a radical shirt change can alter an entire outfit! Buying multiple shirts is likely to be more budget-friendly than buying multiple suits! On the point of shirts, single and double cuffs are both completely acceptable. Personally, I wear double cuffs, but you do then need to buy cufflinks too. Whatever cuffs you go for, do make sure to opt for long sleeves in the first instance. In terms of choosing a length for both your shirt and jacket, a general rule of thumb is to aim for around 1cm, or half an inch, of shirt cuff on show below a jacket sleeve when your arms hang by your side. For those of us on the taller side, buying extra-long bodied shirts is the best way to prevent untucking every time you sit down.

Changing up ties can also help get more use out of a limit number of suits. Again, I keep a wide variety of ties in all different colours, patterns and materials as these can change the dynamic of a formal outfit. If at all possible, avoid novelty ties. For anyone who isn’t used to tying ties, here’s a good tutorial.

Shoes and leather accessories

Where possible, try and have your shoes and belt match in colour. Either black or brown is acceptable, though black is arguably more versatile if you only want to buy one set. In terms of shoe style, any formal shoe is generally acceptable – Oxfords are probably the most classic and versatile option, though, so it’s hard to go wrong here.

If your shoes have a leather upper, giving them a quick touch-up with some shoe polish to cover up any scuffs or scrapes can often give them a new lease of life.

Dressing to virtually impress​

Wearing a full suit and formal shoes is, obviously, unnecessary for virtual events where only your head and shoulders will ever be in view. When I attended my virtual vacation schemes, I tended to err on the side of caution initially in wearing a shirt and tie until I got a better picture of the general dress code. The tie tended to disappear by day two! Wearing a suit jacket in your own home is not necessary, although I would consider it as an option for exit interviews which are often much more formal than the preceding vacation scheme was! In terms of your bottom half, wear whatever is comfortable for a day of sitting at a desk or table. Again, from personal experience, I usually found myself in jeans or comfortable chinos, accompanied, of course, by my favourite fluffy slippers.


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I'd be really interested to hear some of your best pointers/ tips and tricks for formalwear! Please feel free to share some of your own favourite brands, options etc below

As usual, if there's anything particularly confidential arisen out of this discussion then please feel free to DM me

​

Hi guys,

Please has anyone done vacation scheme with Horwich Farrelly before. I currently applied for litigation executive role and have an interview coming up.

Can someone please put me through on the kind of competent and commercial questions to expect. Thank you.

Hi everyone,

I am currently writing up some content on the SQE which I hope to have with you in stages over the next couple of months

- Background to the SQE
- Options for preparing for the SQE
- SQE assessments
- Qualifying work experience
- Eligibility and which route to take
- Information for International qualified lawyers

I am keen to get anyone’s thoughts on other general themes I might be missing. I am not considering very specific/individual questions at this stage, this is just to build out more general information and content our members might find useful. We suspect that individual questions can be responded to in the forums once we have built out and posted this content.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks

Jess

Hey all,

Just a reminder that we are running a free webinar tonight at 6pm!

We are delighted to be joined by Caitlin McFee, a magic circle associate and founder of Law Life Balance.

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IXElR7eMR-qWWAZHZrDapw

Caitlin will open up about her own story, including the mental health challenges she faced during her training contract. She’ll then discuss:

- Steps to finding a law firm that prioritises mental health
- Disclosing mental health concerns in applications and interviews
- Managing mental health during your training contract
- Having challenging conversations about mental health with your supervisor

In the second half of the webinar, you will be able to ask your questions to Caitlin. Premium members will receive a recording of the session via TCLA Premium.

Law Life Balance is a new platform that aims to help aspiring lawyers and legal professionals find a work-life balance and prioritise their mental health and wellbeing, while achieving long term success in the legal industry.

Caitlin is also the host of the brand new 'Law Life Balance' podcast, soon launching on all major platforms, in which Caitlin chats with thought leaders in the legal and mental health spaces to increase awareness and drive much-needed change in the legal industry.

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

Please specify what the interview was for.
Dubai Summer Internship 2021

Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings.

11am GST quick Meet & Greet over video chat,
11:30 am – 3:30 pm interview, case study and group task, order is different for each person. I started with the group task, followed by case study and then the partner interview.

Please provide a summary of each assessment on the day with approximate timings.

