TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26

[routetotrainingcontract]

could anyone give an insight on how to structure the answer- Why do you want to become a commercial lawyer at (redacted) law firm and what do you think are the key skills and qualities required for success? i heard mixed reviews on if they wanted us to talk about why commercial law first then why the firm and the rest. I'd appreciate some insight! @Abbie Whitlock

 

[routetotrainingcontract]

What is Reed Smith's position on grades

Quite lenient in my opinion, I progressed and I have terrible grades lol. I think they view your applications holistically though which is lovely!

 

[cutiewiththecontracts]

Has anyone had the opportunity to complete A&O Shearman's Direct TC application? Any tips on how to best leverage the work experience section? How did you find the video interview? I can help with White & Case and Hogan Lovells!

 

[DavidJC]

Has anyone had the opportunity to complete A&O Shearman's Direct TC application? Any tips on how to best leverage the work experience section? How did you find the video interview? I can help with White & Case and Hogan Lovells!

I'm just finalising my application at the moment. I was about to send it off until I read through the Dos and Don'ts section on their website again which indicated that they want you to link every experience back to a career in law and, where possible, A&O Shearman itself to show you understand the role and the firm.

 

[jojo23]

CMS WG!

Anybody know if this is timed?

30 mins and about 44 questions

 

[CharlesT47]

Not sure I fully understand your question but some thoughts:

• Lawyers working on structured finance transactions would be finance lawyers not private equity (corporate) lawyers.
• Structured finance ≠ CLOs. Pretty sure CLOs are the biggest sub-category, but structured finance includes all kinds of financial instruments like derivatives and other wonky lending arrangements.
• I don't think either Weil or Kirkland have a particularly strong structured finance practice in London. They mostly focus on borrower-side LevFin.
  • Kirkland literally only has Suril Patel who basically only advises PE sponsors.
  • Weil does have Andrew Lauder and Jacky Kelly who do some lender side securitisation and derivatives work alongside LevFin.
  • But overall not much.
• But, given structured finance is a bit of a loose concept most finance departments will come across it in some form when working for clients.
• Most likely, the majority of the structured finance work Weil and Kirkland do is driven by borrower side mandates for PE clients that might involve structured forms of borrowing like margin lending, NAV financing and specific asset-backed or PIK loans in some whacky corporate structure, or work they do in restructurings.
• From what I can tell I don't think either of them are building out into the CLO manager side, or the institutional bank / private credit side. If I had to guess why, I'd say: (i) structured finance is smaller and probably a little less lucrative than general LevFin, (ii) tough competition, and (iii) it might generate conflicts of interest with your borrower-side clients if you started advising lenders.
• Not sure whether the question "is structured finance an important part of PE?" follows.
  • CLOs are private credit since the money is raised through a private fund structure.
  • Derivatives are neither (I think?)
  • CLOs and other forms of structured finance are an important part of traditional private equity in the sense that it eases access to debt. But a private equity firm may have nothing to do with the collateralisation of the loans they have taken out.
  • So, for a law firm, having a dedicated securitisation / secondaries practice isn't really necessary to be able to advise PE sponsors.

Thanks so much for this! I'll just reframe how I've understood this and perhaps you could let me know whether I'm right?
First, PE and structured finance are different. Structured finance is only relevant to sponsor-side PE in certain situations where the PE firm decides it wants some kind of fancy funding. Equally, it could be useful for NAV subscription lines (which, in my understanding, is when a PE firm needs a short term loan to keep operations going in the company it has just acquired.)

This then means that you don't need to be particularly strong in structured finance to be able to be a sponsor-side powerhouse. (E.g Kirkland) Weil is more highly rated for structured finance/ derivatives but that is because it does some lender-sided securitisation alongside PE/ LevFin. I think this was what I was hung-up about. I saw how Weil is band 2 for securitisation, which is on-par with mega finance firms like Paul Hastings and I thought they must be a structured finance powerhouse as well.

I just have one question though on this
"CLOs and other forms of structured finance are an important part of traditional private equity in the sense that it eases access to debt. But a private equity firm may have nothing to do with the collateralisation of the loans they have taken out."

Are debts generally easier to come by because lenders (like banks) expect to sell their loans to CLO managers? This makes a lot of intuitive sense to me but wanted to confirm.

Again, I appreciate you taking the time out to respond to my message. It's been helpful.

 

[elizabethkate]

reed smith pfo not even WG haha

 

[Bread]

Which test does baker mckenzie use? Thanks

 

[rosedunn]

can you mention an upcoming vacation scheme in an application or is that not good practice?

