TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26

[abc124]

Does anyone have any tips for the Reed Smith VI? Does it include commercial awareness questions?

 

[a1024]

Hi, does anyone know how many days are given to complete the Pinsent Masons online assessment?

 

[emily3827]

could i get some advice on how to best prep for an ac - interview and written exercise within one day - it was super short notice and i’ve been ill all weekend - what’s the most valuable thing to do in the time i have?

 

[Lawlife5]

If you withdraw an application (there is that option) will it let you apply again? I just noticed one typo on my application and feel like it is quite obvious.

 

[msclm]

Hi, Just to know if anyone has heard about Interviews from cleary and Dechert, should i assume pfo?

Dechert have given some out already!

 

[legal18]

Hi, does anyone know how many days are given to complete the Pinsent Masons online assessment?

You need to complete it before the application deadline! Speaking of Pinsent Masons does anyone if the VI questions have unlimited prep time?

 

[FutureTraineeMaybe]

Does anyone have any tips for the Reed Smith VI? Does it include commercial awareness questions?

It didn't have any last year.. but I'm not too sure about now.
Btw can I ask when you submitted your application?

 

[jaisrihere]

Can anyone who's been successful with the Paul, Weiss Open Day application please guide me on how what do they expect us to highlight?

 

[abc124]

It didn't have any last year.. but I'm not too sure about now.
Btw can I ask when you submitted your application?

Thanks for the insight! I submitted my application on 20 October

 

[FutureTraineeMaybe]

Thanks for the insight! I submitted my application on 20 October

Ig it's a PFO for me then😂😂😂

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hi @Andrei Radu, I am applying to both Dechert and Eversheds and would like to ask your opinion on how to approach these two questions.

1) If applicable, please state any additional information which you think is relevant to your application or which you think has not been covered adequately in this form. I have 300 words to answer this question and I really do not know what to write.

2)Please detail all your positions of responsibility including title, date and a brief description. Please separate each position with a bullet point. Do you think I need to provide the exact dates of each position?

Hi @AS24 for the first question, I would likely seek to discuss any hobbies/experiences/firm research I did not have the opportunity to elaborate on in the other answers. In essence, I would write the "why me", "why commercial law", or the "why the firm" points I think can add value to my candidate profile and portray me as a well-rounded individual.

For the second question, I would try to provide the most exact dates possible. If you have no way of finding out what those were and/or you cannot remember, I would advise you to try to guess. If you are very uncertain, provide the firm with dates expressed in a MM/YY format instead of DD/MM/YY format.

 

[Andrei Radu]

If you withdraw an application (there is that option) will it let you apply again? I just noticed one typo on my application and feel like it is quite obvious.

From what I know, this is generally not allowed. I would not worry too much about one typo - even if they notice it, most recruiters will be willing to overlook it. Even the strictest recruiters I know only operate a "three strikes and you're out" policy to spelling and grammar. Also, when I was reviewing my successful applications, I almost always identified 2-3 typos; so I can say from personal experience that this is not as big of an issue as you may imagine.

 

[flower1]

Hello @Abbie Whitlock @Andrei Radu
I was just wondering how should we best pick which news topics to follow from start to end - I know that in interviews they sometimes ask which commercial topic have you been following etc - but there's so many, how can I choose one that's good enough and do you have any examples?

Thank you

 

[Andrei Radu]

could i get some advice on how to best prep for an ac - interview and written exercise within one day - it was super short notice and i’ve been ill all weekend - what’s the most valuable thing to do in the time i have?

Hi @emily3827 I think I would invest most of the time left in preparing for the interview. You can read my more detailed explanation of my step-by-step interview preparation method in my Complete Competency Interview Guide, but in short, I think you should:

1. Create a personal question bank document, where you should include all the questions you think are most likely to come up and a mix of "difficult questions" (i.e. questions you are finding hard to mentally formulate an answer for).
2. Have a think about each question and write down one-two bullet points about the essence of the ideas and experiences you would use to answer them.
3. Practice articulating the answers in a structured, clear, formal, and composed way; ideally, record yourself on your laptop camera and then replay and critically analyse your delivery. Then, try again and again until you feel happy with the result. Your aim here should not be to learn answers by heart; but to get used to an interview format and learn how to formulate your thoughts in an articulate manner in this setting.

