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Hi, I have a paralegal job completely unrelated to commercial law, was hoping for some guidance as to how I can discuss this when answering why 'commercial law'?!

After finishing the GDL and several years of applications, I finally got a vacation scheme this year, which I was so proud of and thoroughly enjoyed. However, I got rejected from their training contract after an interview, and I can't help but feel like I'm back to square one... I've recently started a full time job (non legal admin role), and the hours are pretty long, I'm commuting and I'm left with very little free time (or energy) as a result. I'd applied for a few virtual open days/law fairs etc over the next few months as I thought these things would help me stand out a bit more, but now I'm unable to attend them due to my job. I'd be more than willing to use my holiday for law-related things, but I'm not able to take holiday until November/December, plus I'd like to save some of it to potentially do some vacation schemes. I just can't help but feel that there's no point in even trying - I barely have the time to apply, let alone do 'extra' things, I'm not even doing a legal job right now, and I can't see what would make me stand out amongst the sea of dedicated law undergrads. Has anyone got some words of wisdom/encouragement?

Hi everyone.

Hope you all are well. I am creating a thread for the first time, kindly pardon my mistakes, if any.

I have been applying for vacation schemes but I do not understand how to write the mitigating circumstances. Unfortunately, I have faced mitigating circumstances that have affected my school and initial university years.

If anyone could help me here, I would really appreciate that.

Thanks in anticipation!

Hi guys,

Hogan Lovells' application questions this year focuses on competencies.

I am struggling with this question.
We are a global firm that works together with mutual respect and collegiality. Describe a time when you have enjoyed collaborating with people from different cultures and backgrounds or with different personalities. What made the experience so enjoyable? (250 words)

Usually for teamwork competencies, I talk about overcoming a challenge together. But the question doesn't seem to be asking this, but rather what made it enjoyable.
I was wondering if anybody could provide some advice please.

Thank you

Hi Everyone,

I received my GDL grades not so long ago, and I am very sad to say, but I completely messed them up.

I got a 53 for Contract and a 57 for Public Law (part-time GDL course).

I really do not know where I went wrong, I was so confident that I would at least hit 60% or above on both modules.

Please can someone help me on increasing my grade from a mere pass to a commendation level?

Fortunately, I can retake them uncapped and I want to be able to improve them drastically.

Any help would be much appreciated - I am the first in my family to attend university and haven't been able to tell my parents my results as they would be so disappointed in me. I feel so sad at the moment.

Thanks for reading.
Ruby

Hi there,

I would greatly appreciate if someone could clarify what the focus of this question is:

Focusing on one or more of CMS’s sectors, what challenges and opportunities for growth do you see presenting themselves over the coming 12-24 months? (200 words)

Do I need to discuss the challenges and opportunities that CMS will face or do I need to discuss what the sector and CMS' clients will face? Or do I need to discuss all three? Given the limited word count, I want to be as precise as I can in answering this question.

Many thanks.

Hey,

So basically the title. I have seen services such as https://lawanswered.com/gdl who are like condensed notes with "no waffle". Has anyone ever used them? Are they useful?

Thanks

Hello TCLA Community!

I don't know if this is obvious but when a firm states they accept applications from law students in their penultimate year, or final-year non-law students (and graduates are welcome to apply), does that mean final-year law students can apply too?

For example, this is from Shearman & Sterling's website:

" You should therefore apply for vacation schemes in your penultimate year of an undergraduate qualifying law degree, or final year of any other undergraduate degree. Graduates are also welcome to apply. "

I would really appreciate your help.

Hi there,

One of the questions on the A&O application asks to describe a challenging situation you have faced/what made it challenging and what you learnt in the process.

Would it be ok to discuss a topic other than an academic challenge because the question does not actually specify whether or not this should be an academic challenge I have faced?

Hi has anyone been contacted about their outcome post-AC at K&L Gates? Does anyone know how long it takes for them to inform you of the outcome?

Hi Everyone,

I applied to a firm last year and was successful with my VS application. Due to Covid, the VS was cancelled and I did not pass the final interview.

I'll discuss how I've improved since my previous application in response to the first application question, but the second question is more general- if I'm asked to discuss a topic that interests me, can I use the same response I gave previously (it is still relevant as it relates to a personal interest)?

Thanks in advance

I was wondering how crucial is it to include an example of a transaction in a cover letter for a training contract, and if you do, in how much detail should it be covered? For example, the main reason why I am applying to firm X is the unique approach to training that they have, and therefore I focused on that in the "why us" section. I did talk about other attractive aspects of the firms, however, I did not include any deals. I did, however, mention a transaction that they have worked on in the "why commercial law" section. Any advice on this would be much appreciated!

