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TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2023-24
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Does anyone know if it’s common for law firms to recoup 50%(or more or less) of LLM fees if you don’t accept a NQ job/move to a different firm?
The NQ job part is a bit scary. If I want to qualify in litigation but I am offered tax and I turn it down - it’s a bit unfair that I get hit with 50% costs!
I don’t want to quote the exact t&cs but it seems like I will be liable for 50% whether I leave off my own accord; turn down a NQ job in an area that I don’t like; leave due to receiving no NQ job offer
The NQ job part is a bit scary. If I want to qualify in litigation but I am offered tax and I turn it down - it’s a bit unfair that I get hit with 50% costs!
I don’t want to quote the exact t&cs but it seems like I will be liable for 50% whether I leave off my own accord; turn down a NQ job in an area that I don’t like; leave due to receiving no NQ job offer
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it’s not common but similar terms do exist across a number of firms. It’s rare that a firm would recoup anything if they didn’t have an NQ offer to give you - generally is only if you turn down an offer they would.
Hi everyone,
I have a bit of a predicament at the moment and wondered if anyone could give some advice.
I’ve applied for VSs for three cycles now and have sadly been unsuccessful. However, today I was offered a TC by the firm I’ve been a paralegal at for the past year.
I really like the firm, the people, and the culture. The problem is it’s a high street firm in a small city. Although there’s nothing wrong with that per se, I always had aspirations of training in the City, working on international deals, which I know I won’t do here. I’m also worried that if I accept this TC and train here, it would be very challenging to move laterally to a City firm later on in my career because a high street firm and a City firm are like chalk and cheese.
My friends have told me to accept it; I’ve been applying for three years and I have an offer now right there. It just isn’t what I saw myself doing and I suppose I have high expectations of myself. It almost feels like settling, but maybe this is the level I’m at and would be silly to decline.
Any advice (as honest as possible) would be much appreciated.
I have a bit of a predicament at the moment and wondered if anyone could give some advice.
I’ve applied for VSs for three cycles now and have sadly been unsuccessful. However, today I was offered a TC by the firm I’ve been a paralegal at for the past year.
I really like the firm, the people, and the culture. The problem is it’s a high street firm in a small city. Although there’s nothing wrong with that per se, I always had aspirations of training in the City, working on international deals, which I know I won’t do here. I’m also worried that if I accept this TC and train here, it would be very challenging to move laterally to a City firm later on in my career because a high street firm and a City firm are like chalk and cheese.
My friends have told me to accept it; I’ve been applying for three years and I have an offer now right there. It just isn’t what I saw myself doing and I suppose I have high expectations of myself. It almost feels like settling, but maybe this is the level I’m at and would be silly to decline.
Any advice (as honest as possible) would be much appreciated.
A post on your profile says you got a Taylor Wessing VS, did you complete it and just not convert? Because I would say having a VS at a good firm on your applications really helps with getting past app stage so might be worth another cycle...
I did the TW VS this cycle and didn’t convert it sadly. So maybe it’s a bit harsh to say “unsuccessful” but I suppose if it doesn’t end in a TC it maybe could be regarded as such
Like I think maybe that shows I should aim higher but a TC is a TC and I’m also not in the position to be picky.
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When is the TC due to start? Assuming the firm is not providing you with any financial support for LPC/SQE training either?
It would start in 2026. I did ask about the SQE and funding for it and they said it was something they were discussing but if I stayed with them as a paralegal, they would be able to offer some form of funding if I did a part-time SQE in September 2025.
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You’ve ultimately got at least another 10-12 months to find something else suitable then.
Until you take any financial support from them start any onboarding process for an SQE course they are contributing towards, you are not tied to the firm.
You can accept the offer, keep looking for other opportunities, and then if you don’t find something else, then worry about whether to go ahead. If you do secure something more appropriate before you start the TC or receive any financial support, you can renege the original TC offer.
I have just graduated and I’m struggling to find a legal job
I was wondering what your thoughts are on the Burlington Row paralegal training programme. The way it works is you enter a paralegal course where you have to complete 4-12 weeks of online paralegal training. You are also given 12 weeks guaranteed legal work experience and you are given support with your cv, cover letters, interviews etc. Finally, you are given a CPD certificate upon completion.
To pass the course, you have to pass an MCT.