After doing this, only if the time allows for it I would aim to complete a mock written exercise - as I think it is significantly easier to do an ok job in this type of assessment without much prep than it is in an interview. I have also attached bellow a post in which I explained my best tips for written exercises should you wish to take a look:

While I think different strategies apply for different formats, there are a couple of pointers which I would say are generally applicable for all or almost all types of written exercises:

1. Time-management: You might have heard this so many times already, but I have to stress that most written exercises are incredibly time-pressured. I remember I was always told this, but it is very easy to forget during the actual assessment. In the first 20-30 minutes I have always to an extent or another allowed myself to be tempted by thoughts such as 'Oh it won't take me that long to read/write that part, I will just speed up a bit later' and I would thus justify being less efficient than I could have been in the first half of the exercise. As I would be entering the second half and nearing the end, I would invariably then find that it was very difficult to increase my working pace to make up for lost ground and my work product would suffer as a result. Thus, my advice is to be on your guard against that and to try to spread out your efforts evenly across the allocated time. Take one or two minutes in the beginning to make a plan and divide your workload, allocate portions of your time to completing the different parts, and try to make yourself to stick to those time limits.
2. Efficient reading: In a substantial number of written exercises you will be given a large number of documents containing overlapping information and also big sections of text containing technical details which are not of great importance to your task. Once again, there is a temptation to ignore the time constraints and to try to read everything closely to ensure you are not missing anything. However, in my experience the main task of the assessment very rarely or never hinges on easy to miss details. As such, my advice for you is to try to quickly read and skim through the documents, and only once you have a big picture go back and look at the relevant sections in more detail.
3. Analysis: Almost all written assessments have an analysis part, in which you are asked to weigh different considerations and make a judgement. I would advise you not to focus too much on trying to "blow away" the reader with the depth of your analysis or creativity of your arguments. Given the time constraints and nature of the tasks, there is rarely scope for that and if you focus to much on this kind of goal you might miss explaining much simpler points that should have been included in your analysis. As such, concentrate on considering the position of all relevant stakeholders (if you have issues doing this, drawing out diagrams can be very useful), having all the main pros and cons properly laid out, and weighing which set of considerations should you give priority to. If you can further support your opinion by making any links to current news stories or commercial trends, try to do so.
4. Clarity and structure: Finally, ensuring your answer is very easy to follow is a point whose importance I cannot overstate. A essential skill for a prospective trainee is an ability for clear communication, both verbally and in writing, and this type of assessment is how they test the later. As such, you should focus on having a simple writing style and structure as much as you focus on the substantive points you are trying to communicate.

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hello @Abbie Whitlock @Andrei Radu
I was just wondering how should we best pick which news topics to follow from start to end - I know that in interviews they sometimes ask which commercial topic have you been following etc - but there's so many, how can I choose one that's good enough and do you have any examples?

Thank you

Hi @flower1 as long as the topic you choose is one that is substantial enough to give you sufficient content to cover in a two-three minute answer and as long as you can also justify being interested in the topic, I think it should be fine. There is no objective list of "good" and "bad" commercial topics to discuss; what matters is not so much the topic itself, but the way you go about discussing it.

You may want to consider this list of questions as you are constructing your answer:

• Is the answer well-researched? Am I including and addressing all major points of discussion related to this topic?
• Is my answer nuanced and carefully considered? Am I taking into account a variety of different perspectives and stakeholders, and the different views and arguments they may formulate?
• Is the information I present fully descriptive, or am I taking any view as to more contested topics, such as underlying causes of events, responses from the government and commercial actors, future trends and impacts, etc?
• Is my answer well-structured and easy to follow? Have I made sure to avoid use of unnecessary jargon and complex terminology, and have I ensured that to the extent I have used jargon and complex terminology, I am able to break them down in laymen terms if prompted to?

Finally, to give an example of of a commercial topic I used to discuss: my favourite one back when I was applying was inflation and the policies of central banks. I remember I discussed causes (the Covid-19 pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine, etc), effects (rating interest rates and the consequent raise of cost of borrowing and investment) and projected impacts on the economy and financial markets (where I would also hone in on impact to PE and M&A and how big law firms would be impacted).

 

[mg42guy32]

Well done! Which one is that for?

Hey, I think that may be the 6th Nov one as I received it on Friday as well. I think Latham lets people know 6 days before the event for some reason!

 

[emily3827]

how do people approach asking questions at the end of an interview ive always been a bit confused by this - are they assessed, what kind of things are they looking for? also I struggle to make them not seem like im asking. preprepared question for the sake of it

 

[elizabethkate]

Dla piper WG on a sunday afternoon?

 

[LaDiva]

You need to complete it before the application deadline! Speaking of Pinsent Masons does anyone if the VI questions have unlimited prep time?

I want to know as well!!!!! It'd be so helpful if there was unlimited prep time, VIs are stressful enough

 

[chiichii]

Hi, I was just wondering has anyone received invitation for Clifford Chance's London Insight Day?