TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25

[tryingtogetajob555]

Huge congrats on getting the open day! Sooo well deserved.

I’ve provided some tips below:


Before the Open Day:

• Research the firm: Know key deals, focus areas, and any awards or initiatives they have been involved in. Though, to be honest, this is not soooo necessary because a lot of it will be shared on the day and you will know more about even more current deals then. However, researching to some extent helps put the things shared into perspective.
• Prepare thoughtful questions in advance: Ideally questions that show you are interested in how the law operates in practice, not just theoretical knowledge. Ask things you wouldn’t see on Google, basically.
• Stay updated on current news: If there is a big news event, think about how it could affect the firm's clients and ask about the practical impacts.
• Understand the difference between theory and practice: Firms appreciate candidates who recognise that not every headline trend has a material effect on client work.
• Plan your logistics: Arrive early, and bring a notebook and pen for proper note-taking (though they may already provide this more often times than not).

During the Open Day:

• Take clear, structured notes: Record key points lawyers and graduate recruitment share, including any insights about working practices and trends.
• Be inquisitive and engaged: Remember there are no "silly" questions at this stage. This is your opportunity to learn directly from experienced professionals.
• Ask about the practicalities of the job: For example, ask how a regulatory change or market development affects the day-to-day work lawyers do for clients.
• Focus on practical impacts, not just surface trends: Ask whether recent developments have actually led to changes in client instructions or market dynamics.
• Listen actively during talks and workshops: Note down examples they use to explain legal concepts or client advice, as these real-world examples are very valuable for future applications and interviews.
• Engage respectfully with lawyers and trainees: Ask what skills they use most often, what surprised them when they started, and how their work has evolved over time.
• Network with your fellow attendees: They are future peers and colleagues; many meaningful professional relationships start at open days. A lot of my closest friends, I met at open days - small world haha!
• Ask about client interaction and teamwork: Understanding how trainees/ lawyers fit into wider client matters will give you a strong foundation.
• Be open about gaps in your knowledge: Showing a willingness to learn is much more impressive than pretending to know everything.

After the Open Day:

• Reflect after the event: Jot down your impressions of the firm's work, culture, and any personal connections you made.
• Follow up with individuals you met: Send a short, thoughtful message thanking them for their time and mentioning something specific you discussed.
• Connect with your cohort: Stay in touch with fellow attendees; some of your closest professional contacts and friends might come from these early experiences.
• Review your notes and link them to future applications: Use the insights you gained to tailor your applications and demonstrate a genuine and well-informed interest in the firm/other firms even.
• Continue to build commercial awareness: Use the real examples and practice-area insights you gathered to deepen your understanding for future interviews.

Hope this helps!

this was amazing, thank you so much!

 

[tryingtogetajob555]

Is your Bevan Brittan application a Vac scheme or direct TC one? I'm going to apply for their direct TC

I applied for the Vac Scheme!

 

[KBanana]

Hi @Amma Usman @Jessica Booker @Andrei Radu @Ram Sabaratnam

I hope you are all well.

I recently completed a spring VS, after which I received an email stating that I didn't receive a TC offer. They mentioned I could ask for feedback, which I promptly did, and a feedback call was scheduled on a certain day (although no specific time was agreed upon). However, on the day of the call, I did not receive any communication. I followed up by email 48 hours later but have still not received any response. It has now been over a week since my follow-up.

This delay is concerning as I have upcoming interviews with other firms and I am concerned about how to explain why I did not convert my VS without knowing the firm's feedback. Any advice on how to handle this situation or how long to wait before following up again would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[ish12345]

I have been offered a place on the EPP with SH in June and was called and emailed on the 21/03 and told within the email that I would receive a formal offer the following week. I still have not received this offer via email. Is it reasonable to reach out and let them know?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi @Amma Usman @Jessica Booker @Andrei Radu @Ram Sabaratnam

I hope you are all well.

I recently completed a spring VS, after which I received an email stating that I didn't receive a TC offer. They mentioned I could ask for feedback, which I promptly did, and a feedback call was scheduled on a certain day (although no specific time was agreed upon). However, on the day of the call, I did not receive any communication. I followed up by email 48 hours later but have still not received any response. It has now been over a week since my follow-up.

This delay is concerning as I have upcoming interviews with other firms and I am concerned about how to explain why I did not convert my VS without knowing the firm's feedback. Any advice on how to handle this situation or how long to wait before following up again would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

I would contact the firm again tomorrow, explain you have interviews in the next couple of weeks and are therefore keen to get the feedback by a certain date.

