TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26

[Dannie]

Guys how likely are W&C to give VI extensions? I really can't do my VI rn as I am travelling and emailed grad rec about it 2 days ago and no response. its due tomorrow

 

[13h]

i’ve been invited to dla pipers AC does anyone have any specific advice regarding the firms AC?

 

[AdiKhurana]

Hi everyone I was wondering if anyone had done the mishcon chat based interview yet? Was just wondering how it works / whether its more geared for short or long form answers

 

[Andrei Radu]

Just following on from the Bank of England announcing the interest rate cut, bringing the base rate down to 3.75% - from a commercial law perspective, what are the main legal and transactional implications of this move (for example, on financing arrangements, M&A activity, restructuring, or disputes)?

Additionally, how would you recommend discussing this development in interviews with commercial law firms in a way that demonstrates commercial awareness rather than just economic knowledge? What practical effects should I focus on?

Thank you for any help or insights lovely people! @Abbie Whitlock @Andrei Radu @Jaysen

Not much to add to the excellent posy from @DavidJC - just wanted to emphasise that when discussing a commercial story in an interview, a way to make your analysis more comprehensive and your narrative more compelling is to can connect your explanation to headline points of other relevant commercial stories. As such, if your central idea will be that a lowering of interest rates reduces cost of borrowing and thus will likely lead to an increase in dealmaking, you could add some of the points I have quoted bellow to further support your conclusion:

I definitely agree with you on the tailwinds you mentioned - in fact, from what I have been reading and hearing, global dealmaking has been surging in the last quarter, and some people in the field have actually drawn comparisons to the 2021 boom. Basically, a number of different factors seem to be coming together to enable a boom in M&A and capital markets activity:

• Dry powder: Post 2022 with the rise of interest rates, a lot of PE funds have chosen to sit on huge pools of capital (estimated in the trillions) rather than enter investments with lower projected rate of returns as a result of the unavailability of cheap debt. This put the industry under pressure, as investors wanted to see their cash put to work. As interest rates have finally come down, a lot of PE funds feel like now is the moment to make up for all the lost time.
• Exists pressure: on the other side of the PE industry, the difficult economic conditions and the unavailability of financing made exits difficult. This once again put pressure on PE funds, as they were unable to return money to investors, which led to the rise of secondary funds. Now, a lot of PE funds that have been keeping portfolio companies longer than they wanted to see this as a perfect moment to sell to larger corporates or list on a public stock exchange.
• Pent up appetite for corporates: on the strategic side of M&A, because of the difficult macroeconomic environment of the last few years, corporates have generally been holding back from big transactions. This led to many deals that would have normally been more spread out over the last few years be postponed, and now that global markets see this period as of one of relative stability, there is a lot of pent up demand for M&A deals.
• Reduced worries around trade policy: Looking only at year back, there was a lot of optimism about the economy and about a rebound in dealmaking after the election of Trump, who thought to have a strong pro-business economic policy. That was all brought to a halt by the imposition of high tariffs on many trade partners and by all the chaos that followed. Nonetheless, overall tariffs ended up being scaled down significantly, and things seem to have broadly calmed down on the trade policy end. This alleviates many macroeconomic worries and makes businesses a lot more willing to pursue cross-border M&A deals;
• A more relaxed merger control regime: with the Trump presidency in the US and a more pro-business EU Commission agenda, competition authorities have become a lot more willing to green light deals in the last year, which once again alleviates a major worry companies have when contemplating large deals.
• AI investments: as there is an ever growing demand for chips and for data centres to service generative AI usage, there has been huge investment in the area, leading to a boom in tech M&A;
• Uncertainty, leading to a need for scale and diversification: While uncertainty is normally thought to negatively affect M&A, in the current environment it arguably has the opposite effect. As investments in AI are reaching multiple trillion dollars figures and there are increasing worries of a bubble forming as a result of relatively unimpressive returns, many companies are unsure as to where the most value truly lies in the supply chain for AI tech, and, to an even larger extent, are unsure as to what the future role of AI in the global economy will be. Thus, there is a need for diversification which can only be achieved through scale: the larger a company is, and the more diversified its business and investments, the more likely it is it will be able to profits irrespective of how things turn up.

If you want to learn more about this topic, I have linked a recent podcast from Goldman Sachs here, as it presents a significantly more nuanced and detailed analysis of all these trends.

 

[Andrei Radu]

Guys how likely are W&C to give VI extensions? I really can't do my VI rn as I am travelling and emailed grad rec about it 2 days ago and no response. its due tomorrow

I know they have given 1-2 week extensions to people in the past for health-related reasons - I am not sure what their policy is for travel-related extensions. My advice would be to reach out again today in the hopes they may respond before the deadline tomorrow. If they do not, should you have have any window available at all (even if you will not be as well-prepared as you would have wanted), I would advise you to still complete the VI to hedge against the non-negligible risk they may refuse to extend your deadline. If the graduate recruiters at the firm would have actually granted your request for an extension, in my opinion you will not have incurred that high of a detriment by completing the VI tomorrow, as they will likely take into account your circumstances when assessing your performance.

