TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26

[Applicant7874652]

Does anyone know when Ropes notifies people of AC invites?

 

[Rosie_Kitten]

Does anyone know when Ropes notifies people of AC invites?

IIRC is non-rolling I believe, so they will only review apps after the 31st Jan deadline

 

[Harvey Specter - Presiding Partner]

Does anyone know when Ropes notifies people of AC invites?

The deadline is Jan 31 and they’re non-rolling so they’ll probs take a few weeks to review all of the apps before sending AC invites out. AC dates are on their website (see below). The first one is early March so invites might be sent by at least the end of Feb maybe?

​

 

[splash17]

has anyone heard back from Weil post-AC?

 

[llblawstudent]

Anyone know how soon Paul Weiss responds post interview?

 

[llblawstudent]

Hi did you receive any insight on this?

Sadly not, I’ve given up hope on it haha

 

[Rosie_Kitten]

Random question - can anybody explain how TCs work in sector-based firms? Do you cover all practice areas in the same sector, or switch sectors with practice areas? Just curious to understand

 

[Chak]

If I have done the SJT for for Withers mid January.- should I not even hope for a reply? Is anyone in the same boat?

 

[Harvey Specter - Presiding Partner]

Random question - can anybody explain how TCs work in sector-based firms? Do you cover all practice areas in the same sector, or switch sectors with practice areas? Just curious to understand

It’s probs firm dependant but I’d assume it’s gna look like one of the following scenarios:

1: switch sectors within a practice area e.g., Corporate M&A in tech, life sciences, energy, infrastructure and financial services sectors.

2: sector specific seats covering different kinds of work e.g., sat in life sciences but doing regulatory, advisory and contentious work.

3: specific practice area and sector e.g., finance work in the aviation or maritime sectors. This will be common in the larger MC/SC firms.

4: sector agnostic or non-rotational: no specific sector focuses or rigid TC structures (Jones Day, Gibson Dunn, Vinson & Elkins, Willkie, etc).

I’m sure there’s other combinations but these are the ones that come to mind initially.​

 

[trainee4u]

What’s considered a strong question to ask Graduate Recruitment after an interview

which way is the exit?

 

[AbbyGichia]

Has anyone heard back from Linklaters, Gibson Dunn and travers post application?

 

[Rosie_Kitten]

It’s probs firm dependant but I’d assume it’s gna look like one of the following scenarios:

1: switch sectors within a practice area e.g., Corporate M&A in tech, life sciences, energy, infrastructure and financial services sectors.

2: sector specific seats covering different kinds of work e.g., sat in life sciences but doing regulatory, advisory and contentious work.

3: specific practice area and sector e.g., finance work in the aviation or maritime sectors. This will be common in the larger MC/SC firms.

4: sector agnostic or non-rotational: no specific sector focuses or rigid TC structures (Jones Day, Gibson Dunn, Vinson & Elkins, Willkie, etc).

I’m sure there’s other combinations but these are the ones that come to mind initially.​

I'm kind of curious for firms like Clyde & Co etc (It would hypothetically impact how I would prepare for interviews). On some website they list both sector seats and practice seats separately, and I'm struggling to get more precision on their site... but this is applicable question to all of the sector based firms

 

[hey1238390u]

Hi everyone


I’ve got a Capsticks assessment centre coming up soon and it’s my first AC, so I’m feeling quite nervous and would be really grateful for any insight from anyone who’s done it before (especially last year/recently).


From the guidance, the AC includes:

• Group exercise
• Written task (1h30): short report based on a case study pack
• Interview (up to 45 mins): competency + strengths-based

If anyone is able to share, I’d really appreciate:

1. What the interview questions were like (themes / examples of questions)
2. What the group exercise involved (e.g. prioritising, choosing between options, negotiation, discussion style etc.)
3. What the written task/report was like (SWOT? recommendations? client-focused? what structure worked well?)
4. Any tips on how to stand out / common mistakes to avoid

Just general guidance would really help.
Thank you so much in advance!!

 

[Jessica Pearson - Managing Partner]

Yess

Never got a W&C invite for VI

 

[Donuttime]

I'm kind of curious for firms like Clyde & Co etc (It would hypothetically impact how I would prepare for interviews). On some website they list both sector seats and practice seats separately, and I'm struggling to get more precision on their site... but this is applicable question to all of the sector based firms

Hmm thats always something that trips me up. i always thought it worked like this:

Jane is a new trainee and is about to join her first department. Firm X have put her with the Intellectual property team. janes supervisor Walter has a niche in Life sciences so in her first week, Jane gets involved with a lot of life-sciences IP related work. An associate in the team Jesse works in the Consumer brands sector so in her second week Jane receives a lot of IP consumer brands contract work. In her third week, Associate Skyler gives Jane work from her clients in the Food and beverages industry. By the end of her six months, Jane has worked across life-sciences, consumer brands and the Food and beverage sectors and she feels like she has learnt a lot about her firms key sectors. Six months later, Jane joins the banking and Finance sector with an opportunity to work with all these sectors again!

Always thought thats how it worked? would love any further insights.

Also!! I know some firms have specific sector based seats tho like a trainee would sit in "Construction" always saw that as more of a sector than a specific practice area but maybe cause they get a bulk of their work they would cover a wide variety?? like construction disputes, construction advisory, construction compliance ( if thats a thing) anyway further insights appreciated!!!

 

[Novaa]

Never got a W&C invite for VI

Samesies but someone on here got theirs a month after SJT so fingers crossed

 

[Jessica Pearson - Managing Partner]

Samesies but someone on here got theirs a month after SJT so fingers crossed

Fingers crossed indeed...

 

[ilikelaw]

hey on the r&g form, where it says "which of these organisations supported your application" and has corporate law academy, chambers, legal cheek, lawcareers.net etc in the dropdown. im assuming this includes where you get your research from? i always thought that question was for if someone from an organisation reviewed your application but i didnt think legal cheek and chambers did that... AAA im overthinking

 

[Jessica Pearson - Managing Partner]

It depends on how much time you have to manage/maintain it. With Google, you can add in response verification - e.g. a codeword. When somebody wants to participate it, they can be added to a group chat on TCLA, and then every couple of weeks, change/update the codeword (posting the new one to the group). Of course, it relies on trust - but it means if somebody posts false info, they can be removed from the group.

Alternatively, I can try think of a specific polling system that exists (or try to code a basic one and host it on AWS or something if I have time). Very simple, when a user requests it we add a firm to the list. Then people can submit for that firm whenever they receive progression / PFO, and it is tracked on a graph with dates etc. Different colours for PFO/progression. Again, some sort of password verification process, like with Google Forms.
^ Maybe something already exists like this for a xenforo add on, though? I haven't used XenForo since I last hosted a Minecraft server.

(I seem like such a nerd reading this back lol).

This would be such a good thing esp. as many of the questions here about seeing if people have gotten any invites/updates

 

[user24710026]

Fingers crossed indeed...

Yeah anyone know what is up with that? Last year they took 270+ days to reject me. This year, I did my assessment on 13 October (the Capptivate one) and haven't heard anything back either.

This is for Summer VS. Do they just despise my email or something? Just tell me to pfo and move on lmao.

Or have a number of people still not heard back?