Pre-employment Check / Disclosing a firm with which a Training Contract is Signed

[movingkieran]

Hi! Been scrolling the forums a little bit and thought it'll be great to register and ask.

In pre-employment background checks (for VS/TC), does the background check company go to the law firms with which I did vacation schemes before and confirm my TC offer status?

In my circumstances, I signed a training contract at an international firm's overseas office (in Hong Kong), but now I prefer to come back and work in the UK. I appreciate reneging my Hong Kong offer is not ideal but there are personal family reasons for my move.

Obviously, I will not want to alert the firm's Hong Kong office if the background check company goes to them and asks if I interned there and/or signed a training contract with them. In the worst case that I do not get a UK TC offer, I will still not want to lose the Hong Kong offer.

Should I just not disclose my vacation scheme and/or training contract overseas early on in the application stage?

 

[movingkieran]

Adding to my case: I have done background checks before so I'm not entirely foreign to them, but I had one that needed me to give even vacation scheme supervisor's contact details.

If possible, of course I would prefer being able to talk about my work experience at that firm in my UK applications.

 

[Jessica Booker]

At the reference check stage, it is likely to include any employment, including vacation schemes. They wouldn't ask about your TC status though, they are most likely only going to ask to confirm your employment dates, job title and whether there were any performance or conduct issues.

This is only likely to take place after you have been offered though, so by that point you would have reneged on your TC offer. Your current firm could potentially reference the fact they offered you a TC and you declined it in the reference, but I doubt any UK firm would care about this. Even if it did raise an eyebrow you could explain it, as you have mentioned above, you have reasons for pursuing a TC in the UK rather than HK.

 

[movingkieran]

At the reference check stage, it is likely to include any employment, including vacation schemes. They wouldn't ask about your TC status though, they are most likely only going to ask to confirm your employment dates, job title and whether there were any performance or conduct issues.

This is only likely to take place after you have been offered though, so by that point you would have reneged on your TC offer. Your current firm could potentially reference the fact they offered you a TC and you declined it in the reference, but I doubt any UK firm would care about this. Even if it did raise an eyebrow you could explain it, as you have mentioned above, you have reasons for pursuing a TC in the UK rather than HK.

@Jessica Booker Thank you for your helpful insights Jessica!

Does it mean the reference check (that involves contacting the firm in HK) is only likely to occur only at the TC offer stage, not the VS offer stage? Given, I may not have reneged on my HK offer yet when I am only offered the UK VS, as there is always a risk that I do not convert my UK VS into a TC.

 

[Jessica Booker]

@Jessica Booker Thank you for your helpful insights Jessica!

Does it mean the reference check (that involves contacting the firm in HK) is only likely to occur only at the TC offer stage, not the VS offer stage? Given, I may not have reneged on my HK offer yet when I am only offered the UK VS, as there is always a risk that I do not convert my UK VS into a TC.

In the majority of cases, a full employment reference check is only done after you have accepted a TC offer. There might be some reference checks for a vacation scheme but again, for full employment processes only after you have accepted the offer. Before then it’s only likely to be a dedicated academic and a professional or personal reference.

The firm will explain when they are going through reference check processes though and will ask you to provide contact details of any references checks you need to provide. You can make a decision at that point as to what do do about your firm with your current TC offer in - you could request that they are not contacted (technically they can’t contact the firm without your permission) and explain that you hold a current job offer from them that you don’t want to jeopardise.

 

[FutureLawyer99]

@Jessica Booker I’ve been offered a vacation scheme and they’re looking for employment screening. I’ve just looked at my application form again for the first time since I submitted it.

Having looked at it, I realised I have made some academic errors (both by accident). Firstly, I have put AAA in my A levels when it should be AAB. The firm does not have any A level requirements. Secondly, I lost my certificate transcripts a while back due to room renovations and I’ve just found them. By looking at them, I’ve found out that I have accidentally missed two modules out (both of which the grades are low) from my undergraduate transcript because I used autofill from a previous application form. The first missed module is from my first year, which didn’t count towards my degree. The second missed module was the lowest grade in my third year. I’ve also incorrectly put Jan 2022-23 as my LLM date when it should have been Jan 2021-22. However, all my other education and work experience records are accurate.

