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"Our strategies are driven around our clients and our people. Both go hand in hand, and one cannot succeed without the other. Please tell us what client focus and people focus mean to you, in a successful organisation like BM. Include any personal experience you think may be relevant to these discussions. (max 500)".

I am a bit confused about what they want me to include in this response and in turn I struggle in structuring my answer. Do you think they want me to (1) show my research and spot what they do in terms of strategy to focus on their people and their clients, or (2) say what I would do to focus my work on clients and people if I worked at BM and eventually back it up with personal experience?

Some help would be very much appreciated, thank you!
Giulia

Hi all,

I’ve just submitted my Mayer Brown VS application and I was under the impression there would be online tests immediately following. However, all I’ve received is a confirmation email with no mention of tests.

Has anyone else applied? Did you receive tests immediately? Or not at all?

Thanks!

I have been rejected after completing 4 AC interviews for vacation schemes and TCs. I have honestly been quite burnt out after the rejections. It feels like I‘ve put in my 200% into everything - from grades (I managed to rank one of the highest in my year) to polishing my CV with work experiences and leadership experiences. I also prepared extensively for each AC in the midst of exams. However, it feels like I’m not getting very far.

Although I did receive good feedback from my ACs, I did not manage to get the TC/VS offer. It’s been quite demoralising and while I keep pushing myself to keep trying, I have been really exhausted. Would anyone have any tips on how to jump back from rejection and burn out?

Hello all,

I hope all us budding lawyers have had a wonderful Christmas, and perhaps a brief break from applications.

I'm working on the Lewis Silkin application and was wondering if anyone had some advice for this question.

Lewis Silkin prides itself on delivering legal advice in a commercial way. What do you think it means to deliver legal advice in a commercial way?

Any ideas/ inspiration would be massively appreciated.

Hi All,

Just a heads up, the Spring & Summer vacation scheme deadline for Shearman & Sterling is the 19th January 2020.

From the firm's recruitment page:

Our vacation schemes are the perfect way to gain an insight into life at Shearman & Sterling. The scheme will see you experience two diverse practice groups (one each week), with your personal preferences catered to. The scheme aims to mirror the Training Contract in that everyone will experience at least one of our core transactional groups (M&A, Finance and Project Development & Finance) as well as being allocated a mentor and supervisor to provide advice and support, answer any questions and most importantly – provide you with some work!

You can apply now over here: https://ukgraduates.shearman.com/opportunities/vacation-schemes/.

Kindly note, this is a sponsored post.

Hello

I would appreciate any feedback at all on my Jones Day Cover letter. The word limit is 300 words and am really not sure if I should focus on why law/why jones day/both so would appreciate any insight!

Also, I know they assess apps on a rolling basis - if I was to submit towards the end of December do you think most places will have been filled up?

Thanks in advance.


I was first exposed to Jones Day at a discussion regarding delivering justice through Pro Bono which explored the importance of corporate responsibility. I was fascinated to hear Muireann Dennehy, Senior Associate in Global Disputes, share how at Jones Day she was given the opportunity to work at the Moira Refugee Camp in Lesvos, Greece. Furthermore I learnt from associates present that Jones Day encourage trainees to share their own ideas for charities or projects where they want to offer legal support fostering an independent yet supportive working environment. I have previously volunteered with the asylum seekers with the Bail Observation Project and North London Synagogue and would really value the opportunity to continue such work from a more legal standpoint during my training contract and beyond.

Furthermore, the non-rotational seat system is something I have previous experience with as it was integrated into my ten week summer internship at Lloyds Banking Group. I was placed in the legal department but rather than being put in a specific division I was encouraged to go around the different departments which specifically interested me and become exposed to a wider range of work. To give an example, at one point in my internship I had worked on a project involving supporting gambling addicts with the Legal Transformation team while simultaneously working with the Data Legal Team on GDPR concerns. I found working in this manner allowed me to take initiative and constantly challenged me ensuring I got the most out of my internship. I value the way Jones Day have their seat system and would use it as an opportunity to engage with a diverse number of individuals and areas as well as it being advantageous to exposing me to a wider variety of sectors and clients.

I am currently working on the Walker Morris application. I'm just a little unsure about how to approach the below question:

Tell us the achievement you are most proud of and why.

