TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26

[hxnnahrobinson]

Has anyone heard back yet from CMS? I completed the critical analysis assessment on 30th October

 

[Amelia.05]

Hii, just completed Milbank's first-stage assessment. When did everyone hear about rejection/second stage, and did you get a feedback report?

 

[johnsmith]

Hii, just completed Milbank's first-stage assessment. When did everyone hear about rejection/second stage, and did you get a feedback report?

I didn’t get a rejection but no 2nd test!

 

[yk1906]

Hii, just completed Milbank's first-stage assessment. When did everyone hear about rejection/second stage, and did you get a feedback report?

I got a second test within around 5-6 hours... It was on a working day though

 

[Andrei Radu]

Thanks so much for your response! I agree that the potential consequences would lead to a negative effect. However, interest rates have been cut thrice this year and once again (potentially) in December, and the budget seems to have been received better than expected (softening inflation). Inflation has come down to 3.6% after some persistent months at 3.8%.

Besides the budget, do you reckon these are actually positive economic indicators for (somewhat) better dealmaking? Of course not 2021/22-style but mild improvement(?). I was also wondering about if/how this affects the attractiveness of private credit.

I definitely agree with you on the tailwinds you mentioned - in fact, from what I have been reading and hearing, global dealmaking has been surging in the last quarter, and some people in the field have actually drawn comparisons to the 2021 boom. Basically, a number of different factors seem to be coming together to enable a boom in M&A and capital markets activity:

• Dry powder: Post 2022 with the rise of interest rates, a lot of PE funds have chosen to sit on huge pools of capital (estimated in the trillions) rather than enter investments with lower projected rate of returns as a result of the unavailability of cheap debt. This put the industry under pressure, as investors wanted to see their cash put to work. As interest rates have finally come down, a lot of PE funds feel like now is the moment to make up for all the lost time.
• Exists pressure: on the other side of the PE industry, the difficult economic conditions and the unavailability of financing made exits difficult. This once again put pressure on PE funds, as they were unable to return money to investors, which led to the rise of secondary funds. Now, a lot of PE funds that have been keeping portfolio companies longer than they wanted to see this as a perfect moment to sell to larger corporates or list on a public stock exchange.
• Pent up appetite for corporates: on the strategic side of M&A, because of the difficult macroeconomic environment of the last few years, corporates have generally been holding back from big transactions. This led to many deals that would have normally been more spread out over the last few years be postponed, and now that global markets see this period as of one of relative stability, there is a lot of pent up demand for M&A deals.
• Reduced worries around trade policy: Looking only at year back, there was a lot of optimism about the economy and about a rebound in dealmaking after the election of Trump, who thought to have a strong pro-business economic policy. That was all brought to a halt by the imposition of high tariffs on many trade partners and by all the chaos that followed. Nonetheless, overall tariffs ended up being scaled down significantly, and things seem to have broadly calmed down on the trade policy end. This alleviates many macroeconomic worries and makes businesses a lot more willing to pursue cross-border M&A deals;
• A more relaxed merger control regime: with the Trump presidency in the US and a more pro-business EU Commission agenda, competition authorities have become a lot more willing to green light deals in the last year, which once again alleviates a major worry companies have when contemplating large deals.
• AI investments: as there is an ever growing demand for chips and for data centres to service generative AI usage, there has been huge investment in the area, leading to a boom in tech M&A;
• Uncertainty, leading to a need for scale and diversification: While uncertainty is normally thought to negatively affect M&A, in the current environment it arguably has the opposite effect. As investments in AI are reaching multiple trillion dollars figures and there are increasing worries of a bubble forming as a result of relatively unimpressive returns, many companies are unsure as to where the most value truly lies in the supply chain for AI tech, and, to an even larger extent, are unsure as to what the future role of AI in the global economy will be. Thus, there is a need for diversification which can only be achieved through scale: the larger a company is, and the more diversified its business and investments, the more likely it is it will be able to profits irrespective of how things turn up.

If you want to learn more about this topic, I have linked a recent podcast from Goldman Sachs here, as it presents a significantly more nuanced and detailed analysis of all these trends.

