TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26

[Andrei Radu]

Does anyone have any Kirkland VI Tips? Unsure what to expect in terms of what kind of questions to prepare for and would be extremely grateful for any advice. Thank you. @Abbie Whitlock @Andrei Radu

Unfortunately, I have no specific Kirkland VI tips as I did not apply to the firm, but I still thought to share some general tips and resources - from what heard from some friends who did the Kirkland VI in prior years, it did not seem to differ a lot from a "usual" VI experience.

Firstly, in terms of usual questions that often com up in VIs, besides the 3 classic motivational Qs (why you, why commercial law, why the firm), some of the ones I encountered most often/heard about others encountering are:

• Tell me about a time you demonstrated teamwork
• Tell me about a time you demonstrated resilience/worked under pressure/solved a problem
• What are the key qualities a trainee at our firm needs?
• What is your biggest weakness?
• Tell me about a time you made a mistake
• Tell me about a time you worked with tight deadlines

I have compiled a more thorough list with typical VIs questions and a more detailed description of the preparation method I used in my Complete Competency Interview Guide. This leads me to my second point - the most important thing for me was just practice. As many people initially do, I also had an issue dealing with nerves at first, as VIs can feel uniquely awkward. Nonetheless, believe me, if you put yourself in VI conditions and just practice continuously for several hours, you will get a lot more accustomed to it. My advice would be to just take around 3-4 hours in which you do nothing but choose random questions, give yourself 1 minute to prepare and then record yourself for 1-2 minutes. You will see you will get remarkably better over time.

Thirdly, while practicing, and then during the actual VI, I would also advise you to constantly remind yourself to:

1. Speak more slowly - this gives you more time to think and articulate your ideas and makes it less likely to to find yourself having to continuously rephrase midsentence; I also find speaking in this way makes me feel more in control and calms my nerves; and
2. Realize that your performance does not have to be perfect, but merely good enough. I think a lot of candidates end up overthinking and panicking when making the smallest mistake, which ends up derailing their entire speech. Being too perfectionistic in this way often works to your detriment. Thus, you should internalize the idea that it is fine if your response is not absolutely perfect - many candidates (myself included) have progressed by merely making sure we communicated decent substantive points in a reasonably clear and structured manner. You do not have to blow anyone away. If you start thinking in this way, it is more likely that when a small error inevitably occurs, you are able to overlook it and still have an overall good response.

Finally, if I were to give a Kirkland-specific tip, I would say to refresh your understanding of PE and what has been happening in this industry in recent months; as if you get any technical questions, they will likely be related to this,

 

[Afuturetrainee]

Mayer Brown has no application questions this year. Am I correct?

 

[Bread]

@Andrei Radu @Abbie Whitlock Reed Smith">@Abbie Reed Smith Any advice on how to show a genuine interest in the firm’s work? Beyond just mentioning deals and certain practices, I’m wondering how to make a compelling case for why I’m interested in a certain firm’s work that isn’t wishy washy

I’m really struggling bc when it boils down to it they all do broadly the same stuff

Thank you!

 

[marisachr]

@Andrei Radu @Abbie Whitlock for the Goodwin application question: ''Discuss a commercial issue that has particularly interested you. Why did it capture your attention, and what impact could it have on the legal sector?'' Should we talk about a commercial issue that will have an impact on specifically law firms, or an issue that will have an impact on law firms' clients, subsequently increasing/decreasing workflow for law firms? Your insights would be much appreciated!

 

[roo4]

B&B PFO post WG

Sorry to hear that, can I ask how long it was before they got back to you? I've been waiting for three weeks wish they'd just put my out of my misery lol

 

[Andrei Radu]

@Andrei Radu @Abbie Whitlock Reed Smith">@Abbie Reed Smith Any advice on how to show a genuine interest in the firm’s work? Beyond just mentioning deals and certain practices, I’m wondering how to make a compelling case for why I’m interested in a certain firm’s work that isn’t wishy washy

I’m really struggling bc when it boils down to it they all do broadly the same stuff

Thank you!

To show a genuine interest in a particular firm's work, you need to identify the right level of generality to link your motivation to. At the broadest general level, you could attempt to discuss the firm's work as a whole, on a cross-departmental basis, but that is often unpersuasive - it becomes too general, and people end up discussing everything and nothing at the same time, using vague language and buzz words ("fast-paced complex work"). At the most specific level possible, you could express your interest in a single particular deal/matter the firm worked on; but this is again often unconvincing, as each deal and matter is in many ways unique, and there is no guarantee that you will often get to work on something very alike it.

