Need some guidance please!

[cs3008]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here. I would like to introduce myself: I have completed my law degree from India back in 2022 and thereafter, completed my LLM from a Russell Group university on a scholarship. I had to go back to India, and there, I practised law till August 2025, primarily in courts (trial courts, High Court and Supreme Court) [which makes my PQE of 2+ years]. Mostly, I will get an exemption from SQE 2 + QWE.
Thereafter, I came back to the UK and started my PGDL course at BPP University. I recently finished a vacation scheme at a US law firm (BigLaw), but I wasn't able to convert it into a TC. So now I will be finishing my PGDL course in May, and thereafter, I will be looking for jobs.

What should I do? Should I apply for more Vac Schemes or DTC? I really want to train in the UK, but considering the market for training contracts, especially for international students who require a visa, do you think directly qualifying (self-sponsoring my SQE 1) and being NQ has more prospects of getting a job in the City than being non-qualified? I have experience in disputes, and I am interested in joining a disputes team or a disputes-heavy firm.

 

[Henrik]

Hi, and welcome to the forum! Congratulations on getting the vac scheme. Not converting is
obviously frustrating, but getting onto a US Big law VS is still a very impressive thing. It shows you can get through a highly competitive process, and it is definitely something you can use in future applications.

My instinct would be not to treat this as a choice between vac schemes and direct TC. I would apply to both. Vacation schemes are still probably the best route at firms that recruit heavily from them, and plenty of people do more than one scheme before converting. At the same time, don't discount direct TCs, especially because your background gives you a much clearer story than someone applying with no legal experience. DTC often look specifically for those with strong legal experience to make up for the experience you would have gained during the VS.

Passing SQE1 and getting your SQE2/QWE exemption position confirmed could be useful, because it shows commitment and removes uncertainty. However, I am not sure self-qualifying alone necessarily makes City NQ disputes roles easier to get. NQ litigation hiring can be very competitive, and firms often want candidates with UK or English law disputes experience who can join a team with limited training. So I would probably treat SQE1/direct qualification as a parallel route rather than a replacement for TC and VS applications.

For your disputes experience, I would frame it as: Indian courts experience, advocacy/litigation exposure, a UK LLM, the PGDL, and a US firm VS, all pointing towards a serious interest in cross-border disputes. I would also avoid making visa sponsorship the centre of the application, the application story should be about your experience and why structured UK training is the logical next step.

For firms, The Slaughter & May DTC opened recently. They have Band 2 Disputes practice in London so potentially look into if you would be eligible for this! They assess on rolling so apply sooner rather than later!

Hope this helps!