2020-21 Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion

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Hello guys! Any advice on this? Thank you so much!
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated change to our ways of working and the delivery of client service. Looking forward, consider the challenges facing the profession and describe how Shoosmiths can remain competitive and attractive to clients without compromising on profitability? There are many issues which may feed in to this answer, but we would like you to focus on your top three priorities
 

PositiveVibesOnly

Star Member
Future Trainee
  • Feb 11, 2021
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    @Dheepa @Jacob Miller @Daniel Boden @Naomi U @Alice G

    For an AC/Interview, where does my commercial awareness need to be? To be specific, are there things I should definitely know about instead of being able to talk about my interests?

    This leads me to my follow up question, what can one do in terms of commercial awareness in anticipation of an interview/AC - I have some firms in the works and I hope to have an AC/Interview for any or all of them. Im not saying I will get it but I am so worried that I want to start prepping my commercial awareness/knowledge now rather than after getting the invitation for the AC/interview. What can I do?

    For more context, If I get the ACs, they will include a written exercise, partner/associate interview, presentation and negotiation.

    Thank you
    Know I wasn’t tagged but would really reiterate some of the sources Jacob said - immensely recommend Finimize, the daily FT podcast is great whilst having a coffee in the morning, also I went through Investopedia’s dictionary terms to make sure I understood any business terms that could have came up, and listened to podcasts like Americast and Reasons to be Cheerful. They were all I used to participate in the AS commercial awareness competition and for TC apps and ACs.

    definitely agree about picking out a few commercial areas for a bit of a deep dive - the ones I did were AI in law and tech risk, and climate change, and tried to look at how these things could affect individual clients (and tried to find clients the firm worked with to specifically mention), and cause new trends in business, also looking at what law firms could pre-emptively advise on to help clients stay ahead.

    hope this even vaguely helps!! 😘 good luck I’m sure you’ll do grand!
     

    Dwight

    Legendary Member
    Premium Member
    Dec 21, 2019
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    Hi Dwight,

    It's challenging to say precisely where your commercial awareness needs to be in terms of specific stories. For me, CA was always a combination of being aware of general news and current affairs as well as how these affect or could affect law firms/ the firm you're at and how these factors ininteract. I think you should also have one or two key stories/ issues in which you are more expert for the sort of "what have you been looking at in the news" issues.

    For staying up to date with CA, I personally woukd recommend the Financial Times, Finimize, the TCLA newsletters and also the CA forums here which will be expanding in the coming weeks with @Dheepa and I putting some more discussions in there.

    For the other parts of the AC like the negotiation and case study, you might want to look at the articles I've already written on these if you've not read them before.

    Hope this helps!
    Thanks for this!

    I don't know if it is me or my friendship with imposter syndrome. I'm listening to FT podcast and reading more closely about my interests - hopefully this is enough and I will be reading more specific once the AC invite hopefully comes thro.

    Edit: Forgot to add - the part in commercial awareness about impact on firms/clients, am I am able to go somewhere to find this out/check my analysis? I mostly read FT and it doesn't have this.
     
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    Dwight

    Legendary Member
    Premium Member
    Dec 21, 2019
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    Know I wasn’t tagged but would really reiterate some of the sources Jacob said - immensely recommend Finimize, the daily FT podcast is great whilst having a coffee in the morning, also I went through Investopedia’s dictionary terms to make sure I understood any business terms that could have came up, and listened to podcasts like Americast and Reasons to be Cheerful. They were all I used to participate in the AS commercial awareness competition and for TC apps and ACs.

    definitely agree about picking out a few commercial areas for a bit of a deep dive - the ones I did were AI in law and tech risk, and climate change, and tried to look at how these things could affect individual clients (and tried to find clients the firm worked with to specifically mention), and cause new trends in business, also looking at what law firms could pre-emptively advise on to help clients stay ahead.

    hope this even vaguely helps!! 😘 good luck I’m sure you’ll do grand!
    Thanks @PositiveVibesOnly for this!

    Can I make it clear that you DONT NEED TO BE TAGGED TO CONTRIBUTE! Everyone is welcome to contribute to discussions and I am really glad you did. I only tagged the people I did because they are TCLA staff and so I only know them on TCLA, so TCLA members please feel free to if you want.

    Appreciate the support!
     

    Celestie

    Legendary Member
    Future Trainee
    2020 Community Winner
  • Nov 14, 2020
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    Know I wasn’t tagged but would really reiterate some of the sources Jacob said - immensely recommend Finimize, the daily FT podcast is great whilst having a coffee in the morning, also I went through Investopedia’s dictionary terms to make sure I understood any business terms that could have came up, and listened to podcasts like Americast and Reasons to be Cheerful. They were all I used to participate in the AS commercial awareness competition and for TC apps and ACs.

    definitely agree about picking out a few commercial areas for a bit of a deep dive - the ones I did were AI in law and tech risk, and climate change, and tried to look at how these things could affect individual clients (and tried to find clients the firm worked with to specifically mention), and cause new trends in business, also looking at what law firms could pre-emptively advise on to help clients stay ahead.

    hope this even vaguely helps!! 😘 good luck I’m sure you’ll do grand!
    Finimize is a godsend but christ the emails give me a heart attack every day
     

    PositiveVibesOnly

    Star Member
    Future Trainee
  • Feb 11, 2021
    31
    239
    Ok Ill check them out - what is it about Finimize that is so good? A lot of people use it/talk about it
    they give you a business news summary that you can read in around 3 minutes. Really accessible language, daily emails. Just really easy going and most stories are broken down into 1) what’s going on 2) what does it mean 3) why should I care. So it’s applied/contextual
     
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    Dwight

    Legendary Member
    Premium Member
    Dec 21, 2019
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    Basically they give you the TLDR of whats happening in the commercial world - I find FT a bit too complicated when I am in a rush but Finimize gives me bitesize chunks :)
    they give you a business news summary that you can read in around 3 minutes. Really accessible language, daily emails. Just really easy going and most stories are broken down into 1) what’s going on 2) what does it mean 3) why should I care. So it’s applied/contextual
    Thanks!

    You guys are referring to the newsletter which anyone can sign up to for free?
     
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