Group task: You're put into a group and given a provided with some information based on which you are provided some time individually to come up with ideas. You then have a chance to discuss those ideas in a group and finally the group needs to agree on an idea which then needs to be presented to a Graduate Recruitment representative and some partners.

Case study: You are given a document (commercial case study contains financial statements as well) with lots of information and you have an hour to go through the information and prepare a short presentation of about 10 minutes summarizing the information and come up with answers to the questions posed in the case study.

Interview: It was about 45 minutes long with a partner. The partner who interviewed me was extremely nice. He made me feel quite at ease. The questions were testing your motivation for DLA Piper and competencies.

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.

Group task: Try to call people by their names to show empathy, you're being assessed on how you work within a team. Try to pitch in as much as possible and try to provide new ideas and not just build on others’ ideas. This was something which was told to me in my feedback call as well.

Case study: This was quite a challenging task but do remember that the assessors are aware of this of this fact. I would recommend brushing up on your commercial awareness particularly basic company/ business law concepts and maybe getting a bit familiar with financial statements such as balance sheets not too much in depth just a general idea should be good. Also keep a word document or notepad open next to you while presenting something you can refer to just in case you miss out on any of the factual details.

Interview: For this I would say try and think of DLA’s values and competencies they look for amongst candidates and try to prepare unique examples for each of those. They are quite big on the values so would be good to refer to them in case of some questions.

Were you successful?
No

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

Please specify what the interview was for.
Summer vacation scheme 2021

Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings.
9.30 to 10am - (virtual) arrival. Introduction from graduate recruitment, includes ice breaker with other students, chat with trainees.
10.15 to 10.45am - Watson Glaser.
10.45 to 11.30am - scenario interview with one senior associate/partner and member of graduate recruitment.
11.35am to 12.25pm - general interview with one partner and member of grad rec.

Please provide a summary of each assessment on the day with approximate timings.
Scenario interview: they ask 10 to 12 questions. They have a bank of questions they use every year and rotate between different ACs. You are asked the question by the interviewer and you are also given a handout so you can see the question yourself.

General interview: the amount of questions they ask depend on each individual. I was only asked a few and they left over 25 min for questions (I think this also depends on your experience/familiarity with the firm).

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.
Non-assessed sessions (intro, trainee Q&A): Even though this is not assessed, I would not recommend slacking in these sessions because they are really important. Firstly, it eases you into the AC and keeps you from stressing about your interviews, grad rec are also present and they are certainly taking note of candidates who seem distracted. You do not have to ask many questions, don’t stress about this, I only asked one. But do make sure you are not hogging the space and asking too many questions, I could tell that annoyed grad rec.

Case study: Commercial awareness and an understanding of Hogan Lovells as a business is key. They do not expect you to know much about M&A, JV, or PE, they do guide you when you stall, but they observe your reasoning for presenting X idea. As long as you can rationalise your decisions you are going to be fine. To prepare, keep abreast of current affairs, clarify commercial/economic jargon beforehand.

General interview: Know your application inside out. Research the firm well and have a good answer for why Hogan Lovells (it needs to be unique). But don’t sound too scripted, they do notice. My interview was more conversational, but it does really depend on your interviewer. For my interview they left over 30 minutes for questions, it does depend, so make sure you have a bank of questions for the partner and member of grad rec.

Situational interview: The resources of TCLA are fantastic. Do try and talk to someone who has recently completed the AC as that can give you a good idea of what type of issues are likely to come up.

Biggest tip: In both interviews, unlike other firms, there is a member of grad rec present. They may not ask many questions, but do not ignore them. I have heard that candidates focus all their attention on the partners/associates and that keeps them from succeeding.