Hey guys,

With our premium section, we're looking to go beyond teaching 'technical' skills and provide a range of courses on softer skills (tailored towards working in the highly pressurised corporate environment).

We're currently in discussions with a company to deliver courses on mental health/resilience training for you guys. These will be designed to prepare you for the intensity of the environment within commercial law, teach you methods to manage stress and burnout, teach you about emotional intelligence, and support you if you deal with feelings such as imposter syndrome etc. The company typically provides this training to law firms, but I think we'd benefit from giving you guys these tools earlier in your journey.

Mental health is an area I'm hugely passionate about, but before we go ahead, I wanted to get a sense of what you guys thought. Would this be of value to you to learn about before you secure a training contract? Would you be keen to complete this course?

PS: Your name won't come up when voting, so feel free to be as honest as possible.

Thanks,

Jaysen

.

Hi everyone,

I found myself in a bit of a difficult situation and everybody on here has always been extremely helpful, so I thought I'd canvass some opinions and see what everyone's thoughts are! Let me preface the whole thing with saying that I understand how extremely lucky I am to even be facing this dilemma and that never in a million years would I have thought that I would get a single TC in this cycle given the personal struggles I've faced in the past two years.

I was very lucky to have received TC offers from Freshfields and Linklaters after completing summer vac schemes with them. With everything being virtual this year, I'm finding it a lot more difficult to decide between the firms particularly because the vac schemes were conducted very differently.

I really loved my time at Linklaters and the vacation scheme quite closely resembled their in-person vac schemes including having training principals, access to their internal systems and being given work. I found the Freshfields vac scheme a lot more presentation-focused and it was quite hard to connect with people from around the firm. Going purely off of my vac scheme experience I would probably go with Linklaters but I have a feeling that I might be judging Freshfields unfairly given how limited my experience there was. Has anyone on here experienced an in-person vac scheme at Freshfields?

I don't know if this is a general consensus but in my friendship circle, Freshfields is perceived to be a bit more ''prestigious'' than Linklaters. I've been caught up in this decision-making process for so long that I can no longer tell if this is just the subjective feeling of people around me or if there is some truth to it. What are everyone's thoughts on this?

Lastly, while I'm not really thinking about going elsewhere post-qualification, I'd like to keep my options open. Would you say that any of the firms is viewed more favourably by other firms, say the US firms/MC/SC firms?

Any other points I should consider are welcome! I know that in the end, the decision will be mine to make but I'd love to hear what everybody's thoughts are/which firm you would pick!

Hi everyone,

As the TCLA membership continues to grow, demand for our services like our application reviews continues to grow too. This means more of the team are getting involved in reviewing applications to ensure we can meet demand.

To ensure we are providing a consistent service, the team want to do some benchmarking against one another to see how we individually review applications. We feel this will help to educate one another and ensure we provide the best review service we can to everyone.

Given this, we'd like to offer two people the opportunity for a free application review. This is separate to any other similar opportunities, like those Alice and I have recently offered elsewhere in the forums (for anyone waiting from me about the opportunity I mentioned in August, you should hear from me later this week - sorry for the delay!).

Please just post "I am interested" in a reply to this thread by 23.59 on Wednesday 16 September and two people will be drawn at random. The review will be completed by me by Wednesday 23 September.

Many thanks

Jess

In April of 2020 I completed DLA Piper's spring insight scheme. A week or so ago, I received an email from DLA Piper telling me I should "review and complete my application" for the summer internship and that the vacancy will already be listed on my account. I checked and the application was in fact there with the same information I used to apply for the spring scheme. DLA also said that I "did not need to apply again". What I'm wondering is whether that means I just update my details on the application (i.e. contact details, first year grades, etc.) and then leave it alone OR do I need to click submit at the end of the application? Does anyone have any experience here? Considering that they said "you do not need to apply again" I'm a bit confused as to whether I should re-submit.
Thank you!

Hi everyone,

In our community guidelines we mentioned we would be creating a A-Z of threads, posts and content in TCLA to help people navigate the forums and to also help them find specific content. We think this will also help to reduce duplicate threads, which can often make the forums even more difficult to navigate.

I would be grateful for anyone who can help with this process. By help, what I need from you is any really helpful posts you have bookmarked. I will then create a separate thread that just has an alphabetic list of these bookmarks (we will label them up something appropriate) and this will then become our A-Z!

Don't worry if it is a thread, an individual post, or even content elsewhere on the site which is available to everyone.

Please just either copy the URL webpage or insert the bookmark in a post below and this help generate the A-Z

Many thanks

Jess

Best Free Business/Commercial Law App

Had Bloomberg navigating the free articles was a bit annoying. Any completely free apps out there that give a good balance of news for aspiring commercial solicitors?

