TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26

[l789]

Hi does anyone know if there are any resources to help with SJT/ cappfinity tests. I’m happy to pay for resources too.

Thanks!

I would like to know aswell, commented earlier but no response.

 

[username10341034]

Do you guys think the Mayer Brown SJT score of 4/9, 4/9, 6/9 and 8/9 is enough? Should I expect a PFO?

Is the SJT a cappfinity test? And how did you find out what your score was?

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hi @Andrei Radu in terms of identifying USPs that do not apply to another firm, how would you even find this (even with deep research, events etc) as a lot of firms work in same practice areas etc? Is it not sufficient enough to just mention what the firm does and therefore that makes it tailored to the firm? I am quite confused and I feel the whole USP part is slowing me down

Hi @Lawlife5 this is a great question about a quite complex issue, and I will firstly clarify that what I will comment here does come down to my opinion on the matter - it is not a purely factual statement of absolute truth. Based on my experience with the application process and conversations with recruiters, I think the ways firms assess a "why the firm" answer can be broadly separated into two categories I will elaborate on bellow.

1. The "If the candidate's reasoning equally applies to any other firms, it is insufficiently specific" view:

Essentially, when taken together, the candidate's why the firm reasons need to not apply to any other law firm to the same extent to which they apply to the firm in question. Importantly, however, it is not necessary for any individual reason to apply only to this firm and no other - this would be an impossible task in the case of many law firms; as you observed, many firms have similar practice areas and expertise. Rather, what is required is that, when taken in conjunction, the USPs you connect your motivations not apply to the same extent to any other firm.

Thus, the concept of "Unique Selling Points" can therefore be somewhat misleading, as USPs will not in many cases be truly "unique": instead, USPs will only pick out feature of a firm that distinguish it from the majority of other law firms (rather than every single one). Furthermore, in many cases a USP will not have a simple YES/NO applicability to a firm - e.g. for a motivation tied to a firm's strength and reputation in a practice area, there will be more of a spectrum in from "Vert strong" to "Very weak"; hence, the question of the extent to which a USP applies to a firm comes in. Under this conceptualisation, it may make more sense to see USPs as selection criteria for firms you are interested in; and to understand the task of presenting a compelling "Why the firm" answer as a task of presenting a cogent narrative as to what selection criteria you could have so that the relevant firm would score overall the highest.

Understood this way, if you take two or three of such USPs together, in most cases you will find they will not apply to the same extent to another firm. Take Latham for instance, and consider the following USPs: (i) a leading PE practice, and (ii) top tier expertise in both sponsor and borrower side finance work; (iii) a global elite law firm. The first USP would already exclude a lot of firms, retaining only a few US firms such as Kirkland and Simpson Thacher and some Magic Circle players such as Clifford Chance and Freshfields; the second USP would exclude US rivals, keeping only some of the MC firms; while the third would not apply to any UK firms, leaving us with only Latham.

2. The "If the candidate's reasoning picks up important features of our firm that distinguishes it from most rivals, it is sufficiently specific" view:

Other recruiters assess candidates through simpler lens, essentially only looking to see whether the candidate's reasoning is compelling to the effect that it seems plausible that the candidate would find a firm of this type attractive. Under this view, even when taken together the reasons provided need not pass the "not equally applicable to another firm to the same extent test". Rather, what recruiters will be looking for is whether the candidate has a genuine interest in the important features of the firm's work, culture, training etc. to the effect that they can honestly say they want to join the firm - even if they may not be able to conclude that the candidate does not want to work at any other firm more more. To use the Latham example once again, something along the lines of a justification based on a broader strong corporate and banking & finance expertise would probably suffice here (although it would equally apply to, say, Clifford Chance).

My advice:

In my opinion it is difficult (if not impossible) to know under which of these frameworks a firm will assess your answer - this is definitely something too nuanced to be advertised, and it is probably something too nuanced to even be agreed at a graduate recruitment-wide department level. Rather, it seems to me this tends to come down to the preferences of the individual recruiters who will be reviewing your application. As such, to err on the side of caution, (and if possible), I would advise you to write assuming recruiters will have the first view - as no one will complain that your why the firm justifications are too specific.

 

[Chelsea101]

Hi guys, I just applied to TW (I know - I'm cutting it fine...) I thought I had attached my CL but when I went to check after I submitted, it wasn't attached - even more annoying that the system does not flag this as an essential step prior to submission. I even tried to withdraw my app and resubmit but to no avail (strangely I could edit my application answers and resubmit but not attach a CL and resubmit - very odd indeed).

Anyway I emailed grad rec and now they A. probs won't reply because it's close to the deadline and B. will auto bin my app because I didn't show attention to detail.

Anyone else experienced something similar?? PLEASSEEE tell me its not just me haha

 

[User2640]

Would a slightly over one-page cover letter with font size 10 (approx. 700 words) be too long? Thanks!!

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hi @Andrei Radu in terms of identifying USPs that do not apply to another firm, how would you even find this (even with deep research, events etc) as a lot of firms work in same practice areas etc? Is it not sufficient enough to just mention what the firm does and therefore that makes it tailored to the firm? I am quite confused and I feel the whole USP part is slowing me down

Also, sorry if the previous response ended up a bit lengthy - I ended up surprising myself of how much it took to express my thoughts on the issue . Also, as I noticed I did not really cover the first question about how to even find USPs, I will answer it here. With this new understanding of what an USP is in mind, I do not think it is an impossible task to find them.

