Hi there! Firstly, I want to empathize that beyond the fact that a law conversion course is not a strict requirement for securing a TC, it is not close to even being a 'soft expectation'. I have known many non-law students who got VSs and TCs at top firms without having completed it - in fact, though of course acknowledging that my sample size was limited, I met more non-law students who secured TC without it. However, I would not go so far as saying that completing the conversion course would provide you with no advantage in applications. It certainly underscores your commitment to law and also reduces the financial cost of offering you a TC, both of which could be attractive from a recruiter's perspective.
Now, as I said before, I do not think these advantages are decisive, and there's many other ways you can go about showing an interest in commercial law. Among them, some easily available and highly useful ones include:
- Firm and commercial law events: even if you will go back to Nottingham, a lot of them are available online, and for open days some firms will pay your transportation costs.
- Forage Virtual Work Experiences: A lot of firms offer these virtual internships which will allow you to complete usual trainee tasks in a variety of practice areas. These will demonstrate both a general interest in commercial law and an interest in specific firms.
- Competitions: there's are a number of commercial law related competitions you can sign up for, such as negotiations and commercial awareness competitions.
Besides this, if you choose the option of focusing on next year's application cycle, you can invest a lot more time into (i) researching firms in a lot of depth; which will enable you to write significantly better applications; (ii) writing a significantly higher number of high-quality applications - given how competitive VS/TC applications are, you want to have as many horses in the game as possible; and (iii) improving your commercial awareness. In my experience, these are the three features that are most essential for success.
While I cannot give you a straight recommendation as to what option to choose, I hope thinking through these considerations will be useful for you. I also thought to tag [USER=2672]@Jessica Booker[/USER] here as she will be able to give you a more informed take.
