TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26

[law_mania]

Morning all, I feel like Sidley Austin and Morrison Foerster will get back to us today or at least this week. I hope #desperately we'll hear some positive news.

from what i have heard, Sidley (at least for the summer VS) will get back to us only in early March - pls correct me if im wrong

 

[Harvey Specter - Presiding Partner]

The wait for Orrick rejection begins today.

I’m not expecting much cos it’s either gna be a PFO post app or post WG. I’m baso looking forward to nothing at this point. It’s a PFO either way…

 

[msclm]

from what i have heard, Sidley (at least for the summer VS) will get back to us only in early March - pls correct me if im wrong

I’d imagine those who applied for spring for Sidley will hear back earlier. There is 2 stages and they also do a full background check before the vac which takes some time. Given that the spring vac is in April, they should start giving out the first hr interviews soon!

 

[LawAspirer]

I’m not expecting much cos it’s either gna be a PFO post app or post WG. I’m baso looking forward to nothing at this point. It’s a PFO either way…

Our coping mechanisms have transcended rejections at this point. You can't reject us because we already rejected ourselves.

 

[LawAspirer]

I’d imagine those who applied for spring for Sidley will hear back earlier. There is 2 stages and they also do a full background check before the vac which takes some time. Given that the spring vac is in April, they should start giving out the first hr interviews soon!

Has anybody gotten rejected yet?
I remember applying for Winter very early on (like September) and heard back almost within like 2 weeks.
I applied for Spring now in early December and yet to hear anything

 

[Rosie_Kitten]

Agreed, but AI certainly makes applying easier for those who may not be confident writers.

I think it makes the quantity of applications increased. Let me use a very simple numerical answer (Obviously, there are way more candidates and firms, and people submit way more applications).

Say you have 100 candidates and 20 firms. They can write 5 apps each, so they will submit to the 10 firms they are a best fit for. For simplicity, let's say there is an equal distribution of applications to each firm. This means there are 500 applications for 20 firms, so each firm received 25 applications. They decide to take 5 candidates on, so they have a simple screening process to whittle 25 applications to 5.

With AI speeding up the research writing process, each candidate now decides to submit 20 applications. Each firm suddenly has to review 100 applications each. In addition, because of the economic outlook and AI integration, each firm is only taking 2 applicants. The process to reduce 100 applications to 2 candidates is a whole different challenge; they aren't able to use the same review system anymore.

Now imagine this, but with 5000 applicants, all with strong grades (or mitigating circumstances), 5% need reasonable adjustments (So they have to account for this when choosing the assessment method), and only 5-10 places at the end (varies a lot by firm ik). It's honestly a nightmare for grad recruitment. The good news is that most AI is not very good at writing or research at this stage. The candidates who copy/paste from AI can instantly be rejected. But those who use it roughly take ideas from it without copying output, making it difficult to differentiate from purely human-written applications. And this is where they have problems.

This isn't a law problem. It's a problem for the entire job market.

 

[Rosie_Kitten]

I’m not expecting much cos it’s either gna be a PFO post app or post WG. I’m baso looking forward to nothing at this point. It’s a PFO either way…

I was going to apply yesterday, but ended up not applying and submitting an application for Harbottle and Lewis instead. My reason was that on legalcheek the work-life balance was a Cand social life also C - for commercial law. When work-life balance is an A/A* , then usually that is already pretty tough working hours, so C must mean basically killing yourself with work without any sleep .

Obviously, take legal cheek with a grain of salt, it's not going to be accurate.

 

[qwerty!]

anyone heard from mishcon spring??

 

[Kenomy]

Has anyone heard from PMC?

Seconding this

 

[TheSlapDotCom]

from what i have heard, Sidley (at least for the summer VS) will get back to us only in early March - pls correct me if im wrong

wtf that’s so late

 

[RJ Ruban]

Anyone else waiting to hear back from HSF K?? It’s been over 3 weeks

 

[TheSlapDotCom]

Anyone else waiting to hear back from HSF K?? It’s been over 3 weeks

for summer?

 

[Laurel Lance - Black Canary]

from what i have heard, Sidley (at least for the summer VS) will get back to us only in early March - pls correct me if im wrong

I applied for spring, early March is too late for me as an international :'(

 

[user397485]

anyone know how HL do ACs?

 

[Jessica Pearson]

Has anyone heard back from AG for their summer VC (London)- post test?

 

[RJ Ruban]

for summer?

Yea haha

 

[TCLAAAA]

Did anyone apply for the Simmons & Simmons Evolve Placement and have you heard back yet following the amberjack?

FYI- i applied last year and got an AC: applied on the deadline and received AC on 27th Feb.

 

[ilikelaw]

silly question, if you have an interview on zoom how early are you meant to join the call

 

[hanz123]

AG just give me a PFO post critical thinking test already - tempted to email them

 

[TCLAAAA]

silly question, if you have an interview on zoom how early are you meant to join the call

10 mins? i would assume associates & partners won't join the meeting link that early- usually they show up on the exact minute.