I was planning on writing about how I secured two internships abroad through my own initiative while being on a family trip as I was curious to know more about the commercial law in that jurisdiction. I'm not sure if this can be classified as an achievement but is definitely something that makes me proud.

Would appreciate some thoughts on this

Hi guys,

I am a third-year History student (I'm currently on a year abroad so not final year) and I want to apply for vacation schemes, however, I feel a bit out of my depth here. I realised that I wanted to be a commercial lawyer later on this year so I have not been to any open days, insight days or even networked. I'm even struggling to answer the questions asked in the vacation scheme applications and the deadlines are coming up soon. Should I still attempt to apply?

thanks in advance

It’s hard to put into words how incredible this year has been.

I plan to start writing these reviews at the end of each year to take stock of what we’ve achieved so far and map out where we’re hoping to go in the future. Hopefully, it'll also give you guys an insight into TCLA on a more personal level.

Before I get to what I’ve learned this year, I want to touch on the first year of starting TCLA because I’ve never really talked about that in much detail.

I started TCLA in February 2018. Prior to that, you guys probably know by now that I was a trainee - for a few months - at the US-based law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges.

Sometimes when people see where we’re at right now, it can seem like starting a company is easy. I can tell that you that it isn't. Leaving Weil and starting TCLA was a rollercoaster of emotions, and that first year, in particular, was very tough. At the time, I had no idea if it was going to work, how I was going to turn my ideas into a viable business, and how I'd differentiate TCLA from the well-established legal careers platforms in this space.

To put things into perspective, by August 2018, I was regularly working 80 hours a week on TCLA and had invested the vast majority of my savings into the company. That was definitely on the extreme end: looking back on it, I'm sure I was compensating for having left behind a career at a law firm, wanting to make something of myself, and having convinced myself that I didn't want to work for someone else.

2019 Highlights

There was no set date when I woke up one day and things were suddenly working out. It was more a case of putting in a lot of blind effort, day after day, and slowly realising that I didn’t have to worry about whether TCLA was going to make enough money to continue.

Things have changed a lot this year. In November 2019, we reached our biggest revenue milestone: when monthly revenue from our premium subscription surpassed five figures for the first time. Our recent month on month growth has been incredible, but I’d also note that that’s likely to be substantially influenced by the application season (e.g. monthly subscription revenue rose by 60% in September 2019 compared to August 2019). I'm eager to see the extent to which we can keep this going after January.

In terms of overall website traffic, we reached a record 19,000 unique visitors in November 2019. Within the forum, we have just surpassed 4,000 forum registrations (compared to 1,000 in November 2018) and over 16,300 posts.

Beyond the stats, looking back on the year, here’s a selection of things I am most proud of:

• The strength of our community (it's incredible seeing the motivation and support you guys give each other in the forums)
• The launch of TCLA Premium 2.0 and over 10 courses
• Reaching episode 25 in our podcast Trainee Talk
• Running our first event, TCLA’s Crash Course, and meeting many of you in person during our university presentations
• Seeing many of our longstanding members secure training contracts
• Hiring brand ambassadors for the first time this year

Personal takeaways from 2019:

• Circle of competence: I saw a huge difference when I started focusing on activities that I was best suited for/where I could add the most value, and hiring people to do the rest. Warren Buffet calls this the circle of competence. I’ve realised that I can’t micromanage everything, and this year, I’ve become better at stepping back from most areas. Eventually, I’d love to hire people for all aspects of the business and just focus on working on launching new ideas, securing sponsorship or marketing.
• Ending projects and people management: In the past, I used to allow projects to drag on because I didn’t want to disappoint people, or because of the amount of time I’d invested in them (see sunk cost fallacy). I became better at closing projects and making U-turns this year. I still feel guilty when it happens, but I’ve realised, sometimes you have to do these things for the sake of the business. On a similar level, I’ve learned a lot about hiring people and bringing people onto our team. This year, we’ve had 5-10 people working for TCLA on either a freelance or part time basis at any one time. I’ve still got a lot to learn in this area, but one thing that has stood out is to value enthusiasm and genuine interest over how impressive a CV is. Likewise, I’ve learned that whenever I’ve had doubts about working with someone from the beginning, I’ve usually turned out to be right later on.
• The effectiveness of marketing: Until this year, I never really realised how much of a difference marketing could make. In particular, I've learned about the power of social media marketing - provided platforms are treated separately - and how LinkedIn is an incredible (and massively underutilised) platform for marketing. I now spend a substantial proportion of my time on marketing. Ironically, while I love the creativity aspect, I actually find public marketing to be quite uncomfortable (probably because I’m actually a huge introvert, believe it or not), but I’ve become better at quietening that voice because it’s so great for the business.
• So much of TCLA’s success is down to luck: As much as I’d like to tell people that hard work will lead to a successful business, I don’t think that’s true. I was lucky in so many ways, from the time in which I entered the market, to the relationships that were developed from pure coincidence. That said, I would say there are a few things that can increase the amount of luck you have: being persistent, delivering exceptional value and constantly experimenting with ideas (in particular, throwing things at a wall, and then doubling down on the things that stick).