As I have just received my formal offer and discovered this mistake, should I make the law firm aware of it now? So, that they know I’m being upfront about the mistake whilst notifying them immediately once I discovered it or should I wait until they conduct the pre-employment and screening checks?

 

[Jessica Booker]

@Jessica Booker I’ve been offered a vacation scheme and they’re looking for employment screening. I’ve just looked at my application form again for the first time since I submitted it.

Having looked at it, I realised I have made some academic errors (both by accident). Firstly, I have put AAA in my A levels when it should be AAB. The firm does not have any A level requirements. Secondly, I lost my certificate transcripts a while back due to room renovations and I’ve just found them. By looking at them, I’ve found out that I have accidentally missed two modules out (both of which the grades are low) from my undergraduate transcript because I used autofill from a previous application form. The first missed module is from my first year, which didn’t count towards my degree. The second missed module was the lowest grade in my third year. I’ve also incorrectly put Jan 2022-23 as my LLM date when it should have been Jan 2021-22. However, all my other education and work experience records are accurate.

As I have just received my formal offer and discovered this mistake, should I make the law firm aware of it now? So, that they know I’m being upfront about the mistake whilst notifying them immediately once I discovered it or should I wait until they conduct the pre-employment and screening checks?

Yes, you need to tell the firm of these mistakes (they are all seperate issues).

The number of them, particularly relating to the missing module grades and the incorrect A-level grade could be a problem. If it was one mistake, then this might be overlooked, but two missing modules and an incorrect A-level collectively is substantial.

You will need to explain why the errors happened too - it just being an accident isn’t clear enough explaining why they are missing/wrong (for instance, the copying your application over from another application isn’t really excusable as the grades were still missing).

The LLM may not be an issue if you included your grade and module results in the application. However, if you just listed it as 2022-23 with no overall classification or module results, this again could be a problem as you presented your course as it was in progress when you had completed it.

 

[FutureLawyer99]

Yes, you need to tell the firm of these mistakes (they are all seperate issues).

The number of them, particularly relating to the missing module grades and the incorrect A-level grade could be a problem. If it was one mistake, then this might be overlooked, but two missing modules and an incorrect A-level collectively is substantial.

You will need to explain why the errors happened too - it just being an accident isn’t clear enough explaining why they are missing/wrong (for instance, the copying your application over from another application isn’t really excusable as the grades were still missing).

The LLM may not be an issue if you included your grade and module results in the application. However, if you just listed it as 2022-23 with no overall classification or module results, this again could be a problem as you presented your course as it was in progress when you had completed it.

Thanks for your detailed response Jessica! It is very much appreciated

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi there, are there any updates as to what happened?

I am in a similar situation - I realised I said that I passed all my LPC modules first time on my application form but I actually passed my Advocacy exam the second time. This was mainly due to the fact my partner did not show up and this throw me off as the examiner started asking me questions relating to claimant, despite the fact I was acting for the defendant. Furthermore, as this was a skills exam, I was deemed "competent" hence why I forgot but I am worried that Grad Recruitment will pull my TC offer due to my genuine mistake. I also never received my transcript from BPP even after graduating (to my student account or personal account).

Please could anyone let me know if you have been through this? I am really anxious about my situation.

You should flag this to the firm. I think it’s unlikely they would pull the offer based on this, but it’s important to disclose that there was a mistake on your application form, and the reasons for why there was the mistake.

 

[FutureLawyer99]

Hi there, are there any updates as to what happened?

I am in a similar situation - I realised I said that I passed all my LPC modules first time on my application form but I actually passed my Advocacy exam the second time. This was mainly due to the fact my partner did not show up and this throw me off as the examiner started asking me questions relating to claimant, despite the fact I was acting for the defendant. Furthermore, as this was a skills exam, I was deemed "competent" hence why I forgot but I am worried that Grad Recruitment will pull my TC offer due to my genuine mistake. I also never received my transcript from BPP even after graduating (to my student account or personal account).

Please could anyone let me know if you have been through this? I am really anxious about my situation.

I agree with Jessica. My update on this situation was that I explained my situation to grad recruitment and they were understanding of it and said it’s fine just to send them an update of the results now that I’ve realised the mistake. So I’d recommend speaking to the firm and just being honest and open about it.