New Threads

Hi everyone, I have a virtual AC coming up and was wondering if anyone had any tips for going through case study documents on a screen (as I assume that is how it will work?). I am very much the kind of person who likes to go through physical copies of documents and be able to highlight and use post-it’s throughout to flag things so that it’s easier for me to spot. Does anyone have any advice on how to work around this?

I will be redeveloping some of the TCLA content regarding applications and recruitment processes.

For this, I’d like to use example sections of applications or CVs to show the good, bad and indifferent. It would be far more efficient for me to utilise small parts of people’s application forms and CVs they have already written rather than me write fake documents. I am therefore wondering if anyone would be happy to submit their old applications to me to use? Please note that I would make things anonymous (eg either redacting information out or changing names) and only sections would be used rather than being able to see a whole application.

For those who do volunteer applications and are selected (I don’t know how many I will get nor their suitability, so it’s difficult for me to know whether I will be able to use them until I see them), I will be offering one of the services completely free:

1) one full application review

Or

2) one mock interview over Zoom

If anyone from the forums has already secured a TC and still wants to get involved, I am happy for you to transfer your “reward” to another TCLA member.

I’ll need both good and bad applications for this to work! So if you still have an application from a while back that you know isn’t particularly good in hindsight, those will be particularly useful for me.

If you are interested, please just reply here and I will come back to you in the next couple of weeks via PM to discuss further.

I got my first TC rejection today after doing a virtual vac scheme with the firm. I put my everything into this and right now I know I need to build myself up again and motivate myself for next cycle but I just feel so drained, burnt out and disappointed that I'm not really sure how to go about doing this...

Bit of a vague question here, but one I’m asking to develop my understanding! As the title sums up; what are the main differences between the work a business consultant does and commercial solicitor?

If I were to explain it, I’d say that a consultant creates a solution for a business to grow/achieve their specific goal but it is the lawyers that make it a reality. That’s a very basic summary though and one I want to understand a bit more.

Be interested to hear your thoughts!

Is it worth applying to firms that rejected me for 1st year scheme?

I was wondering how feasable a direct TC application to firms that offer it would be if I haven't had any previous VS experience or legal work experience. I did however gain a place on a summer VS for a silver circle firm but it was cancelled with no online replacement but I was unable to get a TC from that - this was a little annoying as I now have absolutely no experience even through I was meant to be on a VS this summer.
Since I am doing the PGDL next year I don't think I will have time for a winter VS but would ideally like to get a TC asap rather than waiting for the summer VS's as I preferably want it to be at least partly funded.
I was wondering whether I would be disadvantaged as I have limited legal experience or if the fact that I was able to gain a place on a VS in the first place would be a good indicator that at least another firm with a good reputation considered me to be a good candidate? or should I just wait it out and apply to spring/summer VS? Thanks for the help!

Been reading up about the SQE in the past few days. It has been claimed that one of the benefits of the SQE is widening access to the profession, but it doesn't seem like this is the case? I was hoping for some further insight/thoughts from the kind people of TCLA in case I'm missing something...


The alleged benefits of the SQE in widening access to the profession are the following:

1. Lower cost (reducing need for high interest loans to be taken out by those without parental support)
   
   
2. Uniformity across the country (ending alleged LPC provider snobbery?)
   
   
3. Harder exam with lower pass rates, enabling firms to stop looking at A-level and university grades
   
   
4. Added flexibility on how a candidate accumulates their qualifying work experience, as it can be completed through up to four stints at four different employers, instead of a single 2-year training contract
   
   
5. Because the SQE is a single exam with a single question bank, the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (SRA) will find it easier to collect data on candidates’ background and results, informing future diversity-promoting policies
   

However, I cannot help but think that these benefits are nowhere near as great as they’re made out to be?

1. The SQE obviously does nothing to change the competitive nature of entering into the profession, with applications vastly exceeding training contract offers.
   
   
2. I’ve never heard of a firm turn anyway down because of where they did their LPC.
   
   
3. I highly doubt that the law firms that hire predominantly Firsts and 2.1s from leading universities are going to suddenly find the SQE to be an acceptable replacement for academic rigour. Also, while we obviously haven’t seen pass rates for that exam, it doesn’t exactly seem like a rigorous one to begin with, given the lack of a written component, the duration, etc. My personal opinion is that a sector-wide move away from caring about grades and where you studied is the way forward when it comes to diversity, SQE or no SQE.
   
   
4. The cost of the SQE prep course is still going to be £11,000 at Kaplan (£7,000 for prep course, £4,000 for the exam). The cost obviously goes up for weaker candidates who have to resit. That’s only £6,000 away from the most expensive LPC courses at BPP/ULaw in London. And there are many LPC courses that currently cost a lot less (e.g. City Law School in London costs £14,000; the University of Westminster is £9,000). Regional LPC courses are currently also much cheaper, so I can’t see the final price difference being that great. And keep in mind that some of the difference will come through compromise to course quality (e.g. BPP is not going to provide hard copy textbooks to its SQE students).
   
