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TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25
- Thread starter Jessica Booker
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- vacation scheme
Personally, I'd pick Slaughters for the MC training stamp, then lateral anywhere you want (or stay there if you like it). From the other 4 I'd probably go Weil or Kirkland but I have heard less than great things about Kirkland & Milbank's culture
What I will say is that US firms eat the vast majority of people alive lol. Whilst you’re more likely to make salaried partner earlier, a lot of people burn out + Kirkland’s entire business model is pretty much only hiring laterals for equity partnership
The head of corporate at Kirkland told me that if you train at the firm, you most likely will not make equity partnership there. But you will easily make equity at another firm like Clifford Chance. What he meant by that is up for interpretation lol…
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I think it was not too bad to be honest, happy to share marks and categories they look at if that would be helpful for you! Best of luck
Chances of partnership will be very small at all of those firms and in any case depend on so many factors (many of which will be out of your control).
I’d pick based on the practice areas you’re interested in. If private capital, K&E; pretty much everything else, Slaughters
Slaughters road to partnership is a strict 6-8yrs PQE and they are pretty upfront with associates if they have a likelihood of making partner and if not they are clear on that too and individuals are very much free to go elsewhere. However, If they see an associate as partner material but the individual does not want partnership they are offered senior counsel role.
It also very much depends on whether there’s positions available as well and your given the indication at around 5/6years PQE.
An AC is not a VS offer and a VS offer is not a TC offer
I would say, go to all the AC's, get as many VS's as you can, try and fit them all in if possible and then decide once all your TC offers are in...
Good Luck
I would also factor in whether you want to work in a firm with a larger trainee cohort of 90-100 (e.g., Slaughter and May) or a firm with a smaller trainee cohort size of 6-8 (e.g., Vinson & Elkins and Milbank respectively).
Kirkland and Weil sit in the middle with a mid-sized intake of around 15 trainees. If you want the perks of working in a US firm (lean team structure and greater responsibility), but don’t want to be in a really small intake, maybe Kirkland and Weil are good choices. If you prefer the smaller intake then go for Vinson & Elkins or Milbank. If you don’t mind the large cohort size go for Slaughter and May.
Having said that, I think it’s hard to know at this point which firm would be the best. I say this because at the moment you either have AC’s or VS offers. I am assuming you haven’t got any experience yet of what life would look like working in these firms. I would say it’s best to go through the AC’s for all of them. Whichever firms offer you a VS, try and do the VS for them (this depends on dates). Once you have received all of your TC offers, you can then begin to think about which firm is ultimately the right one for you.
I imagine after doing VS for these firms, you would probably know which one fits what you are looking for. Perhaps you can ask the associates and partners at these firms during the VS about the path to partnership for trainees at the firm. Any questions you have about these firms can be asked during the VS and that will inform your overall decision.
Kirkland and Weil sit in the middle with a mid-sized intake of around 15 trainees. If you want the perks of working in a US firm (lean team structure and greater responsibility), but don’t want to be in a really small intake, maybe Kirkland and Weil are good choices. If you prefer the smaller intake then go for Vinson & Elkins or Milbank. If you don’t mind the large cohort size go for Slaughter and May.
Having said that, I think it’s hard to know at this point which firm would be the best. I say this because at the moment you either have AC’s or VS offers. I am assuming you haven’t got any experience yet of what life would look like working in these firms. I would say it’s best to go through the AC’s for all of them. Whichever firms offer you a VS, try and do the VS for them (this depends on dates). Once you have received all of your TC offers, you can then begin to think about which firm is ultimately the right one for you.
I imagine after doing VS for these firms, you would probably know which one fits what you are looking for. Perhaps you can ask the associates and partners at these firms during the VS about the path to partnership for trainees at the firm. Any questions you have about these firms can be asked during the VS and that will inform your overall decision.
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Hi yes that would be great ! and Thank you again!I think it was not too bad to be honest, happy to share marks and categories they look at if that would be helpful for you! Best of luck
No problem at all, it’s also an amberjack test
So ofc there’s that bar marking for applied numerical and verbal intellect (I was placed at the middle of the bar for both)
The main categories are (all marked out of 10)
1. Clients (I got a 7/10)
2. Firm (6/10)
3. People (7/10)
It’s the same type of ques which were there for wbd and Paul Weiss if it helps!
Can I also ask, do you get your results before doing the 2 written questions? If I end up doing poorly on the SJT part, I wouldn't want to waste another couple of hours doing the written responses.
Nope, so once you finish the sjt part, there is a video in which there is this person saying that you won’t receive your feedback report and your assessment won’t be submitted until you finish the written assessment on the next page. In order to receive the report you need to finish the whole assessment including the written assessment.
That was annoying, I went into the assessment not knowing there were two 500 words ques and it really caught me off guard😭 I should’ve checked if someone posted about this on the forum first but luckily I had some extra spare time in hand when I did the assessment!
Hope this helps!
Ugh that is so annoying, although, I imagine loads of applicants would just abort the process half-way if they knew their SJT score. Thank you so much for letting us know and I'm sorry it caught you off-guard!
How bad is it to not mention a deal that a firm did in an interview? I wasn't asked about one explicitly and could only have mentioned it insofar as they asked why the firm? But I spoke about the culture and training. I mentioned a bunch of deals in my written application but realised I didn't speak about any directly in the interview?
Jessica Booker
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This is really not an issue. Sometimes throwing a matter/deal/case in for the matter for the sake of it doesn’t work very well. It’s only if it is suitable for the question that you should include one, and it sounds like in this instance you weren’t asked something that would constitute using one.
@Jessica Booker
Do law firms tend to see it as bad if a candidate asks to be moved to the direct tc process after an interview for a vac scheme? I have accepted an offer for a vac scheme at another firm and have moved to the interview stage at another firm that I really like. The vac scheme dates overlap so I wouldn't be able to attend both (neither firm runs a spring scheme either). If I was progressed to an AC with the second firm, would it be likely for them to be okay with moving me to the TC process or would they see it as proof that I was not interested in them enough if I didn't cancel my first offer to attend the second firm's (in the very hopeful event, of course, that I was offered one for the vac scheme)?
Do law firms tend to see it as bad if a candidate asks to be moved to the direct tc process after an interview for a vac scheme? I have accepted an offer for a vac scheme at another firm and have moved to the interview stage at another firm that I really like. The vac scheme dates overlap so I wouldn't be able to attend both (neither firm runs a spring scheme either). If I was progressed to an AC with the second firm, would it be likely for them to be okay with moving me to the TC process or would they see it as proof that I was not interested in them enough if I didn't cancel my first offer to attend the second firm's (in the very hopeful event, of course, that I was offered one for the vac scheme)?
Does anyone have any insight into the difference between Weil and Sidley Austin? Training, reputation, likelihood of making equity partner, areas of expertise etc.
Thank you in advance if so!
Thank you in advance if so!
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