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17 December 2025
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm (UK)
Hosted on TCLA TV
Join Isabel Elsey, Legal Recruitment Manager at BCLP, for a live Q&A session. Get details on secondments, innovation, growth areas, and everything else you’ve wanted to ask about life at BCLP!
I guess 2/3 days to prep is better than than 1 but this is still so surprising to hear - when I spoke to trainees at the Travers London event they all said they were given a week!
There is no way they gave you a day! Surely not!
That’s genuine outrageous if they did
ETA: the shortest time I’ve been given is 5 days and the longest is 3 weeks. 1 day is absolutely outrageous lol
it’s a really stupid reality. Especially since the paralegals who work in these firms are so much more qualified for the jobs than the 2-3rd yr students that get the offers. There’s no comparison in terms of knowledge and abilities. It all comes down to likeability and trainability in some/many...
Might not be the same in every firm, but it was definitely the case in mine. And there’s firms where GR is the main deciding factor in hiring a trainee.
And in theory they should know who fits the firm profile best, but in practice a lot of the GR teams tend to be younger than the trainees...
They want the most trainable trainee, not necessarily the smartest. Its nice if its both, but from what Ive seen and from what colleagues have said, they want 1) the most trainable and 2) the easiest to work with.
Controversial but I agree. The #1 thing some firms look for when hiring trainees is if they like you, not necessarily if you are the smartest. And its not always the Partners that dont like you - you can get great feedback from your partner/associate interviews but GR may dislike you for...
Is there a hard rule regarding typos for firms? Submitted my Travers application but was just reviewing again and saw that there was no space between two words at the end of my cover letter - not a spelling error per se, just a typo in my cover letter but still very annoying...happens when you...
The most recent assessment centre I did was for a direct TC at Baker McKenzie. There were 6 ACs, each 6-10 people competing for 15 places. Previously, I was one of 4 ACs for Forsters and there were over 20 people at my 15. Which is why I am saying that it doesnt seem normal to me that a firm...
Another day of asking if there’s been anything from hsf?
Not that I have many expectations, but I have a nagging feeling that if they do send out more invites for ACs they’ll be with like a 1 week notice, which is not ideal if you are employed and need to take time off…
Oh my lord that is so little time!!
What if you’re not a student though? If I (hypothetically) make it through to AC I cant just tell my employer Im off next week - we need to give notice and have it approved…
I have two 40s marks in first year and one 58 mark in second. Graduated with a 68 overall in third. Not one grad recruiter has asked about them, and I have made it past application stage for almost all applications I’ve made, sans a few US firms that are known to be really strict on grades...
There was also an option on the list to explain your findings to the partner after the meeting and offer to draft an email for the client explaining your findings. From my personal experience that is what Partners seem to do when these situations occur, which they often do - why do you think HSF...
This is for HSF isnt it?
It wasnt my first choice either, but I think it has to do with their values being ambition/excellence and having your own opinion?
Im a paralegal at a city int’l firm and any partner would be absolutely pissed if I or a trainee interrupted a client meeting to speak our...
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