New Threads

Hi All,

You may have just seen this new section of the forum pop up. It's an opportunity for you to introduce yourself and let us follow along your training contract journey. You might also find this a good way to motivate yourself to work on specific things in the application process.

Anyone can create a thread in this forum and post as frequently as they wish. You might want to include what you're working towards at the moment, how you're feeling at different stages of the process and your goals for the future. You could also share anything you've come across that you've found useful and/or any setbacks you've faced.

There's no pressure in these threads - these threads are yours, so feel free to only share what you feel comfortable sharing. Likewise, you are very welcome to stay anonymous.

We’ll be reading these threads, so feel free to make clear anything you’re stuck on at the moment, and we can try to send some advice/guidance your way.

I look forward to reading your stories!

Best,

Jaysen

Hi everyone,

I have been a bit of an avid stalker of TCLA since last year when I realised that there are so many people going through the same experiences simultaneously; so have found the forums to be such an interesting read.

I have received the TCLA scholarship this year which I am so grateful for and wanted to share my experiences through my first round of TC applications as I am sure I am about to embark on a rollercoaster of emotions!

Hi, my name is Yasmin - I'm studying Law at the University of Cambridge.
Having been given a TCLA scholarship I feel more confident about the application season and I'll be sharing updates of my journey on here.

I am excited and overwhelmed that I received the TCLA scholarship. Being recognised for my potential by the TCLA team has motivated me and I feel like I can enter this application season with confidence. I study Politics and International Relations at the University of Exeter and I am planning to apply for vacation schemes. I will be posting about my journey, my ups and downs, my failures and my successes. So join me on this epic journey and let's see where it leads us.

Hello everyone. I am currently at the pre-final stage of Deloitte's new training contract application. I wanted to ask, especially the more senior members, what are their thoughts on such a training contract and whether anyone has any tips as to the questions to be expected in the Job Simulation part of the application process. Thank you.

.

Hey everyone,

We've started teaching daily commercial awareness on Instagram. You can give us a follow here: https://www.instagram.com/thecorporatelawacademy/.

If you don't have Instagram, don't worry - I'll start including these posts in our emails:

Here's a sample of our latest post:



Imagine you own a company.

You need money to fund your day-to-day needs and any investments you want to make.

Sometimes, you can fund those things from the profits your business generates. But what if you're not making enough profit?

You need to raise money.

If you're a company and you want to raise money, you have two primary options: equity finance and debt finance.

Equity finance means selling shares in your business to raise money.

Debt finance means raising money through borrowing. That's how we get to bonds. Bonds are an example of debt finance. In other words, they're an instrument to help you raise money through borrowing.

If you want to raise money using bonds, you can sell bonds to investors. We call this ‘issuing bonds’ and we call you the ‘issuer’.

Investors buy these bonds for a particular sum of money. So by issuing bonds, you are raising the money you need for your business.

In return for buying a bond, you promise to pay investors regular interest payments over a period of time. At the end of that period of time, you pay the investors their original sum back (the money they paid for the bond). We call this repayment date, the 'maturity date'. We call the original sum, the 'principal'.

Why would an investor want to invest in your bonds?

Well, they want to make money. Buying bonds from your company means they get to receive interest payments, in addition to the money they lent you in the first place.

They do have to take on the risk though. They need to judge that your company won't go bust. If you do go bust and fail to make a payment, we call this a default.

Note, companies aren't the only ones that issue bonds. Governments do too.

We call UK government bonds 'gilts' and US government bonds 'treasuries'.

Government are typically seen as a much safer investment. Companies could go bust, but it's less likely a government will. You can, however, look at examples in history when government defaulted or were at risk of defaulting.

hey guys, I’m kind of stuck with one of my TC questions and I don’t know how to respond to it.

The question is:

What was the reasoning for choosing your honours subjects?

I studied international trade, international law, legal practice and business strategy and sustainable development.

Hi, with the interest of influential investors in upholding social values through their investment activities- I was wondering this might affect law firms and their sovereign debt and Emerging markets practice?

I found this interesting article in the FT https://www.ft.com/content/fca9efd0-fa3a-39a1-b618-213f9a568d12

Would be interested to know what everyone thinks

@Jaysen

Hi guys, I'm finding this website incredibly useful so thought I'd get involved in the forum!

For anyone applying for the Pinsent Masons vacation scheme, the word limit for the application questions is 4000 characters, which is pretty long (I've just written 647 words which is 3876 characters)!

Would people recommend staying well clear of this word limit even if one could comfortably get near it? Is it realistic to try and be concise at this word count?

