Hi everyone,
I did a two vac schemes last year at US law firms before accepting a direct TC offer at a MC firm. I used to use the forum a lot and thought it would be helpful to share some of the things I’ve learnt over the process in this thread.
Conversion
Conversion rates for vac schemes tend to be quite variable from firm to firm. Historically, US law firms conversion rates (often 30%-50%) have tended to be lower than MC, SC or international firms (often 80%+). However, this can vary quite a lot (one MC firm, for example, converted very few of their vac schemers last year).
Performance
One of the most common questions is “What can I do to prepare so I can convert my vacation scheme?” To be honest, my recommendation here would be to worry less about preparation and focus more on understanding what law firms are really looking for in a trainee.
I don’t think law firms are expecting you to arrive with legal knowledge or polished technical skills. What I think firms are really assessing is whether you have the raw ingredients to become a strong trainee. These are things like judgement, attention to detail, common sense, enthusiasm for the work and the ability to work well with other people.
In practice, that means being someone who is reliable, switched on, curious and pleasant to have around. A lot of it comes down to whether you seem like someone who understands how to behave professionally, takes the work seriously and makes life easier rather than harder for the people around them. That is hard to define precisely, but you will usually show it through small things done consistently well.
So that means if you’re given an administrative task (like proofreading etc.) you should approach it with a positive attitude and enthusiasm. Once you have done tasks like this well, you might be trusted to work on something which is a little bit more complex/interesting.
Interview
Most firms (although not all) will have some form of partner interview. I would say here that if you did an interview to get on the vac scheme, then it’ll be pretty similar in terms of format and the questions asked. But I do think the overall ‘bar’ is a little bit higher here – particularly in terms of commitment to law and that specific law firm.
Many firms won’t mind taking a punt on someone with a good application but an average interview for a vac scheme, but as a TC is a much bigger investment the expectations will be higher.
One of my friends did well on their VS, but did not convert the scheme due to the partner interview, as the partners were not convinced by their long-term commitment to law and their understanding of that specific law firm’s work.
With this in mind, I would recommend preparing in advance for the interview, and thinking about whether your answers to the typical questions (why law, why this firm etc.) could be improved from your VS interview.
Assessments
It’s worth noting that some firms will have assessments (e.g. a written exercise) if they have not already tested this for the application process to get on the vac scheme. While it is important to pass these, I do think that performance reviews + interviews are given slightly more weight.
Not converting
While you ideally shouldn’t go into the vac scheme thinking about not converting, it’s worth noting that having a vac scheme strongly improves your CV and will make you more competitive for future application cycles. So all is not lost if you do not convert.
In addition to this, I’ve also quoted below a couple of posts I remember reading last year. These tips were really helpful in preparing for my vac schemes!
Jessica Booker said:
General themes why I have seen people not convert their VS to TC:
Arrogance/over confidence - it’s important to be confident on schemes but there are some candidates who just seem to think they are better than the rest of their cohort and that they will convert.
Lack of interest in the work - not asking questions, doing the work to a basic level, not asking for feedback or follow up conversations.
Spending too much time networking - too many coffee catch ups at the expense of doing work for their department
Over committing - saying yes to everything and then realising they don’t have enough time to do the things they have said they would.
Bad mouthing/manipulation: either talking bad of others (even at other firms) or trying to use their other experiences as a bit of a power trip (for instance bringing their other schemes/offers into conversations when there is no need to).
Not asking for guidance on their work: leading to spending too much time or having too many mistakes in their work
Andrei Radu said:
Hi @Lalis, to list a few of my top VS conversion tips:
- Speak with people at the firm (particularly graduate recruitment, recruitment partners, and trainees) to find out what are the most important assessment criteria for conversion. Different firms have different policies - for instance, in my case conversion at Slaughter and May was 100% determined by the final TC interview and written task, at Willkie it was mostly determined by the quality of your work and your integration in the firm's culture, at Milbank it was a combination of the final assessment and the impression you left on people on your team. To maximize conversion chances, you should modify your approach to match the factors emphasized by each firm.
- Take notes: as you go through the vacation scheme, at the end of each day, write down a short summary of what you did: who did you meet and what did you learn from them, what tasks did you work on, what sessions did you attend etc. As you approach the final interview, this will help you with being reflecting about the experience and showing that you have taken all the opportunities the firm offered.
- Try to meet as many people as possible, particularly in your department, but do not overdo it. Of course, it is great to integrate yourself as much as you can and to make as many people as possible notice you. However, you should not be spending every second of the day inviting people for coffee chats. Firstly, there are many other things you should be doing, like getting involved in different workstreams, attending sessions, and deepening your relationship with people you have already met, such as your supervisor. Secondly, as you will know, lawyers are often very stressed and have very little free time on their hands. Most will accept coffee chat requests, but they will appreciate if you do not waste their time by asking to meet only with a view of getting them to potentially put in a good word for you. Thus, I would advise you to always have a genuine reason for meeting someone. That does not need to necessarily be work-related - you can simply ask for a coffee chat because you want to introduce yourself and get to know people in the firm - but you should be upfront about it. Furthermore, try to get an idea from your supervisor as to who is more and less busy at the moment and avoid targeting the former.
- Mirror the attitude of those around you, and know when to be more relaxed: a crucial element of succeeding in many vacation schemes is to be able to build rapport with a few important people - particularly your supervisor, one or two lawyers you will get to work more with, and the recruitment partners. Try to read the attitude and expectations of those people and do not always attempt to impress them. In my experience, the people who ended up not converting tended to be the slightly overbearing ones who wanted to be constantly seen. Sometimes, such as at an event over drinks or at a lunch, people will want to simply relax a bit and forget about work. Other times, they may be too busy and stressed to want to engage with you about something serious. They could and also many times do want to take a slightly more lighthearted approach when talking about their work, so try not to seem like you are taking yourself too seriously. From what I have seen, people more often fail in adapting to these circumstances rather that when adapting to more formal dynamics.