The reason why this programme is good is because your trained and given legal work experience, which a lot of paralegal jobs offer. But I’m sceptical if I should join because the programme costs £1,995 (which is a lot of money for me) and it seems like a lot just to get into an entry level paralegal job.
I am a part of upreach which is free and helps me with my cv/applications too so I’m not sure if Burlington Row programme would benefit me
Has anyone tried the programme or have any advice for me? Should I go for it?
I was wondering what your thoughts are on the Burlington Row paralegal training programme. The way it works is you enter a paralegal course where you have to complete 4-12 weeks of online paralegal training. You are also given 12 weeks guaranteed legal work experience and you are given support with your cv, cover letters, interviews etc. Finally, you are given a CPD certificate upon completion.
To pass the course, you have to pass an MCT.
The reason why this programme is good is because your trained and given legal work experience, which a lot of paralegal jobs offer. But I’m sceptical if I should join because the programme costs £1,995 (which is a lot of money for me) and it seems like a lot just to get into an entry level paralegal job.
I am a part of upreach which is free and helps me with my cv/applications too so I’m not sure if Burlington Row programme would benefit me
Has anyone tried the programme or have any advice for me? Should I go for it?
Please don't pay for work, these are money making schemes and not really designed to benefit their participants
Hey there, I wondered if anyone could give me some honest advice.
I just completed a VS at a firm and absolutely loved it. I don't want to overanalyse or be hypercritical of my own performance because I think on the whole I did well, but I think I made two grave mistakes that will likely be fatal to my chances. I wanted someone to advise if I should forget about a successful conversion.
The first mistake was I arranged a coffee chat with an associate two days prior. I should have made myself multiple reminders, written it down, or done something, but I had a graduate recruitment organised event we had to attend, and I completely forgot to go to the coffee chat. I remembered as soon as I returned from my desk with a message from the associate on the internal messaging system, saying he was waiting in the office cafe. After 15 minutes he sent a follow up message saying he had returned to his desk. I scrambled to send an apology and explained, while asking if he could please rearrange. He responded that it was "no problem, these things happen" but said he was unfortunately too busy the rest of the week to schedule another chat in. I know he did explicitly say it wasn't a problem, yet I know how valuable their time is and it makes me look disinterested and disorganised. He can obviously feedback to grad recruitment too.
The second mistake was we had to submit three assessed tasks during the two weeks. One of these tasks had three separate documents you had to submit. However, upon submission, I realised that I had failed to submit one of the three documents. Once you'd submitted, you couldn't go back and resubmit, so one of my documents didn't go through. I messaged grad recruitment about this but they said sadly there wasn't anything they could do, but that they "take a holistic approach".
I know everything is looked at holistically (or so they say) and I shouldn't overly focus on these small mistakes, but will they be detrimental?
I just completed a VS at a firm and absolutely loved it. I don't want to overanalyse or be hypercritical of my own performance because I think on the whole I did well, but I think I made two grave mistakes that will likely be fatal to my chances. I wanted someone to advise if I should forget about a successful conversion.
The first mistake was I arranged a coffee chat with an associate two days prior. I should have made myself multiple reminders, written it down, or done something, but I had a graduate recruitment organised event we had to attend, and I completely forgot to go to the coffee chat. I remembered as soon as I returned from my desk with a message from the associate on the internal messaging system, saying he was waiting in the office cafe. After 15 minutes he sent a follow up message saying he had returned to his desk. I scrambled to send an apology and explained, while asking if he could please rearrange. He responded that it was "no problem, these things happen" but said he was unfortunately too busy the rest of the week to schedule another chat in. I know he did explicitly say it wasn't a problem, yet I know how valuable their time is and it makes me look disinterested and disorganised. He can obviously feedback to grad recruitment too.
The second mistake was we had to submit three assessed tasks during the two weeks. One of these tasks had three separate documents you had to submit. However, upon submission, I realised that I had failed to submit one of the three documents. Once you'd submitted, you couldn't go back and resubmit, so one of my documents didn't go through. I messaged grad recruitment about this but they said sadly there wasn't anything they could do, but that they "take a holistic approach".
I know everything is looked at holistically (or so they say) and I shouldn't overly focus on these small mistakes, but will they be detrimental?
I get it completely. The paralegal job market (and the job market in general) is incredibly tough, and you want to stand out. But please, do not go for this scheme. Paying around £2,000, which is a substantial amount of money for someone in your position, for a course which won't guarantee a job, isn't worth it. Employers won't have heard of or care about this course, and I am sceptical what "paralegal training" you get for £2,000 across 12 weeks. Almost any paralegal job you would pick up the skills on the go, and this won't put you in any better position.