Plans for 2020

This year I’ve realised that it’s very hard to predict the future, so rather than setting fixed targets, here’s a broad outline of the direction I’d like to take TCLA and a few areas I hope to work on.

The long term goal – which some of you may have seen me mention before – is to turn TCLA into an online law school. That means having qualified teachers to provide online training that’ll better prepare aspiring lawyers (from students to trainee solicitors) for a career in commercial law.

With that in mind, next year I hope to:

• Continue to raise awareness of TCLA across more UK and international universities
• Hire teachers (ideally, lawyers and other experts) to teach a broader range of subjects
• Tidy up the existing content we have both within the forum and via our premium subscription
• Invest more time in our newsletter and making our emails more personalised

On a personal level, I also hope to:

• Get better at tracking my monthly progress by writing a personal blog
• Get better at taking breaks (I need to remind myself this is a marathon, not a sprint)
• Get better at managing email/messaging flow (I'm constantly feeling guilty about this, but I just can't keep up the volume at the moment)

Thank You

Finally, before I close this Year in Review, it’s important to note that TCLA wouldn’t have reached the stage it has today without some of the amazing people behind it.

Particular shout outs go to @Jessica Booker for her continued efforts within our forums; @Alice G and @Daniel Boden for their roles within the community; and @Yee Rou Quah for helping to launch our podcast Trainee Talk.

Likewise, thank you to all of YOU for your continued engagement and support. I feel very lucky to have such an amazing community of members and readers, and it makes waking up and doing this each day a pleasure. I really hope each of you secure what you want to in 2020.

Feel free to comment below. It would be amazing to hear some of your own goals for the new year .

PS: Unhelpfully, my phone has decided to die today. My phone is also the TCLA phone, so if anyone needs to contact us urgently, please email [email protected] for the time being.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Jaysen

So I have heard that some firms offer a summer TC application window. I have heard that Freshfields and (possibly) Hogan Lovells do this, along with the Government Legal Service. Does anybody know which other firms/organisations do this? I am exhausted with trying to juggle writing quality applications that I get constantly rejected from and trying to maintain good grades and would like to just put applications to one side for now and focus on them when I have more time.

Dear community,

Does anyone know what type of critical thinking assessment does Akin Gump use? Is it WGT? Thanks in advance

Does anyone have some general tips for Verbal Reasoning Tests?

A particularly difficulty I’m having is when to choose between false and cannot say.

Any comments/tips will be appreciated!

Hi Guys,

I made this thread for Winston & Strawn vac scheme 2020 application.

I was wondering if anyone can please give me tips on how to approach this application form question:

Winston & Strawn London LLP is a firm where you cannot hide in the crowd. We recruit those who we believe have the potential to rise to a challenge, are self-starters, take ownership of their work and who can roll up their sleeves and get stuck in for the benefit of the team as a whole. Why do you believe that you have the skillset to thrive in our environment?

Any tips, guidance would be appreciated! Many thanks

Hi,

I couldn't find a general thread for assessment centres, so I thought I'd start one.

My prep will consist of further researching the firm and brushing up on business/political news for commercial awareness questions.

Does anyone have any more tips for preparing for an assessment centre and for standing out on the day?


Thank you.