BTW the questions are:
What are your main spare time interests?
Describe your greatest non-academic achievement of the last two years and why this achievement is important to you.
Please explain why you have decided to pursue a career in commercial law.
Please explain why you are applying to Pinsent Masons.

I have an upcoming interview at Jones Day and I am just enquiring as to what kind of questions they ask. Any advice is greatly appreciated

Hi all,

Anyone have experience with Revelian testing? I think this is the first year Ashurst have introduced online testing so any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks.

Hi All,

We've decided to open up applications to become a TCLA Brand Ambassador: https://forms.gle/yETz6zTXJEAvzpYp7. The deadline is 4 October 2019.

The purpose of the role will be to help raise awareness of TCLA within your university over the 2019-20 academic year. It's mostly a remote role, but we'll be looking to do an event at your university in 2020.

This role is open to law and non-law students in all years of university study. A maximum of two positions are available per university.

Why become a TCLA Brand Ambassador?

• You will be paid £200
• You will receive a year subscription to TCLA Premium (valued at £269)
• You will work closely with the founding team
• You will gain access to a private forum for team discussions
• You will build valuable marketing skills and be able to showcase your role in your applications to law firms

What will your responsibilities be?

• Identify marketing opportunities for your university
• Lead a social media campaign for TCLA @ your university and share regular content
• Organise a speaking event at your university (in 2020)
• Suggest ideas to spread TCLA across your university

Who are we looking for?

We want brand ambassadors who understand our mission and are passionate about what we're trying to do at TCLA.

You'll have an entrepreneurial mindset. We want someone who is ambitious and isn't afraid to think outside the box.

You'll understand how to engage aspiring lawyers at your university online and offline and you'll always be looking for new opportunities. You'll have the drive to regularly post social media content and we'll be able to trust you to work independently.

"We set out standards high and we trust our people to hold themselves accountable for meeting other people’s expectations. Describe a time when you had to drop everything and really ‘raise your game’ in order to keep a promise you had made to someone else. How did you manage both this and your other commitments?"

This is a very specific question, how would you go about answering it if you don't really have a suitable example that answers all points of the question?

Some great advice from @Alice G -

1. Give yourself time. Time really is a great healer, so give yourself time to reflect and process the events from the past year. While some applications open in August, do not forget that firms hold events and open days right into November. Yes, be mindful of rolling basis applications, but just make sure to prioritise those effectively.
2. Create a new plan. For me, this meant not only thinking about everything I had learned about the law and different firms over the past year, but also, and most importantly, what it was that I learned about myself. In doing so, I have been able to decide what types of firms to apply to with a far greater understanding of what I want from my long-term career. It has also meant that I have been able to think what I could be doing to better myself as an applicant.
3. Attend your first event of the new cycle! At first, I went with a feeling of dread, but when I got there, I was reminded of how much I actually enjoyed learning about different firms and meeting so many new and interesting people who are in the same boat as me! Just making that one small step really helped me.
4. Do not trawl through LinkedIn or spend too much time on people’s Instagram pages. Comparing yourself to someone else is never going to make you a better or more worthy candidate. Keep in mind that people develop and progress at their own pace and people very rarely post about the rejections they have had to endure prior to their eventual success. Essentially, we can never fully appreciate the lives or experiences of others so own your own journey and focus on you!
5. Celebrate all of the achievements you have had in the last year and reflect also on how far you have come. Sadly, I tend to find that the pain of rejection lingers far longer than the euphoria of success but celebrating your victories can really help you to feel more motivated. I had a lovely message recently when someone reminded me of how amazing it is to get a place on vacation schemes and to have reached AC stages with international firms. It honestly did take someone else to point this out for me to take a step back and allow myself to feel proud of my achievements. Be kind to yourself and give yourself the advice you know you would give to a best friend.
6. Lastly, do things you enjoy throughout this winter season and prioritise your happiness. Applications are tough but ensure you make time to see family and friends to give you social events to look forward to. You can also make sure that you do things for yourself on a daily basis. This might be going to the gym, reading a book (and I mean one which isn’t university related!!), having a bath or playing music/an instrument. Regardless of what it is, taking half an hour for yourself each day and getting outside of the ‘application headspace’ can really help to make the process less of a chore.

Does anyone have experience in interviewing at Maples Teesdale for their training contract and are able to share some insight?

Many thanks

Hi everyone - first post on this forum!