 

[FutureTraineeMaybe]

Hii, does anybody have a list of the different variations of commercial awareness questions that comes up in VI's?

 

[DavidJC]

View attachment 7510

Gotta throw the Paul, Where Next? speculation somewhere in there too 🤣

 

[Andrei Radu]

I would really appreciate anyone's thoughts on this. How many points would a firm expect you to include in why this firm question on a VI in a 60 second response? I've tried to include 2 points but after timing my response that's literally 3 sentences for each reason and they're not quite developed. Would it be okay to just mention one reason?

I would generally aim for two reasons at the expense of death of analysis, as recruiters will be well-aware that such a tight time limit will disable discussing anything but the headline point. That said, I think it can be fine to only present one point, provided that this is something of central importance to the firm and would by itself justify a strong interest in it. For instance, for Kirkland a single well-developed interest in PE point would likely do the job well here; but for Milbank, while the firm has good PE credentials, it probably wouldn't suffice.

 

[fbtrainee]

Ashurst AC post-WE 🎉

Do you mind sharing what your strengths and weakness was for the feedback report? i just got mine for the SVS and I'm curious to see if they are good enough

 

[manifestingthetc]

How long after completing the Weil Amberjack assessment should I expect to receive the feedback report?

 

[Disgruntled SQE Student]

has anyone heard back since passing the benchmark for HSFK Summer VS, be it PFO or AC?
A lot of ppl have said they have got pfo for spring, just wondering about summer

Haven't hear anything yet, they are likely still going through spring apps. From what I can remember, they don't send PFOs until the beginning of Jan, with AC in the beginning/middle.

 

[DavidJC]

How long after completing the Weil Amberjack assessment should I expect to receive the feedback report?

I got mine instantly, so should be pretty soon

 

[manifestingthetc]

Weil feedback report is as follows:
numerical and verbal (good) - i had "excellent" for mishcon so idk what went wrong here!
6/9 for grit
9/9 for creative force ....??
6/9 for digital mindset
4/9 for applied intellect AGAIN ahaha rip

i really don't know what to make of this, and why do i keep getting 4/9 for AI ahaaha it is SO annoying


Amberjack results can be so random sometimes...😆

 

[WillKitchen]

Does anyone know if the Mishcon SJT (stage 3) has a recorded video interview element?

I know that the AI Chat (stage 2) had a brief VI at the end, but it was not assessed.

 

[floral.tcla]

I saw someone posted on the forum recently about their commercial awareness resources and they’d referenced a podcast on Spotify called Wake Up To Money (BBC Radio 5 Live). I’ve been listening to it and ngl it’s lowkey good asf (better than trying to decipher the FT’s complicated jargon imo).​

that’s a shout! Yes wake up to money is so good, I really like how they don’t assume prior background as a non-law/finance student

 

[floral.tcla]

I have a couple of ideas for this one. But here's the simple one: If you can pair FT's News Briefing with Unhedged and The Next Five, you'd do just fine. The first two should do the trick. They're usually a few-minute podcasts.

These sounds so focussed, thanks!

 

[shadowboxer909]

Just did the Mishcon SJT and got high verbal, high numerical and 6/7/7 for Applied Intellect, Creative Force and Digital mindset but only a 4 for Grit

Genuinely stumped by the "Grit" scores I'm getting - I'm yet to encounter a single question that I feel actually tests for grit and resilience. Perhaps I am misunderstanding the concept of grit in relation to these tests 🤪

Law Firms: "You can't study for the SJT, just be yourself!"

Me: *Answers SJT honestly*

Law Firms: "Eww"

You need to game it.

Not answer it honestly.

Answer what you think the firm will like - make sure you come across as someone who values collaboration but can do independent work, someone who's resilient but knows when to ask for help etc.

 

[Sharkfin]

Does anyone know if the Mishcon SJT (stage 3) has a recorded video interview element?

I know that the AI Chat (stage 2) had a brief VI at the end, but it was not assessed.

Just an amberjack! no vi

 

[tball]

Any advice for SJTs for neurodivergent candidates? From what I’m aware of HSF Kramer is the only firm that lets you skip the test if you’re neurodivergent. I find them difficult and have had situations where firms haven’t replied to emails requesting adjustments. I know some offer alternative formats but not many do. Not sure what to do going forward?

 

[c.t.tc]

just did the Mishcon SJT and got 7/9, 6/9, 7/9, 6/9 and excelled in both numerical and verbal. how is that likely to score against the average? Amberjack seems to have no rhyme or reason so honestly never have any idea what's good and what's not