TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26

[ilikelaw]

Reed smith PFO and Cooley PFO

sorry to hear was this post test or post app?

 

[HopefulTC]

Anyone got any tips to prep for a written task for an AC?

 

[Jessica Pearson - Managing Partner]

Anyone got any tips to prep for a written task for an AC?

this might be helpful:

2020-21 Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion

You can download this one here. I also remember a conversation some hundred pages back when someone shared their spreadsheet but I can’t find it at the moment. If I do will definitely send it over...

www.thecorporatelawacademy.com

 

[toughcookie]

I applied for Cooley Spring Vac on 1st Jan, haven't heard back post app!

 

[wqueens8]

Any advice on how to answer 'tell us a bit about yourself' in an AC interview? I had a mock interview and was told to try to link to the firm somehow but not entirely sure how to do this naturally?

Hmmm, happy to be told I'm wrong I've been advised before not to link to the firm in this question haha, unless explicitly relevant (i.e a previous scheme of some sort).

In my experience firms that ask this are looking for personality, and a full picture of you. They will almost certainly ask you some variation of why law and why this firm in the rest of the interview/application process, this is usually a bit of an icebreaker to give them an overview of who you are.

I generally go where I'm from, where I went to uni and what I'm studying. Then I move on to societies and personal interests (which for me combine as they're mostly sports and non-academic). And I'll mention a bit about career aspirations and work experience to date but again not like I'm answering "why law" all over again. For me this might take the form of "I've loved my stem degree but after doing X and Y scheme, I've realised my interests are more aligned to a law career" and I always mention my hospitality experience as it's the most significant part of my application usually.

Ultimately you're working to make yourself sound more interesting and different, what is your USP? If you go in and say "I'm a law student at X russell group, and I was the treasurer for the law soc, and I want to do corporate law, at a corporate law firm" that tells them nithing about you that's not on your CV, and makes you seem cookie cutter with not much going on.

 

[vweewcvew]

sorry to hear was this post test or post app?

Post VI test

 

[toughcookie]

Hi, has anyone heard back from Lewis Silkin since the deadline?

 

[EfficientBag123]

Anyone who has got to the baker McKenzie AC already please message me privately!

 

[qwerty!]

does anyone have any insight into how firms generally weigh each AC component? For example, a strong interview performance vs a weaker written exercise?

 

[Bread]

does anyone have any insight into how firms generally weigh each AC component? For example, a strong interview performance vs a weaker written exercise?

Depends on the firm, I know some firms are willing to overlook a slightly worse WE if an interview is very good, but others weigh each part of the assessment centre equally (especially those with multiple parts)

 

[Jennifer2003]

Hmmm, happy to be told I'm wrong I've been advised before not to link to the firm in this question haha, unless explicitly relevant (i.e a previous scheme of some sort).

In my experience firms that ask this are looking for personality, and a full picture of you. They will almost certainly ask you some variation of why law and why this firm in the rest of the interview/application process, this is usually a bit of an icebreaker to give them an overview of who you are.

I generally go where I'm from, where I went to uni and what I'm studying. Then I move on to societies and personal interests (which for me combine as they're mostly sports and non-academic). And I'll mention a bit about career aspirations and work experience to date but again not like I'm answering "why law" all over again. For me this might take the form of "I've loved my stem degree but after doing X and Y scheme, I've realised my interests are more aligned to a law career" and I always mention my hospitality experience as it's the most significant part of my application usually.

Ultimately you're working to make yourself sound more interesting and different, what is your USP? If you go in and say "I'm a law student at X russell group, and I was the treasurer for the law soc, and I want to do corporate law, at a corporate law firm" that tells them nithing about you that's not on your CV, and makes you seem cookie cutter with not much going on.

Great advice, thank you so much!

 

[radssss]

does anyone have any insight into how firms generally weigh each AC component? For example, a strong interview performance vs a weaker written exercise?

You should be fine with a strong interview performance and a weaker written exercise provided you still pass the WE. ofc it also depends from firm to firm, a us firm might expect a candidate to excel in both, some other firms give equal weightage to all exercises.

 

[Jennifer2003]

Anyone got any tips to prep for a written task for an AC?

Not sure how helpful this is, but the firm I have an AC with and candidates who did it last year strongly recommended doing the firm's forage scheme to look at their model answers as this normally indicates the kind of structure/detail/language they expect in things like client letters/memos etc etc

 

[radssss]

Hmmm, happy to be told I'm wrong I've been advised before not to link to the firm in this question haha, unless explicitly relevant (i.e a previous scheme of some sort).

In my experience firms that ask this are looking for personality, and a full picture of you. They will almost certainly ask you some variation of why law and why this firm in the rest of the interview/application process, this is usually a bit of an icebreaker to give them an overview of who you are.

I generally go where I'm from, where I went to uni and what I'm studying. Then I move on to societies and personal interests (which for me combine as they're mostly sports and non-academic). And I'll mention a bit about career aspirations and work experience to date but again not like I'm answering "why law" all over again. For me this might take the form of "I've loved my stem degree but after doing X and Y scheme, I've realised my interests are more aligned to a law career" and I always mention my hospitality experience as it's the most significant part of my application usually.

Ultimately you're working to make yourself sound more interesting and different, what is your USP? If you go in and say "I'm a law student at X russell group, and I was the treasurer for the law soc, and I want to do corporate law, at a corporate law firm" that tells them nithing about you that's not on your CV, and makes you seem cookie cutter with not much going on.

+1, I’ve been advised exactly the same.
Make this answer as personal as you can!

 

[amb303]

Has anyone who took the Withers SJT last week been progressed?

 

[InterestInPublicLaw]

The Osborne Clarke Deductive Reasoning test was brutal - pretty sure I got all of the completed questions that I seriously attempted right but didn't manage to complete all 12 questions so just sort of chose answers at haste for the final 2 that I completed and didn't even manage to finish all 12 Qs!

 

[DoNotRedeem]

Cooley PFO post app -_-

sorry to hear this, did you hear back just now or earlier today. I have heard nothing and it is honestly such a bad feeling

 

[radssss]

The Osborne Clarke Deductive Reasoning test was brutal - pretty sure I got all of the completed questions that I seriously attempted right but didn't manage to complete all 12 questions so just sort of chose answers at haste for the final 2 that I completed and didn't even manage to finish all 12 Qs!

Same buddy, I did 10 as well but skipped the last two thinking there might be - marking for wrong answers so it’s better to skip and am quite sure I should get around 7-8 right atleast. It was brutal.

Shepard and wedderburn assessment had 28 ques like this to be done in 40 mins (including those patterns and chains ques too) I did like 22ish and made it to the AC 2 weeks ago so hopefully Osborne is a bit lenient considering the candidate has done well on the verbal part.

 

[radssss]

Has anyone who took the Withers SJT last week been progressed?

Applied on deadline, got test after two days, did test 2 days back and waiting to hear back!

 

[lawstudent2]

When choosing a firm specific deal to talk about at an AC can I use the one they spoke about at the open day as it was interesting, or should I just find a different one that I probably know less about in case they think it's lazy to have used the open day one