Thus, to write a compelling answer as to why you are interested in a firm's work, you will likely have to find a middle-ground between the two ends of the spectrum. What that middle ground is can and should differ both on a firm by firm basis (as different firms will have USPs and strengths at different levels of specificity when looking at their work) and on an individual-by-individual basis (as experiences and plausible motivational links to draw can be very different for different people). Nonetheless, to give you a more concrete image of how this can play out, I'll list bellow three categories of description of a firm's work that I have seen candidates successfully express an interest in:

1. Transactional/Contentious/Advisory: some firms will just be very strong across a number of practices that can be grouped under one of these headings, others firms will choose multi-specialist approaches to organising the firm and thus will have some very broad categories such as these, while different ones will again have other distinguishing factors that can be tied to one of these broad categories of work (i.e. HSFK has for years sought to grow in many different transactional areas, Slaughters has sought to grow in many disputes practices, Davis Polk and Sullivan & Cromwell have a high-value but low-volume strategy across their transactional practices, etc). Thus, you could express an interest in general transactional/disputes/advisory work + in the aforementioned distinguishing factor of the firm at this level and have a good and specific answer as to why you are interested in the firm's work.
2. Particular practice areas/sectors (corporate M&A, finance, restructuring, litigation, arbitration, white collar crime, etc): the most common level of generality successful applicants discuss an interest in the firm's work at; it normally makes sense to focus on practices, as this is where you will qualify and will normally make the biggest impact on the "type" of tasks and matters you work on. While you may worry that this is not specific enough, in that other firms will have such a practice area as well, normally if a firm is known to be good in the area (even if not the absolute best), this will be deemed a good answer as to why the firm. In terms of ensuring your application is specific enough to dispel a recruiter's doubts that your motivations may be as good of a fit for another firm, I think this is often achieved via looking at the reasons you provide in conjunction, rather than making each reason be applicable to the firm and only the firm.
3. Particular sub-areas of a practice/sector group: finally, you may often find that different firms' practices have subspecialties in terms of the matters they are really good at; for instance, while Davis Polk is known to be good in M&A, it is particularly strong in transatlantic mandates and on TMT-related transactions; likewise for Gibson Dunn, only they are particularly good in infrastructure PE work. If you can establish an interest in this sub-speciality a firm is good in, this will almost certainly suffice for an answer that is deemed specific enough vis-a-vis interest in the firm's work.

 

[flower1]

Hello @Andrei Radu
I just read your post above - I was wondering, how can we best research particular sub-areas of a practice/sector. For example, I'm interested in Clifford Chance's M&A practice - but I'm really struggling to differentiate it from other similar law firms, particularly as the websites look very similar. Also, is there a way to determine which clients go to which firm the most - because most firm's clients are banks, large businesses?

Thank you

 

[pfoapplicant]

Hi guys,

I'm currently filling in the Mishcon de Reya application form, and I've one got one quick query to ask. If anyone has any tips, I'd be hugely grateful!

On the "Work Experience" section, candidates are asked to specify how many hours they've worked in a typical week, but only if the experience in question is "ongoing rather than one-off". Am I correct in presuming that a two-week vacation scheme counts as one-off?

 

[Amgrad]

Penningtons Manches Cooper Open Day invite!

 

[Lawlawland]

Can anyone let me know what to anticipate in the Mishcon Video interview part of the chat interview?

How many questions and is it motivational/strength based?

 

[Lawlawland]

hey just a bit confused - i sent off my slaughters with just my grade breakdowns on the education section of the app, was i meant to attach a transcript??

I added my grade breakdown, conversion details (international student) and also the full transcripts of all my degrees, as they said they would expect it to be clear and I didn't want to risk it.

The additional documents space is exactly for that purpose.

 

[TCGrad1642]

Does anyone know what the pillars are for the Macfarlanes assessment

 

[Life_of_PFOs]

Did you get first stage interview or later on?

Hi there, I passed the first-stage interview. I completed the assessment centre, but failed to get a vacation scheme offer.

 

[yk1906]

I added my grade breakdown, conversion details (international student) and also the full transcripts of all my degrees, as they said they would expect it to be clear and I didn't want to risk it.

The additional documents space is exactly for that purpose.

Hey! I was wondering, as a fellow international, whether you know (from ODs or whatsoever) if firms prefer us to convert our grades into % or just leave them as they are? My grades are easily convertible to % scale, and I’m honestly afraid to put my actual grades when they explicitly ask for %, because then it’ll read like I have a very low %

 

[yk1906]

I am soooo thrilled for December with all those deadlines coming up 😁😁 Hoping for at least one AC/interview for all of us here

 

[flower1]

Hello @Abbie Whitlock @Andrei Radu
In a video interview, what are we supposed to mention for this - Why me? Why should the firm take me as their trainee solicitor? I'm struggling to identify what points the firm expects us to make and how to differentiate answers to make them unique.

Thank you

 

[letsdothis]

Jones Day AC!! Any insights are appreciated especially for the group exercise

 

[confusedbird]

Hello @Abbie Whitlock @Andrei Radu
In a video interview, what are we supposed to mention for this - Why me? Why should the firm take me as their trainee solicitor? I'm struggling to identify what points the firm expects us to make and how to differentiate answers to make them unique.

Thank you

Hi,

I'm not them but I thought I'll share my thoughts on this because this is something that I struggle with as well.

I approach these questions in a few steps -

1. Reflect on my experiences and see what I learnt from them/what skills I developed.
2. Relate these to the tasks of a trainee
3. Look at what traits the firm values

The first two steps usually give me a few options to go with and the last one helps me narrow it down and relate it back to the firm.

I hope this helps a bit!

 

[James Wakefield]

How long did people wait before getting Bird & Bird WG?

 

[WiddyJ]

Jones Day AC!! Any insights are appreciated especially for the group exercise

Congrats! Is this for spring or summer?