TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26

[trainee4u]

HL second stage test invite. Applied on 29 September, did the first test 14 October.

I did mine yesterday so clearly sending out all the invites to 2nd stage at once!

 

[elliece]

how long did it take for you to progress to the next stage? I applied to Reed Smith and HG both on the 13/10

I only did mine a few days ago and nothing yet! I heard others say it took 2 weeks for the first test to come

 

[Maddy]

I did mine yesterday so clearly sending out all the invites to 2nd stage at once!

I haven’t received any updates since completing my first test on 10th October. Does this mean I have been rejected? I also haven’t received the Ashurst WE invite, so I guess I’ve been unsuccessful.

 

[Maddy]

Did anyone who completed the Reed Smith SJT get a half empty feedback report?

 

[whywhy88]

Really starting to lose hope about receiving the second HL test 😞 With a lot of firms moving towards SJTs and the Cappfinity model I feel more disheartened than ever given my neurodivergency makes such tests so much harder. Anyone else feeling the same?

 

[WS]

Did anyone who completed the Reed Smith SJT get a half empty feedback report?

Yes - mine was empty; just email grad rec and they'll send you the full one

 

[Tattyasha]

Really starting to lose hope about receiving the second HL test 😞 With a lot of firms moving towards SJTs and the Cappfinity model I feel more disheartened than ever given my neurodivergency makes such tests so much harder. Anyone else feeling the same?

Yep, totally

 

[Anon145]

is there any chance that the Milbank Online Assessment will have a VI component? They haven't been very clear, and they are hosting the assessment on a platform primarily used for VIs. However, it is only the first assessment after the application so unsure.

 

[WiddyJ]

is there any chance that the Milbank Online Assessment will have a VI component? They haven't been very clear, and they are hosting the assessment on a platform primarily used for VIs. However, it is only the first assessment after the application so unsure.

I’m going to do it on friday and am assuming it will be a short VI

 

[johnsmith]

is there any chance that the Milbank Online Assessment will have a VI component? They haven't been very clear, and they are hosting the assessment on a platform primarily used for VIs. However, it is only the first assessment after the application so unsure.

As there isn't much detail on it I'm sure graduate recruitment would answer this for you if you contacted them.

 

[TheLegalEdit]

Sorry to ask again but has anyone heard back from linklaters for the WVS?

 

[Unknowncabbage]

I found an email that mentioned two tests though to be completed in 3 days but I think I only had one?

“Please note, if you have applied for any of our London vacancies (including open days), you will have been assigned a two-part online assessment to complete as part of the application process. To access the assessments, please log back into the apply4law homepage. The deadline for completing these assessments is three days after submission of your application for all vacancies.”

Yeah, I am actually not too sure. It's either just slow at sending out the second stage or maybe they have a minimum benchmark before the second stage. Id appreciate if anyone who applied for the October OD could tell us whether everyone gets the second stage invite or not, as that will help with clarity.

 

[TortillaTC]

Goodwin second open day invite! Applied few minutes before the deadline

 

[jaisrihere]

Anyone else attending today's Linklaters Open Evening?

 

[Meena]

did anyone do Latham’s VI? How dreadful was that!!! would love to talk about it with anyone that’s done it, I don’t know how to feel about it

 

[nbjani]

Hey would anyone be able to tell me if the White and Case post-application assessment contains a VI?

 

[berocca567]

Sorry to ask again but has anyone heard back from linklaters for the WVS?

The assessment centres were this week

 

[confusedbird]

Hi @confusedbird first of all, I think my approach would be to try to identify three key themes I can discuss both from the perspective of a challenge and from the perspective of an opportunity, since (i) the same situation can often be both a challenge and (if one responds to it the right way) an opportunity; and (ii) a 6-point discussion of separate challenges and opportunities may feel too segmented and may disable you from analysing them in detail.

Secondly, I think what is crucial to make your answer less generic will not depend on the topics you choose to discuss, but on how you go about discussing said topics. At the end of the day, there are a limited number of broad topic that represent clear challenges/opportunities for the legal sector as a whole, so it is hard to see what you may find to make your answer unique here. However, you can analyse the same topic from many different perspectives and defend many plausible views - this is where I think creativity and independent thought will play a bigger role.

For instance, the increasing emphasis large companies and financial institutions place on firms having strong practices in both London and New York is both a challenge - as it disadvantages many firms who do not have such established presences - and an opportunity - as the firms who can establish themselves as transatlantic players will likely be able to win market share. When discussing this topic, you can consider a wide variety of talking points when deciding on the view you want to present:

• The financial costs of establishing a strong presence in these jurisdictions: London and New York are widely known to be the two most profitable legal markets in the world; as such, hiring leading partners and top associates in such places will involve huge upfront investments (for instance, Paul, Weiss is known to have invested over $200 million in London). Such investments will generally diminish profit pools and may make existing partners unhappy, which is a significant issue in a very competitive market for partner talent.
• Difficulties in integration: to hop on this trend, firms need to make many lateral hires from different firms, which can be problematic in that (i) they upset current power dynamics in the firm and cause political rifts; and (ii) they may simply take a while before they are fully integrated and can function together as a cohesive team, as the different firms they would have come from would have all done things in slightly different ways.
• Pace of expansion: you may contrast the different strategies of pursuing gradual growth, such as Kirkland and Latham did in both financial centres over the last two decades, or huge investments in short periods, such as Paul, Weiss and Sidley Austin recently did in London and such as Freshfields is currently doing in New York.
• Mergers: you could also explore how this trend ties into an increasing number of transatlantic mergers, such as A&O Shearman and HSFK; and whether this is something other UK and US players may seek;
• International office closures: you can look at how the increasing centralisation of high-end cross-border mandates in New York and London has led to a decreasing importance and comparative profitability of offices in other jurisdictions, which has led to firms like A&O Shearman closing shop in multiple jurisdictions.
• Practice area/sector spread strategy: you can also look at how this is largely a private capital-driven trend, but how different firms are implementing different strategies - some have a pinpointed focus on PE work, some aim for a more full service offering, others have a more niche-expertise and sector driven approach; some aim to service the needs of mainly existing clients, others aim to aggressively expand books etc.

Thank you @Andrei Radu for answering this in a detailed manner!! I appreciate this because I spent hours overthinking if I was approaching this wrong and if others were talking about something completely different that was not on my radar rather than discussing these creatively.

 

[jaisrihere]

did anyone do Latham’s VI? How dreadful was that!!! would love to talk about it with anyone that’s done it, I don’t know how to feel about it

IKR!!!!! I want to get it off my chest!

3 different questions stuffed in one, and we are also expected to give our personal experiences along with the answer to those 3 questions... and 1 minute to prepare all of these.... It was daunting to say the least.
It takes at least 45 seconds to read the whole question and understand it fully, let alone prepare for it. I did the VI first before the test. And I was kinda heartbroken after that, and did the test similar to WGT with that sadness.

I have lost my hopes for the open day. I hope the same question comes for the vac scheme, so I can be prepared.

 

[GiveMeTC2026]

I attended as an open day at HSF last year. I wanted to ask when I put this as an open day in work experience or in other applications is saying HSF OK or do I have to say HSF Kramer.