Were you successful?
Yes

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

Please specify what the interview was for.
Direct Training Contract 2022

Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings.
9:30am – Introduction from Partner and Grad Rec
9:50am-10:20am – Trainee Meet & Greet 1
0:30am-11:00am – Presentation and Interview with 2 partners
11:10am-12:15pm – Negotiation Exercise
12:20pm-1:10pm – Letter Writing Exercise
1:15pm- 1: 55pm – Q&A session with other interviewees, trainees, partners etc

Please provide a summary of each assessment on the day with approximate timings.
*NB* all of this happened over Microsoft Teams so things like the presentation will be slightly different in person

Presentation:
– 5 minute presentation with 2 partners on a commercial story that interests you
– 10 minutes questions on the presentation
– 15 minutes general question with motivation questions and some competency questions

Negotiation Exercise:
– 5 minutes for the partner to read out the scenario and assign roles
– 10 minutes prep time for your role
– 40 minutes for the actual negotiation with a round table for 2 mins per person to pitch our project
– 5 minutes to feedback to the partners about the group's decision

Letter Writing Exercise
– 10 minutes for the partner to read out the scenario and distribute copies to everyone
– 40 minutes to write the exercise

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.

Presentation & Interview:
– make sure to really explicitly link the presentation to King & Spalding because just because you know a topic really well, doesn't mean it will translate to a firm really well. Also this is a really great place to demonstrate your commercial awareness so pick something you can talk about and are comfortable answering questions if probed on it.
– really learn your timings when you practice before hand (had some technical issues which threw me off and the partners didn't like how rushed my presentation felt)
– make sure you know your presentation off by heart because the partners instead of sharing the screen, they have printouts so you can't rely on having the slides in front of you
– Questions were general about my experience and academics so just being able to talk about them more generally was helpful

Negotiation
– It was not a legal negotiation so you don't need to know anything! we were a town council with a budget trying to decide what 3 projects we wanted to build with a certain budget, everyone was allocated a project and had 10 minutes to prep our position and 2 minutes to pitch it to the group. It was then an open discussion for about ~30 minutes and then we had to feedback to the 2 partners watching about what our final decision was.
– generally be respectful, don't talk over people, 'actively' listen (like nod or engage), make sure to advocate for your position but don't aggressively push it (ie know when to concede), consider what other people have to say
– your 2 minute short pitch should be well structured, concise and argumentative

Letter Writing
– Again not legal orientated at all. We were a charity with a PR issue about a charity cricket match
– know your basis letter writing skills (headings, format, structure etc) – there are major points for this
– have a strong introduction and use headings to give your letter a structure. Overall structure should be the issue at hand, the obligations (of the charity you were meant to be), then solutions
– make a side bar of notes from the task, note the issues and the solutions
– be professional in your writing style

Were you successful?
No

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

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

Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings.
The assessment centre for the 2021 vacation scheme was run virtually. It lasted for five hours between 11.30-16.30 and was composed of three parts.

Please provide a summary of each assessment on the day with approximate timings.
The first part of the assessment involved a 25 minute interview with two partners. This was predominantly a competency-based interview, although they did also ask me my motivations for pursuing a career in law as well as a few commercial questions.

There was then a 40 minute break for lunch, during which time there was a presentation from members of the graduate recruitment team.

The second part of the assessment involved a case study group exercise. For this, we were given 1 hour to prepare and deliver a 10 minute presentation on the topic at hand. There were 5 minutes at the end for questions from members of the graduate recruitment team. Every member of the group was required to speak.

The third part of the assessment involved a written exercise. We were given 1 hour to read the task brief and answer a number of questions. This part of the assessment tested candidates' knowledge of the firm's various practice areas.

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.

Interview: in order to prepare for the interview, I would research the firm as much as possible, paying particular attention to the kind of work done in each of the different departments. Also have a think about the firm in its wider context - diversity, inclusion, sustainability etc. Come equipped to ask questions at the end, as there is time set aside for this.

Case study: make sure you are mindful of others in your group and welcome others' opinions. Make sure you contribute to the verbal presentation as they were very keen to hear everyone speak.

Written exercise: research the firm both in terms of practice areas but also in regards to things such as diversity, inclusion and sustainability. The written exercise requires you to draw on your understanding of the firm in its entirety.

Were you successful?
No

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Since its rather expensive, would 2nd year be the ideal time to purchase premium? or would it still be of use in first year,

.

Hi All,

Thank you to those of you who have reached out about spam private messages via the forum. I apologise that you had to receive this message this morning.

To stop this from happening via private message in the future, we have now prevented new users from sending private messages until they have met a threshold number of posts.

I can confirm this does not affect the security of your account or mean that your account has been hacked.

Best,

Jaysen

Hi

Has anyone completed an assessment centre for Gowling in 2022? If so, can you offer any guidance in preparation and what to expect.

Thank you very much

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