Thanks in advance and apologies if something similar has been posted before, couldn't see it.

Hi all,

Thought I'd create a thread for the Ashurst application/s.

This year the questions are:

• Please address your cover letter to Nick Wong, Graduate Recruitment Partner. This is an opportunity to tell us about yourself, your skills, achievements and why you want to train as a solicitor. (1000 words)
• What qualities does a successful lawyer of the future require? (250 words)
• How is the legal landscape changing and what are the challenges facing Ashurst? (250 words)
• How is Ashurst different to other firms you have applied to? (250 words)

I'm quite stuck on: How is the legal landscape changing and what are the challenges facing Ashurst? (250 words)

I think 'legal' is throwing me off. I was hoping to take about a geopolitical issue e.g. presidential elections but the reasonings I would give are more political than legal I think. Does anyone have any experience of this question or any ideas?

Thanks!

Hi there

I am what’s considered as a ‘career changer’- currently working in Canary Wharf in financial services (M&A, partnership management) and looking to retrain as a solicitor.

I am looking to undertake the academic study that’s required for conversion- either the GDL and the LPC or the new SQE route. However because the major city law firms are already recruiting for TC starting in 2023, I want to secure one now, so I don’t have to wait to start one after I have finished studying.

I was planning on continuing my current career while studying (as difficult as that may be, I want to do it for financial and experience reasons at least during the GDL). Would accepting a TC now, for the 2022 or 2023 intake mean I’d have to given up my current career immediately? Or can I still continue, and then terminate my employment when I’m actually due to begin my two years training?

thanks for any guidance, would really appreciate it!

Hi everybody!

I am a brand ambassador for CMS this year specifically in Scotland and at the University of Glasgow!

I wanted to start this thread specifically for anybody who is undertaking a Scottish law degree as the process and eligibility can differ! If you are undertaking an English law degree then please see Tomas's thread here- https://www.thecorporatelawacademy.com/forum/threads/cms-2020-1-opportunities.2597/#post-36384

About CMS

CMS is a Top 10 Global Law Firm with 75 offices in 40+ countries, advising some of the world’s largest companies. Currently CMS is at the top of the market in sectors such as Consumer Products, Energy, Financial Services, Infrastructure and Project Finance, Hotels & leisure, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Real Estate and Technology and Media and Telecommunications. CMS are a future-facing, progressive law firm looking for top talent. Culture, Corporate Responsibility and Diversity & Inclusion initiatives are at the heart of CMS to help make a real impact and build better futures. International and client secondments are possible when undertaking a training contract with CMS.

Find out more:
· Facebook- http://ocply.co/cms2020-glas-fb
· Instagram- http://ocply.co/cms2020-glas-insta
· LinkedIn- http://ocply.co/cms2020-glas-li

First Steps Programme

This introductory programme will give you an insight into a career at CMS and will put you in a strong position to apply for the CMS Academy. This innovative opportunity is a paid one-week programme and consists of skills sessions, trainee shadowing, networking opportunities and case study seminars. First Steps is offered in London, Bristol, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Applications are assessed on a rolling basis and all applications must be submitted by 04/01/21.

This programme is scheduled to take place at Easter and eligibility is as followed:
· Law students in their second year (4-year degree).
· Non-law students in their third year (4-year degree) applying to English offices.

Click here to apply- http://ocply.co/cms2020-glas-web

CMS Academy

The CMS Academy is the next generation vacation scheme and the only route to gaining a training contract with the firm. You will gain experience in a working environment that involves meeting with experts and clients, networking with lawyers and working on real projects. This is a paid programme and is split into one week of training on the business of law and a two-week internship at your selected office. All participants will be invited to an open day at the London office before the programme begins. Applications are assessed on a rolling basis and all applications must be submitted by 04/01/21.

The programme is scheduled to take place in July and the eligibility is as followed:
· Law students in their penultimate and final year (4-year degree).
· Non-law students in their final year (4-year degree) applying to English offices.
· Students undertaking or who have completed the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice.

Click here to apply- http://ocply.co/cms2020-glas-web

Hey everyone,

I'm a complete and utter beginner to both this site and corporate law in general. I have a (very) basic understanding of TC's, but that's where my knowledge ends. I was wondering if anyone on this site can walk me through the interview process/qualifications needed/firms i need to know; or just link a couple threads or something. For background, I'm 15 and currently debating a career in Law or IB. Based on my knowledge of IB so far (a lot of family friends' experiences), I'd definitely say IB>law. I want to research more into corp. law though, to give it a fighting chance.

Any and every help will be appreciated. Thanks.