 

[mg42guy32]

Are you allowed to redo the NRF test?

 

[Lawlawland]

Did anyone hear back from the King and Spalding Disputes Open Day?

 

[abc124]

What is Reed Smith's position on grades - do they require 2.1s in all modules

They said they look for a 2.1 overall and don’t really analyse grades beyond that, whether you progress or not essentially comes down to how you answer the application questions

 

[Sharkfin]

Pretty much Immediately. Or within an hour.

But it's important to note that passing WGT is NOT ENOUGH for CC. They have an internal threshold for percentile that we have to meet. Only then your application will be read.

Any idea what the percentile is 👀👀

 

[LaDiva]

can you mention an upcoming vacation scheme in an application or is that not good practice?

I would perhaps avoid it, draw whatever conclusion you need without mentioning the upcoming VS?

 

[Lawlawland]

Any idea what the percentile is 👀👀

Percentile is not the score out of 40.
It's your position among the pool of candidates. For instance, if you have 94%, you are better than 94% people in the pool. (You could have scored 34, but if there are more people above that, your percentile would still be low, if that makes sense.)

Percentile is calculated not just based on your score. Other candidates' scores also determines that. To be on the safer side, you gotta have the best possible percentile.

(That said, I think this is not a good way of measuring someone's skills. But it is what it is)

 

[xMontmorency]

Thanks so much for this! I'll just reframe how I've understood this and perhaps you could let me know whether I'm right?
First, PE and structured finance are different. Structured finance is only relevant to sponsor-side PE in certain situations where the PE firm decides it wants some kind of fancy funding. Equally, it could be useful for NAV subscription lines (which, in my understanding, is when a PE firm needs a short term loan to keep operations going in the company it has just acquired.)

This then means that you don't need to be particularly strong in structured finance to be able to be a sponsor-side powerhouse. (E.g Kirkland) Weil is more highly rated for structured finance/ derivatives but that is because it does some lender-sided securitisation alongside PE/ LevFin. I think this was what I was hung-up about. I saw how Weil is band 2 for securitisation, which is on-par with mega finance firms like Paul Hastings and I thought they must be a structured finance powerhouse as well.

I just have one question though on this
"CLOs and other forms of structured finance are an important part of traditional private equity in the sense that it eases access to debt. But a private equity firm may have nothing to do with the collateralisation of the loans they have taken out."

Are debts generally easier to come by because lenders (like banks) expect to sell their loans to CLO managers? This makes a lot of intuitive sense to me but wanted to confirm.

Again, I appreciate you taking the time out to respond to my message. It's been helpful.

You got it! I would recommend doing some more specific research into Weil to be sure - i.e. the details of the structured finance mandates it has worked on. The ranking's aren't that helpful.

NAV lending is usually medium term debt used by funds with a portfolio of assets, secured by the value of that portfolio. It could be used to fund underlying operations (maybe in real estate or infrastructure PE), but that's an expensive and inefficient alternative to just getting your portfolio company to take out a revolving credit facility. It's more likely to be used for a fund-wide iniative or to pay out LPs when you can't get any cash from your investments. That's why NAV financing is taking off right now - PE firms are struggling to exit investments and need to find ways to borrow to satisfy their investors.

Re CLOs: yes. It depends what kind of product we're talking about.

If the PE firm is directly taking out some form of structured finance, then it helps them because it might provide access to debt at cheaper rates or with better conditions attached - or maybe they just can't get an ordinary TLA or TLB.

If loans taken out by PE firms are being securitised to CLOs and other funds on a secondary market, it helps the PE firms because it creates greater liquidity in the primary market. The same syndicates of institutional and private creditors can keep on lending to PE firms engaging in LBOs since securitisation takes the risk associated with previous loans off their books and frees up capital for lenders to deploy. This is particularly important given the stringent minimum capital requirements for banks under the Basel II regulations.

 

[elliece]

Anyone else having a lot of trouble with the Vantage application platform always crashing and taking ages to load?😩 Any tips to try and fix it would be greatly appreciated

 

[l789]

Did anyone hear back from the King and Spalding Disputes Open Day?

Yes - recieved an offer

 

[Lawlawland]

Yes - recieved an offer

May I know when you applied and when did they get back?

 

[Abbie Whitlock]

What is Reed Smith's position on grades - do they require 2.1s in all modules

Hello!

Just to confirm what other forum users have stated, we look for a 2:1 overall - it doesn't matter if you have a few modules below a 2:1! As long as you meet this requirement, the main thing we'll focus on is your written answers