 

[zeydi]

Has anyone heard anything from Sky since submitting their CVs last week? 🥲

Yes they offered places on friday

 

[Amma Usman]

I have been offered a place on the EPP with SH in June and was called and emailed on the 21/03 and told within the email that I would receive a formal offer the following week. I still have not received this offer via email. Is it reasonable to reach out and let them know?

It is possible they had thought the email went through at that date, but it didn’t. May be an operational error, in which case it is best to let them know you are yet to get the paperwork. It could also be operational or processing delays, but I recommend following up since you have not heard since then.

 

[EA95]

I’m really sorry to hear that, but please remember this doesn’t take away from all the hard work you’ve put in. It’s okay to feel disappointed, and it’s completely valid to take a moment to process that. But don’t let this keep you down. Every person in this field has faced rejection at some point - it’s a shared experience that doesn’t reflect your worth or abilities. You’re doing all the right things, and this is just one part of your journey. Take the time you need to feel the emotions, and when you’re ready, pick yourself up and keep going. There are so many opportunities still ahead, and this doesn’t define your path or limit what you can achieve.

You’ve got this, and I really believe in your potential.

Thank you so much for this Amma, I really appreciate this, and honestly this means the world to me at this moment in time.

 

[yeezyee]

I have been offered a place on the EPP with SH in June and was called and emailed on the 21/03 and told within the email that I would receive a formal offer the following week. I still have not received this offer via email. Is it reasonable to reach out and let them know?

i reached out and got a response saying that they’ll email this week!

 

[KBanana]

I would contact the firm again tomorrow, explain you have interviews in the next couple of weeks and are therefore keen to get the feedback by a certain date.

Thank you @Jessica Booker !

 

[wz_13]

Has anyone heard from samsung dpo paralegal? Or if anyone has experience with them before do you know if you reply on rolling/ how long they might take?

 

[floral.tcla]

all these months of applying and I only just clocked that it's called a TC in part because of the actual contact that's signed between you and the firm.... 🤦‍♀️

 

[TC129129]

I have a question if anyone can help... I have 3 VS coming up in the summer but am in the final round for a direct TC. If i was offered the TC, do/can I still do the Vac Schemes? Or would I have to make the decision if I am accepting before the Vac Schemes? Equally, Can I accept the offer and then withdraw if I was to be offered a TC from a Vac Scheme at a firm I ended up preferring? TIA🙏

 

[Bread]

I have a question if anyone can help... I have 3 VS coming up in the summer but am in the final round for a direct TC. If i was offered the TC, do/can I still do the Vac Schemes? Or would I have to make the decision if I am accepting before the Vac Schemes? Equally, Can I accept the offer and then withdraw if I was to be offered a TC from a Vac Scheme at a firm I ended up preferring? TIA🙏

I feel like this has been said before but it really depends on what the firms say, probably best to just wait to hear back from direct TC then go from there

 

[Jessica Booker]

I have a question if anyone can help... I have 3 VS coming up in the summer but am in the final round for a direct TC. If i was offered the TC, do/can I still do the Vac Schemes? Or would I have to make the decision if I am accepting before the Vac Schemes? Equally, Can I accept the offer and then withdraw if I was to be offered a TC from a Vac Scheme at a firm I ended up preferring? TIA🙏

It depends on the terms of both your VS offers and your TC offers.

Some VS offers have terms in them that you cannot complete the VS if you have accepted a TC elsewhere. Some TC offers state you have to withdraw from other firms' recruitment processes, although it is questionable how enforceable this particular clause is.

You can renege on a TC offer but I only recommend doing this before you have either started the onboarding processes for the GDL/SQE or received any financial support from the firm. As soon as either of these things have happened, you have a significant contractual tie to the first firm and it is not very easy to get out of these without you having to reimburse the firm for any costs they have incurred.

 

[InterestInPublicLaw]

I applied for the Vac Scheme!

thank you!

 

[trainee4u]

all these months of applying and I only just clocked that it's called a TC in part because of the actual contact that's signed between you and the firm.... 🤦‍♀️

there's a longer history

Attorneys and Solicitors Act 1728

After 1 Decem. 1730. none to act as an Attorney unless he has served a Clerkship, and been admitted.