I'm going into my second year at uni, so I'm starting to look online for advice as to my chances of securing a vacation scheme. While lurking, among all the very useful threads on TheStudentRoom, I came across this one: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6105646.

For those that don't have the time to read it, the author seems to have gathered data from law firms' diversity reports over the past few years, and put them in a table. It seems that, particularly for the 'top' commercial law firms, the percentage of trainee and associate solicitors who went to a private school is much higher than the UK average (which is either 7% or 12% depending on how you measure it). This is particularly true if we assume that the people educated overseas all went to private school. Some of the firms have 'private school' figures of over 50%!

Coming from a fairly average state school background, I'm quite worried that, despite all the social mobility initiatives, my application will be at a disadvantage because of either my school status or the polish/grades of those who went to private school. I'm also worried about not fitting in and getting on with my colleagues if/when I do get a TC!

I had a few questions (for anyone still reading :/)

1. Are these figures more or less in sync with what you've personally seen on vac schemes, training contracts, etc.?
2. Do you think that these figures have changed since the reports were published? A lot of the data seems to have been collected in 2017 or 2018
3. Do you have any ideas as to why privately-educated individuals are over-represented at these firms?

Thanks!!!!

Hi everyone,

Linklaters have launched a new platform for their applications and when I'm trying to enter my undegraduate modules, there is a search bar to type the name of the module and in theory something should come up. However, nothing pops up there and in fact I cannot enter any module whatsoever. Has this happened to anyone else?

Those of you wanting to discuss the Big 4 when answering the popular interview question: "What are the biggest challenges facing law firms over the next five years?" will enjoy this one!

@Oliver Gilliland's latest article is an in-depth look at exactly how the Big 4 pose a threat to law firms. He examines the impact of clients' demanding more-for-less, why the Big 4 have an advantage, and how regulation could pose a challenge to the Big 4's efforts to disrupt this market.

https://www.thecorporatelawacademy.com/rise-of-the-big-4/

Hi guys - wondering how you would answer this question:

How is the legal landscape changing and what are the challenges facing Ashurst?

Is it OK to use cybersecurity threats as an answer? Thanks so much!

Hi everyone,

I saw a thread that talked about events at law firms that aren’t necessarily open days and thought I would just create this thread to help people find events that they may want to apply to!

I would definitely recommend anyone aware of other events post them to collate a nice list of these.

Legal Cheek are starting to ramp up their student events list (they’re also usually in the evening and only require your CV and two questions for the panel to apply):

Clyde & Co (London) - Tuesday 10th October - Climate change and the law (https://www.legalcheek.com/event/climate-change-and-the-law-with-clyde-co/)

Taylor Wessing (London) - Tuesday 15th October - Mental health and wellbeing in the law (https://www.legalcheek.com/event/mental-health-and-wellbeing-in-the-law-with-taylor-wessing/)

Pinsent Masons (Leeds) - Wednesday 23rd October - Skills for lawyers of the future (https://www.legalcheek.com/event/skills-for-lawyers-of-the-future-with-pinsent-masons-in-leeds/)

I hope that this helps (and my apologies if it’s in the wrong section)!

Hi All,

I came across this post today, it's a clear explanation of the benefits and evolution of contract review software: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2019/09/19/the-kira-systems-guide-to-ai-driven-contract-analysis/, as well as touching on the technology behind it.

Best,

Jaysen

Hi all

I was wondering if anybody has completed the Linklaters "Capp Online Assessment" and could shed any light on what it actually entails as the info the firm provides doesn't seem to give too much away. It seems that its trying to test quite a few different attributes so I am wondering if its similar to HSF's assessment which had SJT and critical reasoning questions in the same test.

I'd really appreciate any info anybody has on this as I'm a bit apprehensive to go into it blind.

Thanks in advance for any help

Hi everyone,

The 'introduce us to a topic' question is forming part of the HSF app again this year and i think it is one of the trickiest ones to start thinking about, so I wondered how people might feel about sharing some ideas for inspiration purposes? If you made an app last year and using the same topic then I totally understand that people might not want to share but it would be really interesting to hear about everyone's interests and gain some inspiration from it

I don't mind kicking off and sharing that I spoke about nutrition in my app last year and its relation to wellbeing and I don't think it was really factual or detailed enough. I may still write on the same topic this year but I am still unsure!

Does anyone else experience problems with Ashurst's application? Specifically, under the cover letter section, it says 1000 words max. I copy & paste there 996 words and it wont let me proceed claiming that I must be under 1000 words. Does anyone know why? Maybe its the format of me including my address etc. on the right hand side that is causing this? Thanks.