Hi guys,

The first question for RPC's Summer Scheme application is "Tell us about your interests, including any positions of responsibility held. (400 words max)".

For this question would you recommend explicitly linking anything I mention back to how the skills/interests involved are transferrable to commercial law? Or is that not entirely necessary. Similarly, should I therefore not mention any interests that are not that relatable to a legal career (e.g. music). I'm unsure because they do talk about how they look for 'personality' and 'individuals' in their applicants, so maybe they are looking for interests/skills broader than those useful to law.

BTW: The other questions are "Describe why a career in commercial law appeals to you. What factors and influences have affected your decision to become a lawyer? (250 words max)". " What are your reasons for applying to the RPC Summer Scheme?" (250 Words). "Identify a current commercial issue which is relevant to a City law firm. Please explain why you consider it to be significant to the stakeholders involved." That may change what is relevant to the first question.

Thanks!

I am based out of the UK, short on funds but big on dreams, I know HSF runs a vac scheme program especially where it pays for everything including airfare, and since most websites aren't very clear on this, can you help me out with this?

Hey I have received an assessment day invite from CC and I am worried that I won't perform as well in the assessment day because I didn't attend their open day (I was rejected). For example when answering 'why CC' I feel like my answer will be generic because it is mostly based on what I researched about them online and the brief interaction I had with them last year at my uni law fair. Will I be at a great disadvantage because I haven't had proper interaction with the firm? And how can I strengthen my answer to the question 'why CC'. This is my first assessment day so any tips will be much appreciated!

Hello everyone.

can someone help me or provide tips on how to answer the first question of Dechert application?;

Dechert is frequently retained to work on the most challenging matters, and prides itself on its ability to deliver premium legal services and sound business judgment to its clients. In your opinion, other than the above, what are the three key reasons why our clients instruct us?

I would highly appreciate you time and help.

I was just wondering how much weight recruiters put on academic results.

In my first year I got 32 in a module as I stupidly missed an exam that made up half the marks. Thankfully, first year didn’t count towards my history degree so I was fortunate enough to still be able to achieve a 1st overall from a decent RG university. I was just wondering if this would be a massive red flag when people come to read my application. (The rest of my first year marks were low 2:1s but as a result of that one module I got a low 2:2 overall).

Also, during my GDL I got a low commendation with some fairly awful marks in certain areas (50 in contract and Con and Ad).

I’m currently finding it hard to motivate myself to do vacation scheme applications as I feel that the results above will ensure anything I submit won’t be taken very seriously. Any clarification on this would be much appreciated!

Currently doing my DLA Piper application and it seems to only ask for a 250 word news story and then there's a section to upload a CV and 'other documents'

What have other people uploaded at this stage?

There's been no section to talk about work experience and extra-curriculars or even why DLA Piper - is it acceptable to write a document (longer than a cover letter) talking about all of this?

Seems very unclear...

So I'm doing my LPC and unfortunately don't have a training contract lined up (). So this means I'll (and lots of others) will have a two year gap before a tc commences.

However, there doesn't seem to be any clear information on how to get a paralegal job. So I was wondering if someone could explain the best way to?

Is it by signing up to agency, or using certain websites (e.g. Indeed) or contacting law firms direct?

Having searched a bit, the one issue I see is that all want prior experience, or, are aimed at people who have secured training contracts. As it stands, I have neither...

Would be grateful for any help, and feel like this is an important topic!

I've read that US firms often have less structured/ more on the job training, however would it be appropriate to describe the training programme like this when discussing motivations for the firm?

Given that we are coming to the time of year when most people are going to networking dinners, open days, interviews etc., I figured I'd link this article which I think many people who find networking a bit of a challenge would appreciate.

https://hbr.org/2016/05/learn-to-lo...inkedin&utm_post=elevate&src=linkedin-elevate

Let me know what you guys think! Equally if you have any other tips that have worked for you please feel free to share

There is a separate 250 words question which asks how Ashurst is different from other firms apart from a 1000 word cover letter. Cover letter specifically states that I should use that space to tell about myself. So is it fine not to include why Ashurst part of general cover letters in this cover letter?

Hi All,

@Harry Clark has kindly shared the below commercial awareness guide with you guys. I hope you find it useful!

Best,

Jaysen