• Get Everything You Need to Secure a Training Contract
    Now half the price. Join TCLA Premium for £30/month and get step-by-step application support, daily commercial awareness practice, and 700+ successful examples of past applications and interview experiences. Plus so much more.
    Join Premium →
  • Office Hours with BCLP (Live Q&A)
    17 December 2025 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm (UK) Hosted on TCLA TV
    Join Isabel Elsey, Legal Recruitment Manager at BCLP, for a live Q&A session. Get details on secondments, innovation, growth areas, and everything else you’ve wanted to ask about life at BCLP!

    📺 View Event →

TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26

Amgrad

Legendary Member
Oct 2, 2025
280
291
Okay, so this happened to me during the first two years of law school. I slept continuously for 3 hours every night, woke up at 6 for classes, didn't eat breakfast, barely had any lunch and only came home at around 7 pm. One day, I fainted at 6 am in front of my mum and had to go do the MRI lol.

Be careful, we need strong and well-rested lawyers! I do understand the insane pressures of uni, though 😭
Mmmhh already smelling Milbank's culture here wherever the office its pressure and work intensity is on another level. I also went to ICU and discharged a month before sitting for my CGSE eq level, that's why I had a mediocre grade at least far from my expectation.
 

yk1906

Legendary Member
Aug 26, 2024
451
479
Mmmhh already smelling Milbank's culture here wherever the office its pressure and work intensity is on another level. I also went to ICU and discharged a month before sitting for my CGSE eq level, that's why I had a mediocre grade at least far from my expectation.
I'm going to work at an American firm from Jan, and I can't wait to throw my healthy sleep schedule out of the window 😂
 

FutureTraineeMaybe

Legendary Member
Premium Member
Feb 15, 2024
257
266
i will be taking the mayer brown OA tomorrow. their deadline is 15th 11.59 pm and they operate on a rolling basis. i know someone here said that they passed the assessment but the firm stopped reviewing apps. i am quite anxious this will happen to me since i will be submitting so close to deadline. is that something i should be concerned about?
Is this confirmed?
 

Trophy

Legendary Member
Oct 29, 2025
153
248
I’m very curious about what is going on over at Willkie. Applied well over a month ago and had radio silence. I feel like if there’s no benefit to applying early, firms shouldn’t list their applications as rolling 🤷‍♀️
There is never a benefit of applying early at Willkie as all applications are reviewed and treated the same regardless of when you send it. The rolling aspect is progressing to VI > written exercise. Spots don’t fill up. You can apply on the first day and not progress or on the deadline and get through all the preliminary stages. It’s semi rolling 😄

Also their grad rec recently changed most likely a back log of applications and maybe a different approach than what Gemma used 🤔 who knows!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kirsty Wilkins

About Us

The Corporate Law Academy (TCLA) was founded in 2018 because we wanted to improve the legal journey. We wanted more transparency and better training. We wanted to form a community of aspiring lawyers who care about becoming the best version of themselves.

Get Our 2026 Vacation Scheme Guide

Nail your vacation scheme applications this year with our latest guide, with sample answers to law firm questions.