 

[user55998384]

does anyone know if the pathways to practice as fieldfisher or rolling or not - website says conflicting things and haven't got a repsonse from grad rec yet

 

[pfoapplicant]

Hi guys,

Does anyone have any experience of Taylor Wessing's verbal reasoning and critical thinking test? If anyone has any tips to offer, I'd be tremendously grateful!

 

[yk1906]

Hi guys,

Does anyone have any experience of Taylor Wessing's verbal reasoning and critical thinking test? If anyone has any tips to offer, I'd be tremendously grateful!

Hi, I would advise practising via the link to a practice test they send! I found it to be familiar with the real test

 

[AGB2060]

Has anybody heard back from Jones Day after the application for Summer Vac Schemes? I've seen a few interviews and rejections but pretty sure it was about Winter/Spring

 

[llblawstudent]

Anyone heard back for sidley spring/summer?

 

[panda1989]

Do we need to address davis polk to anyone and sign it off?

 

[Bread]

I am filling out my skadden work experience and it seems that the "to" section of the work experience is mandatory. How do we add/say that certain ones that are ongoing?

 

[Amgrad]

I am filling out my skadden work experience and it seems that the "to" section of the work experience is mandatory. How do we add/say that certain ones that are ongoing?

I'd put that based on my contract when it's gonna end, but for permanent role Idk for sure as they mentioned if you are offered a TC make sure you don't have conflicted terms with your current employer.

 

[pfoapplicant]

Hi, I would advise practising via the link to a practice test they send! I found it to be familiar with the real test

Cheers - I really appreciate the advice! I presume there weren't any mathematical questions on the test?

 

[yk1906]

Cheers - I really appreciate the advice! I presume there weren't any mathematical questions on the test?

No, not at all!

 

[Abbie Whitlock]

Hi @Abbie Whitlock and @Andrei Radu: for a q on why the firm, i have structure it in terms of paragraph 1) work paragraph 2) int presence and 3) blended in qality of training + pro-bono work - i have advised to have quality of training as a point on its own but i do not have too much substance on it as attending insight days + speaking to trainees there was no like specific stnad outs that i got so do you think my structure is okay?

Hey!

Your structure seems absolutely fine - you don't necessarily need a separate paragraph on the quality of training, especially if you don't have enough meaningful detail to justify one. It's better to keep your points concise and well-supported than to add a standalone section that feels light and slightly empty.

If you've attended insight days and spoken to trainees but didn't get a single standout "unique" point, you can still weave training into another paragraph. For example, you can reference the firm's reputation for thorough, hands-on training or the consistency you heard from trainees, without needing a dramatic "USP". It's better to be honest and grounded than forcing detail that isn't there.

Overall, your three-part structure (which is similar to what I would usually follow) is perfectly acceptable. What matters most is that each point is specific, genuine, and tied back to why you want to train there.

 

[Abbie Whitlock]

I am filling out my skadden work experience and it seems that the "to" section of the work experience is mandatory. How do we add/say that certain ones that are ongoing?

Hi!

If the "To" field is mandatory, I would likely select the current month and year if the form doesn't allow you to enter "Present" in the box. Many application systems do require a date format, so the common workaround is to put the current month / year to indicate the role is ongoing.

You can also clarify in the description section by writing something like "(Ongoing)" or "Currently in this role" - this should avoid any confusion!

Best of luck with the Skadden application

 

[msclm]

Good luck to everyone staring vac schemes over the next few days/weeks you got this!

 

[TheSlapDotCom]

Good luck to everyone staring vac schemes over the next few days/weeks you got this!

thank u sm u too!!

 

[user55998384]

Hey!

Your structure seems absolutely fine - you don't necessarily need a separate paragraph on the quality of training, especially if you don't have enough meaningful detail to justify one. It's better to keep your points concise and well-supported than to add a standalone section that feels light and slightly empty.

If you've attended insight days and spoken to trainees but didn't get a single standout "unique" point, you can still weave training into another paragraph. For example, you can reference the firm's reputation for thorough, hands-on training or the consistency you heard from trainees, without needing a dramatic "USP". It's better to be honest and grounded than forcing detail that isn't there.

Overall, your three-part structure (which is similar to what I would usually follow) is perfectly acceptable. What matters most is that each point is specific, genuine, and tied back to why you want to train there.

thank you so much!!