In terms of the substantive aspects of what to look for, I have two main bits of advice:

• Look to combine different distinguishing features into a single USP to increase specificity: for instance, instead of describing a Latham USP simply as "strong PE practice", you could go for something along the lines of "an elite US firm with a leading PE practice in London". The first formulation would make the USP apply to a higher number of firms - both MC firms with great PE practices and smaller US firms who have a strong reputation in PE (such as Willkie or Ropes & Gray). On the second formulation, the only remaining firms (which we would then seek to exclude using other USPs) would likely be Kirkland, Simpson Thacher, and maybe Weil/Paul, Weiss.
• Try to find sub-areas of expertise within a practice area/sector: while it may be difficult to find a really specific USP in terms of a practice area/sector at the broadest categorisation levels such as "M&A" or "Energy", firms tend to have sub-specialties. For instance, while Davis Polk may not be a market leader across all types of M&A work, it is known to be especially strong of transatlantic M&A work in the TMT sector. Another example would be Gibson Dunn, who once again may not be a market leader in all types of PE work, but is especially strong in cross-border PE infrastructure work.

Of course, to find out about such sub-areas you will need to research firms in a lot of depth. Some sources I would recommend include:

• The TCLA Law Firm Profiles - as their one purpose is to make this exact task easier for you;
• Chambers and Legal 500 - particularly the latter has a more segmented ranking system of firm's practices/sectors;
• The legal press - legal publications contain a lot more information and in depth comparisons between firms' practices. The Lawyer and Law.com are great but only available through an organisational subscription or on a fee basis. A great free resource is The Global Legal Post. The research method I would advise here would be to simply go type the name of the firm in the website's search bar function and ski through the articles you find.
• The firm's website: this will take you a longer time, but if you go through the firm's listed past experience and their awards and accolades, you may start to notice patterns in terms of subspecialties the firm seems to be particularly good at.

 

[ohnoselim]

I heard back from NRF an hour ago and have an AC for next Thursday (I can’t believe we get one week to prep). Does anyone else have one then? Anyone want to jump on a call and help eachother out ? Teamwork makes the dream work.

that is so good to hear! congratulations

you should be so grateful you have a week i was just told today i have an ac on thursday

so i have 2 days to prep.....

 

[msclm]

Does anyone know whether Milbank online assessment is automatic or not?

I’m going to say it isn’t as the email asking us to do the test says “Your application has been shortlisted for the next stage of the process as you've demonstrated the potential that we are looking for.”

 

[Abbie Whitlock]

For DLA, the question says to "select one article from DLA Piper Insights page", I went to the page and selected something that's a longer form guide. Does anyone if that is okay or does it need to be one of the short form articles?

Not sure if I'm overthinking it - would appreciate any input on this

Hello!

You're not overthinking it! A longer-form guide from the DLA Piper Insights page should be totally fine, as long as it clearly relates to one of their client sectors and you can use it to discuss your personal and professional ambitions. The instructions just say to choose an article from that page, so guides and insight pieces should count - they're just different formats.

If your chosen guide ties into a client sector, then you're meeting the brief perfectly! In fact, having a longer piece might give you more to discuss in your analysis

 

[shadowboxer909]

I’m going to say it isn’t as the email asking us to do the test says “Your application has been shortlisted for the next stage of the process as you've demonstrated the potential that we are looking for.”

I got sent it so it can't be selective as my application isn't particularly strong for law lol.

 

[Abbie Whitlock]

Would a slightly over one-page cover letter with font size 10 (approx. 700 words) be too long? Thanks!!

Hey!

I think anywhere up to 1.5 pages is an acceptable length (although 1 page is generally best!). However, I would try and avoid using font size 10 as it can be slightly too small - font size 11 or 12 is generally preferred!

700 words seems like the right amount if you haven't been provided with a word limit!

 

[msclm]

I got sent it so it can't be selective as my application isn't particularly strong for law lol.

I mean the word “shortlisted” prob means we were shortlisted - which implies some people weren’t. Which means it ain’t automatic? Idk tho I could be wrong.

 

[shadowboxer909]

I mean the word “shortlisted” prob means we were shortlisted - which implies some people weren’t. Which means it ain’t automatic? Idk tho I could be wrong.

I wouldn't interpret that too literally.

I submitted my application on Sunday.

The assessment arrived on Monday. There would be no time to do a shortlist beyond the standard 2:1 predicted etc.

 

[aspringlawyer25]

Did anyone get a Latham open day PFO for the October batch? I know they sent the invites last week.

 

[futuretraineeihope]

that is so good to hear! congratulations

you should be so grateful you have a week i was just told today i have an ac on thursday

so i have 2 days to prep.....

Congrats on ur AC!! was this for NRF?

 

[tom-sawyer]

Just wrapped up Mayer Brown's online assessment and VI. The assessment is an Amberjacks one and VI included four questions (mixture of motivational and commercial questions)!

 

[raymokhan]

Just did the Bird & Bird VI and there were way less competency questions than I was expecting - just as a heads up to everyone else that hasn't done it yet.

Hey, I was just wondering if you had any insights for the Bird & Bird video interview questions? In the email they are being really vague, and B&B is the firm I most want to work for, so I would really appreciate any insights you can give, paticularly regards to the questions. I'm happy to trade any OA insights that you could find useful, I've personally done 9 so far and know the structures of 5 more from my friends who have done them.

Thank you so much, and good luck with your applications!!

 

[stilltrying]

How long did people generally wait to hear back from Hogan post first assessment. If I haven't heard back and its been a week should I take that as a PFO

 

[whywhy88]

How long did people generally wait to hear back from Hogan post first assessment. If I haven't heard back and its been a week should I take that as a PFO

I know people who got the second test after like 3 weeks so don’t panic. It’s been a week for me and I haven’t received it either.

 

[jaisrihere]

Can someone tell me if the Latham and Watkins Practice Video Interview Questions are similar to the ones asked in the actual interview?
If not, could anyone please share the kind of questions I can anticipate in the VI?

Thanks in Advance.