This is a pure money making scheme, and I'm positive it won't help with your CV or applications. If you apply for TCs, I don't think any firms would see it as advantageous.
Perhaps apply for legal secretary roles or something as a stepping stone to do for a few months if you're struggling to get a paralegal job. Volunteer at a law clinic or CAB. This is not worth it, trust me.
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Don’t do it.
These are some of the biggest scams around in my opinion, especially if you are not being paid for the 12 weeks work experience because it’s most likely the case that they are being paid by the client for your time.
I have never known any recruiters to look at these courses and think “wow, let’s hire this person” on this basis of the course. The training you get is notoriously basic stuff that you could probably find through other forms of free/accessible e-learning. You could definitely invest most of the £2k into an SQE prep course and get more out of it.
The big red flags I have with these companies are:
- they never highlight the companies they are placing people on the work experience placements with. Look for recommendations not just from candidates, but also from employers.
- they never highlight who their tutors are. If the training was that good/impressive, they would be highlighting their qualified tutors on the subject. But they don’t.
- the employees on LinkedIn seem to have no legal training or legal professional backgrounds themselves. They are predominately recruiters/sales people.
This thread in Reddit stresses how the legal sector views these businesses: https://www.reddit.com/r/uklaw/s/y10kfzHrOX
There are a few things specifically about Burlington Row that makes it more worrying though.
They are a new company. They were only registered on Companies House in May under the name “HC Direct Limited” this year, and yet they have reviews from May and June on both their website and Trust Pilot. So this suggests the reviews are either false or the company has for some reason set itself up under another Limited Company. However, HC Direct Limited only have one Director, an Ashley Beaumont. Ashley has no other appointments/connections to other companies, and was only appointed Director to the company on 22 May 2024.
Ashley on LinkedIn is part of recruitment company called HUG Recruitment though. Although doesn’t have any details of his employment before HUG, where he has worked for the last two years or so. So it’s unclear what his background is.
Except there is another Ashley Beaumont on Companies House who has the same date of birth as the Burlington Ashley who has several dissolved companies but is running at least one other Education/Training company called Alpha National Limited. Except Alpha doesn’t have any employees and Ashley is the sole Director, and it’s difficult to find out what Alpha National’s business is. I suspect it is Burlington but Burlington has been restablished under the HC Direct company. You have to wonder why that would be the case. This Ashley is connected to HUG Recruitment too though!
And yet there is another Ashley Beaumont with the same date of birth who also runs BA Training and Recruitment Limited, who just so happens to be the company behind Morgan Quays. Morgan Quays is mentioned on the Reddit thread (I’ll come back to them).
The reviews for Burlington on Trustpilot are very suspicious. Either people with no other reviews, or where they have reviewed other services/products, it’s questionable why they are doing basic training courses in the U.K. but yet seem to be running businesses outside of the U.K. Suspicious reviews flags are also poor spelling and also people posting reviews for the wrong company (like this version below)
Even if you wanted to look at the positive reviews and focus on them, none of them provide details of the work placements completed or details of the course content - they just say vaguely what a great course it was.
When you look at Burlington Row’s LinkedIn profile, it has no people associated with the company, not even Ashley.
There are no posts on LinkedIn tagging in the company to say thank you for the course or their successful placements either.
And then when we go back to Morgan Quays, there are a significant number of Trustpilot reviews that stress they think it is a scam. And yet they only have reviews from the last 3 months on Trustpilot too despite running for longer than Burlington. Morgan Quays says it’s been running from 2021 on their LinkedIn profile, but was only incorporated under the BA Training Ltd company from 2023….
Morgan Quays website is also basically identical to Bradstone Allington which is another one of these companies, also referenced in the Reddit thread. Bradstone Allington is also registered to BA Training and Recruitment Limited in the U.K by looking at their terms on their website.
The reviews of Bradstone Allington on Trustpilot, although also clearly sanitised or false, do contain more disgruntled reviews which give more context of the quality of the course and their customer service.
And to top it all off, there is another Ashley Beaumont on Companies House with the same date of birth who ran another education company called 9 Direct Limited who were another training and education company that was established in July 2017 only to be dissolved 18 months later…
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