That from and after the first Day of December one thousand seven hundred and thirty, no Person, who shall not before the said first Day of December have been sworn, admitted and inrolled, pursuant to the Directions of this Act, shall be permitted to Act as an Attorney, or to sue out any Writ or Process, or to commence, carry on or defend any Action or Actions, or any Proceedings, either before or after Judgement obtained, in the Name or Names of any other Person or Persons in any of the Courts of Law aforesaid, unless such Person shall have been bound, by Contract in Writing, to serve as a Clerk for and during the Space of five Years, to an Attorney duly and legally sworn and admitted, as herein before is directed, in some or one of the Courts herein before mentioned; and that such Person, for and during the said Term of five Years, shall have continued in such Service, and also unless such Person, after the Expiration of the said Term of five Years, shall be examined, sworn, admitted and inrolled, in the same Manner as the Persons, who shall be admitted Attornies of the said Courts, are herein before required to be examine, sworn, admitted and inrolled.

I looked one up:

Father paid £200 in 1801 (~£13k), inclusive of food and board, but not clothes to Augustus Hamet, a solicitor.
His son was to serve for six years (unpaid) as an articled clerk to Hamet, then become admitted as a solicitor
Son is to be instructed in law by Hamet, and not be transferred/sold to other parties.
If Hamet died before six years, his estate was required to repay proportion of the £200.

The agreement was indented, which meant cut into two halfs in serrated pattern, to be kept by the two parties to guard against forgery, this is more generally called an "indenture of apprenticeship" (an articled clerk was simply a specific form of apprentice, although it was usual to refer to "articles of clerkship" for solicitors & notaries, and indentures of apprenticeships more generally).

The 'articles' referred to in the term "articled clerk" are the terms of the contract, and it was thus sometimes referred to as a "contract of clerkship".

The articles/contract were eventually regulated by the Law Society under the various Solicitors Acts. In the 1990 Training Regulations made under s 2 of the Solicitors Act 1974, the Law Society changed the name from 'Articles' to 'Training Contract'

Under the SRA's old training regulations, solicitors qualified under a TC.

These regulations no longer apply, except for LPC candidates, and going forward it's all QWE.

Unlike LPC, there is no requirement for training, and it's instead a matter of certifying that you have developed the relevant competences: https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/authorisation-individuals-regulations/#reg-2

This can be done by working as a paralegal.

A training contract is specifically a contract of apprenticeship, i.e. an apprenticeship at common law, as in centuries gone by.

You can also become a solicitor under a six year apprenticeship agreement as an approved English apprenticeship under the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009.

An approved English apprenticeship can be terminated early. However, a common law apprenticeship remains governed by centuries-old law. An apprenticeship contract is for the purpose of training, and if the employer breaches it by terminating it before the two years is up, they are liable to pay damages both for the remainder of the contract, AND for future employment prospects. https://www.irwinmitchell.com/news-...enticeship-contracts-six-traps-for-the-unwary.

Therefore the training contract is both a contract for training and hence a common-law apprenticeship, and a contract of employment, whereas a paralegal would work under a contract of employment only. Firms can take advantage of this flexibility (at the expense of trainees) by training paralegals without giving them a training contract and avoiding the common law apprenticeship liabilities. Even though the SRA no longer regulate TCs (except for legacy LPC candidates), they still provide not only greater prestige for future solicitors than QWE other-than-through-a-TC, but also virtually cast iron certainty to qualify as a solicitor from the date of signature.

 

[LillyandSilver]

The agreement was indented, which meant cut into two halfs in serrated pattern, to be kept by the two parties to guard against forgery, this is more generally called an "indenture of apprenticeship" (an articled clerk was simply a specific form of apprentice, although it was usual to refer to "articles of clerkship" for solicitors & notaries, and indentures of apprenticeships more generally).

The 'articles' referred to in the term "articled clerk" are the terms of the contract, and it was thus sometimes referred to as a "contract of clerkship".

The articles/contract were eventually regulated by the Law Society under the various Solicitors Acts. In the 1990 Training Regulations made under s 2 of the Solicitors Act 1974, the Law Society changed the name from 'Articles' to 'Training Contract'

OMG this is why my parents friends always ask me when i'm doing my articles!!!

 

[trainee4u]

OMG this is why my parents friends always ask me when i'm doing my articles!!!

yes it's quite a long time ago that it changed.
the term "articles" was subsequently removed from the Solicitors Act as an incidental amendment in the Legal Services Act 2007, 17 years after the Law Society changed from "articles" to "training contract".

 

[badmintonflyinginsect]

I was unable to convert my VS into a TC this cycle. How should I approach mentioning/speaking about this in applications + interviews (if at all)?