Both will be helpful. Thank you so much.Sorry just to confirm, do you want to know how to answer what skills you’d want to pick up between the AC and vac scheme? Which would assess how you’d prepare for the vac scheme?
Or what skills you’d want to pick up between the AC and training, which would assess how you’d use the vac scheme to prepare for your training?
Or both?Let me know and I can try to give a couple of options
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TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26
- Thread starter Ram Sabaratnam
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It doesn’t, but there are videos which they say you “have” to watch and material to read. But it’s mainly just content providing you insights into firm departments and culture.
I’m assuming they’re probably expecting people to spend more time on the critical reasoning part.
Thanks for the update! For AG, was it a TI instead of a VI? Also, when did you hear back for the DLA Manchester TI roughly?
Me checking TCLA an hour after my question and seeing 8 notifications of dislikes on my comment thinking I was being attacked for something I said, only to realize I asked a question whether people had heard back from a firm 😭
Lawcareers is the best site for deadlines, and weirdly it links in to allhires, so you can use the locker thing to make it much faster to submit.
I compiled a list of all firms (basically London plus national firms that pay more than NMW) and put them in excel
I have a book in Onenote which is probably not the best app for notes but it's what I'm used to, with sections for exam results/work experience, motivational, behavioural and competence so I can copy/paste these
Since GPT got better I use GPT 5.2 on "xhigh" settings (this is not the public ChatGPT but OpenAI platform - you might be able to access elsewhere, idk) and I'll ask it to check my spelling and grammar or to tailor my answer so it fits the question. Also the web search function is pretty good.
A lot of the time i still don't like the results but if you ask it to do 350 words for a 300 word question you can delete the icky AI stuff more easily. And I think it's maybe easier to work on something than to start with nothing
I don't use Gemini Deep Research much because it creates massive essays but it sometimes handy.
I used to keep deadlines as days but now I check times as well. Typically if it's afternoon/evening I'll do it the day before (from scratch) but if it's midnight I'll do it same-day.
I've just started Osborne Clarke, so:
* click apply
* wait while the slow site loads
* wait some more
* fill in gaps caused by bugs in their system
* copy paste my work experience into that section
* diversity section click click click
* wait more
finally get to questions section
"Q1. What skills have you been developing over the last 12-24 months that you believe are instrumental to ensuring your success as a solicitor? How have you been developing these skills? Why do you believe that these skills will set you up for a successful career at Osborne Clarke? Your examples can be taken from any activities or experiences you have participated in and don't have to be focussed solely on the legal sector." (500 words)
ok this one is not bad but it's also not good in that I don't like the long word count. I have a bunch of "skills to be a lawyer" answers that I've written in the past and I can probably ask GPT to stitch something together, noting the "12-24 months" so maybe I'll lean more on specific recent stuff like my legal education and less on my general work experience.
"Q2. What work has Osborne Clarke done recently that is of particular interest to you? Why are you interested and inspired by this work? " 300 words
I know that TCLA did a session on this but I wasn't there because I ain't that organised, I'm lastminute.com. However this type of thing I can pretty much use the AI research functions, check news pages and probably find two or three examples so it's not too bad.
I'll also check my answers from last year and see if there is anything useful.
Finally i'll run my answers through GPT 5.2 xhigh to check for speling and grandma misteaks, and then I'll check my email to see if the "thanks for submitting" includes a hidden "If you don't read this whole message and do XYZ by tomorrow you'll be rejected, lol", which it usually doesn't but sometimes it's there
After submitting, VIs I will tend to leave to the last minute (I have a colour-coded column with the data in my spreadsheet for next steps which helps to turn the 'you forgot to do to the VI' into a 'your VI was bad, PFO') and tests I do straight away because they're pretty routine. Exceptions for ArcticShores which thinks I am unemployable in any career, and SHL which is kinda intense so I have to prep for that with spreadsheets and stuff
Omds thank u guys sm I jsut completed it. Did an exam today so didn’t perform my best but at least I did it
i did the exact same today hahaMe checking TCLA an hour after my question and seeing 8 notifications of dislikes on my comment thinking I was being attacked for something I said, only to realize I asked a question whether people had heard back from a firm 😭
Does anyone know how many people are invited to the final training contract assessment day at Clifford Chance? Particularly if someone has talked to grad rec/doe SPARK? It doesn't change my situation much but I'd be interested to know if they interview 5 applicants per TC or closer to 2 applicants per TC i.e. whether I should be realistic about my chances
around 120-130ish I think for around 50ish places
from what i gathered from last year - but these are very rough numbers
What skills would you want to pick up between the AC and vac scheme? (This likely won’t be one they ask about the two.)
- Practice explaining things coherently in a professional context (dependent on where you are in your career journey - If they ask how practice with friends/family.)
- Shifting your perspective from an applicant to a prospective trainee (ensuring you’re actually preparing to apply the skills which make a great trainee, which you may have spoken about in an application.)
- Streamlining your firm research, so once the onboarding option begins and you know what your seat options could be. You can research to see what trainees you could be paired with, and seeing what work they do.
- Commercial awareness: Just throw in there you will keep on top of understanding the opportunities the firm has and sectors they’re operating in (be prepared for a follow-up if you’re not too confident with a topic, maybe skip this one.)
What skills you’d want to pick up between the AC and training - Essentially just frame how you’ll use the vac scheme as a foundation to apply those trainee skills you know.
- Applying legal research skills in a practical setting (research tasks, advice notes, group presentations.)
- Being able to manage work instructions and others’ expectations for your work (Time management.)
- Exposure to how feedback works so you can have an understanding of what to expect, and not take it as a negative (#Reflection #Resilient)
- Exposure to how you can further build your legal network, if this is your first VS. There will be a lot of networking opportunities.
- Collaboration *in a legal setting* TBH it probably won’t be different to collaborating in another environment. But just frame it as you’ll be getting exposure to how that actually looks like in a law firm.
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Just wrapped up a commerical news story discussion with myself in the shower. Preparing for ACs is nauseating !
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