   
5. I don’t see how the ability to do four stints of qualifying work experience will help those without a training contract break into the larger/more selective firms, which are the ones we should ideally be making more diverse. Won’t law firms turn up their nose at someone with bits and pieces of work experience, particularly when most of it is dissimilar to that done by trainees at that firm? Won’t law firms continue offering their trainees NQ roles in priority to external applicants who did not train at the firm?
   
   
6. The SQE likely won’t stop underrepresented groups from ‘self-selecting’ out of ‘elite’ parts of the profession, given that this self-selection is caused by firms’ general reputation, their high academic requirements, and the various verbal reasoning tests they chuck at you.

Would appreciate any thoughts/comments!

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

February 2020

Please specify what the interview was for.

Summer Vacation Scheme 2020

Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings.

First interview - 10:45am arrival, 15 minute settling down and brief chat with HR, 11am interview for 45 minutes Second interview (which was a few weeks later): 1:30 arrival + settling down, 2pm partner interview, 2:45 short break, 3pm associate case study interview

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

First interview - This was a standard HR interview, consistent of 1 member of HR and two associates. I was first asked about my motivations:
- Why commercial law?
- Why MoFo?
- Why law?
- Is there a particular practice area that you are seeking to qualify into?
- What was your approach to applying to firms (e.g. US-specific? Broad approach?) They didn't seem to have a particular answer in mind, and I was honest in replying that I had a broad approach and didn't apply to US firms specifically.
- asked me on an event I had attended at another US firm, that I listed on my CV - what was my takeaway from that

Competency questions:
- Have you ever had trouble working in a team? How did you resolve that
- When was a time you showed leadership skills

Technical question (as I was a law student)
- I had written in my CV about a misrepresentation case I had worked on during an internship. I was asked what the definition of misrepresentation was, whether the fact that a client knew about it mattered (fraudulent vs innocent misrep) and whether clients could exclude liability for it. All standard Year 1 contract law things.

Overall experience:
- I personally thought this was one of the 'nicest' interviews (if there are such things!) I had. Although it was one of the more technical ones I had experienced, the interviewers were friendly and they had banter between them, which lightened the atmosphere up a lot. HR also briefs you before hand about each interviewer - where they are at in their career, any particular secondments they have done; so I based my final questions to them on this information.

Second interview, part 1:
I was given 5 presentation topics to choose from about a week before my interview. I'm not sure I'm allowed to say specifically what topics they were, but they were all current affairs topics - I chose mine on a topic about [redacted]. It is only a 5 minute presentation so it was very compact. I was allowed to use what ever format I liked - I opted for 2 brief slides.
I then had a 5-10 minutes Q&A with 2 partners and a trainee. They asked me to elaborate bits of my presentation, asked me about some statistics on London traffic (I gave a rough estimate but acknowledged that I did not know the exact numbers). Surprisingly there wasn't a lot about specific client impact - it was more testing general big picture awareness, how certain government regulations would impact on the construction.
Then, after the 10 mins Q&A session, I was asked quite similar questions to my first interview; on the motivation for applying to MoFo. I was also asked a few strengths questions (what is your biggest strength? What is your biggest failure?). This was quite an informal conversation still, and it ended up with a chat about some of my interests outside of university.

Second interview, part ii.
I was given 10 minutes to read a case study. The case study was one page long in prose form, so it wasn't too difficult to handle. This was a M&A deal (again, unsure whether I can go into the specifics). I was asked to discuss all issues arising from the deal. I structured my answer according to MoFo's practice groups, and which issues they could tackle. After each issue, an associate would pause me, and ask a few questions. When I said someone technical (e.g. share-based purchase), they asked me for a definition and why it was a good idea, as opposed to an asset-based purchase. Afterwards, they gave me an opportunity to ask them any questions.

Please list any interview questions you were asked.

(Please see above)

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.

1. Preparation for case studies - looking at TCLA's M&A guide was a lifesaver for me. Although I would say that you don't need very in-depth commercial knowledge, having a basic idea of the key terms is useful, and looks very impressive if you're able to define and apply them to case studies.

2. Listening to a weekly commercial awareness podcast episode is quite helpful. I've always struggled to read the news daily and retain the information, but I've found that I'm much more of an aural learner. By making notes and listening to a weekly podcast, I saved so much time but also managed to get a brief sense of 'commercial awareness'.

3. Be calm and confident! I know that this sounds very daunting, and honestly I have always been horrible at interviews. But confidence goes a long way - if you don't know an answer, just remember that firms are not out to catch you, but to see if you can stand your ground against a client who asks you something you don't know.

Hi,

I’m looking to apply for the TC for Clifford Chance and have a few questions!

• Could we include virtual internships/insight schemes as part of the “work experience” section?
• Does scoring a 2:2 in one module (but scoring good 2:1s in the rest of the modules) hinder the application at all?
• What approach could we take in answering the TC application question as it’s very broad and could go in all sorts of directions?

Thanks for reading and I hope you can answer one question! Also, please don’t hesitate to add other questions on here that I may not have thought of but others may be able to answer!

Hello everyone! (And anyone reading this )

I am honestly having an absolute meltdown about my first year results that I’ve just received.

My first year average is 61.25% — 57% in criminal law, 64% in public law, 62% in equity & trusts, and 62% in contract law.

If it helps, I attend an RG in Manchester

Honestly I am not so sure what to do from now on. It will be really helpful if anyone can give a rough plan for me to follow! (Studies, extra-curricula, etc.)

Let’s presume that this is down the solicitor route—

Community guidelines:

Earlier in the summer the conversation around putting together some community guidelines for TCLA came up. Having spoken to Jaysen, I will be working on pulling something together in time for the start of the next academic year.

We are keen to ensure the community guidelines are built with your (the Community!) input. Given this, I'd be keen to hear from anyone who has any ideas on what the guidelines should contain.

In particular, I'd like to understand more about how you find communicating with one another through the forum and through private messages. I am pretty relaxed about this as ultimately it is my job to answer people's questions, but I understand that the dynamic between members might be very different, so I'd like to hear the positive and negative experiences from forum users to try and work out the best guidelines around this particular topic.

We are also aware that different people have different views on how much information should be shared in regards to people's experiences in interviews/assessment centres. We are keen to ensure we pitch this right in the guidelines, without limiting the great amount of information that is shared within this community, but at the same time keeping the integrity of firm's recruitment processes. Your views on this would also be appreciated.

Any further ideas of what the Community Guidelines should consist of would be appreciated too!

Any comments/opinions/views in this thread would be greatly appreciated. If you would prefer to PM me, then happy for you to do this too. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Hi, I'm starting the PGDL in sept at BPP and have not yet secured a training contract so will need to be applying to places next cycle. I was wondering how doable a winter VS is during the gdl, is there enough time? does it clash with winter exams? I'm concerned as the timetable, I have seen (not sure if it's 100% correct) states that there will be exams the last 2 weeks of the winter semester which sounds like I won't be able to do any vacations schemes. However, I have heard of loads of people managing to secure TCs from winter vac schemes during their GDL so was wondering if anyone has any advice on this? I don't want to waste time applying to winter VS when I can't even do them!

Hi guys,

I have been googling for the upcoming open days. Despite finding a few dates, I could not find a website giving me a complete list. Do You have a website listing the 2020/21 open days?

Thank you in advance

Hello Everyone !
I was wondering if anyone knows what global partnership model Herbert Smith Freehills has adopted? An example would be "the best friends network"? I thought this would be something I could talk about in an application form if I get the facts right !
Thanks everyone.

I was recently offered a training contract and unfortunately, since I was given a limited amount of time to respond, I accepted it without having the opportunity to apply to other firms. I would like to ask if it is advisable to go ahead and apply for training contracts at other firms anyway? What are the consequences if either firm (the firm I've accepted an offer with and the firm I am applying to) finds out about this? If anyone has been in a similar situation I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

Afternoon all,

Please find attached the spreadsheet I used to manage my Vacation Scheme Applications last year, created in conjunction with my good friend at University. It was our baby.

It contains:

- Type of Firm (US, MC, etc)
- Trainee Salary
- NQ Salary
- Rolling Apps
- Direct Link to Apply

There are, of course, blank spaces for you to fill in the deadlines and when/if you applied. These will need to be updated once the information is available.

In addition, some of the salaries etc may need a short update post-covid.

Enjoy!

Hi
Is there a practice situational judgment test on A&O site ?

Hi everyone, I know a lot of us are sending a lot of applications which involve a lot of research and sometimes it gets hard to track all of them.

I am preparing for my research and I was just wondering what others use to track them? Like deadlines, priority list, what stage you got to etc.

Thanks!

Hi

I was hoping someone could kindly clarify a couple of things for me regarding the layout of cover letters (may be obvious questions, but best to be safe than sorry!!!). I am applying for some medium sized regional law firms and am required to send a covering letter with my CV/ or application form. Is it best to put my covering letter in the body of my email? If so, is there any need to write the details of the recipient and date etc? I think not, but may be wrong.

Thanks!

Hi,
For "Introduce a new law" question, is it better to talk about commercial/contract or any law? Any idea ?
Thanks