TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25

[JasmineM9]

I have just jotted down my understanding of Commercial Awareness. I hope this helps:

*Commercial Awareness*

Commercial Awareness in its simplest form means understanding how current events and trends, in economics, politics and global trends affects and impacts the corporate/commercial/business world and their operations, i.e., businesses, global companies, Law firms, investment bankers, stock brokers etc.

The key breakdown in particular for those aspiring to become corporate/commercial lawyers is put in to 3 categories. These are as follows:

- Why does this particular news impact a client (company)?

Example – Trump administrations global tariffs, in particular 37% on imports from Bangladesh, and 49% on Cambodia could potential be hugely impactful on huge companies who may have set up clothes factories in Bangladesh and Cambodia, as cost of labor i.e., material and machinery, and work labor may be cheaper to set up there as opposed to setting up in the US or in Europe, when they were initially setting up shop.

- How does this particular news impact a client (company)?

Example – these huge tariffs will affect the pricing of imports to America, therefore potentially impacting sales.

- What could this mean for the firm?

Example – in this particular instance, it could mean work in helping these companies navigate their way through these tariffs, this could potentially be work for the tax and finance practice area. Similarly, this could also result in the firm being instructed to deal with negotiations for relocation and setting up shop for these factories in a different environment and different jurisdiction with fewer tariffs, which could mean work for practices such as tax and real estate, finance, and corporate.

Ultimately, Commercial Awareness allows lawyers to anticipate client needs, offer practical and proactive solutions and understand the broader implications of legal and business decisions.

Things to use that would help improve your Commercial Awareness:

News Outlets:

- Financial Times.
- Times articles.
- Legal Cheeks news.
- ChatGPT.
- Google News alert.
- Bloomberg.
- CNBC.
- Economist.
- BBC Business.
- City AM.

Podcasts:

- Watson’s daily.
- FT news briefings.
- BBC wake up to money.

Also speak to someone in order to improve Commercial Awareness, for example talk about the news and conversate with them, understand the terminology used in these articles to improve your Commercial Awareness and be able to understand how this news affects clients and firms.

Finally, Commercial Awareness is a skill that will constantly need to be improved, from newbies who are trying to understand the concept to experts who advise on potentially the biggest deals, and so please do not be discouraged and keep working hard to improve this skill.

You got this 💪🏾

Also if this breakdown is wrong, please help and improve it. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you so much for the detailed response. It is super insightful! I will make a note of your points so that I can start incorporating them in my reading!!

Thank you for this 🙏☺️

 

[EA95]

Thank you so much for the detailed response. It is super insightful! I will make a note of your points so that I can start incorporating them in my reading!!

Thank you for this 🙏☺️

You’re welcome.

May I add that the best advice I could give in actually improving your understanding of Commercial Awareness, is the last point I make which is speaking to people, whether it be in this forum or with friends and family, as you will learn to develop how to formulate and articulate your arguments from these news articles, which will be needed when you are speaking to Partners, Associates and Grad recs at the interview stages.

Good luck!

 

[BillSikes]

Bro im still waiting on them 💀💀 they haven’t even given the test or a PFO so idk if I should email them

guessing a PFO since I applied for the summer

PFO yes. They did the same last re not replying to unsuccessful applicants for ages

 

[BobThebIlly]

PFO yes. They did the same last re not replying to unsuccessful applicants for ages

Ah thanks for letting me know! Pretty rubbish and inconsiderate of them considering their app consisted of three 600 word questions 💀

Only hope for this cycle is Paul Hastings but I think this might be the last week they’ll send responses🙏

 

[lawstudent5]

Hi! Does anyone have any advice on how to politely withdraw from a vac scheme I’ve already agreed to? I’m choosing another firm over them but don’t want to burn bridges.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi! Does anyone have any advice on how to politely withdraw from a vac scheme I’ve already agreed to? I’m choosing another firm over them but don’t want to burn bridges.

Are you wanting to be considered for an alternative opportunity (e.g. later VS or Direct TC process) with the firm or are you just reneging?

 

[efm99]

Anyone know if Mishcon sends out all ACs for summer at the same time? I see a few postings about ACs, but I haven't been rejected after the VI I completed over a month ago.

 

[legallyrach]

Has anyone else received a first stage interview from PH?

Hey yes I have! I received my invite last Thursday. I was wondering if anyone on here has any advice/ done the interview before as I can barely find any information online! What kind of questions should I expect? And what are the stages after the interview? A tad bit confused as their email says 'there will only be a one-stage interview'.

I would really appreciate it if anyone has insights to share!

 

[User5678]

Howard Kennedy holding email, they’ll get back to us in two weeks if we make it to the next stage I.e., WGT

 

[Kakaboo]

Is it ok to ask for feedback on an AC even if I got the vac scheme?

 

[mfuturetrainee]

Is it ok to ask for feedback on an AC even if I got the vac scheme?

yep!

 

[EA95]

Interesting developments taking place with Trump’s war on DEI of Big Law firms, and how it would impact recruitment of future talents to the respective firms that have made deals. Also would this affect the recruitment policies of the firms satellite offices around the world in the future?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Is it ok to ask for feedback on an AC even if I got the vac scheme?

Yes - you might want to wait until your vacation scheme and ask while you are there though.

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hi @Andrei Radu,

I hope you are keeping well.

Breezy has an interview coming up with Paul Hastings for their Phirst Steps SVS. I am asking the following question on his behalf. He is away on a Spring VS at the moment. I think he asked you similar questions on this forum before re Paul, Weiss and Willkie, to which you gave really good answers. I have copied it below:

‘How would you describe Paul Hastings’ position in the City of London? Who are the firm’s closest competitors in relation to (1) the firm’s core practice areas and (2) other US BigLaw firms in London? What makes Paul Hastings unique compared to its competitors?

Could you explain the difference between debt and equity capital markets? Is this the same as PE? Could you also explain what capital markets: securitisation and capital markets: high yield products are? Please help.’​

Hi @Chris Brown to take the questions one at a time:

• Market position: Paul Hastings is a Vault 20 firm (the immediate next tier in general reputation after the V10 in the US, particularly in regards to transactional practices) operating a medium-sized office in the City with a focus on finance/capital markets practices.
• Closest competitors in core practice areas: in the capital markets space, while we could subdivide between competitors in ECM, DCM, CLOs, securitization, and high-yield (and, for the purposes of the interview, perhaps one ought to look up Chambers rankings for all of them) at a general level I would say Paul Hastings' competitors will be some of the Magic Circle firms (in particular, A&O Shearman and Clifford Chance), Latham, White & Case, Weil, and Milbank. For its big ticket lender-side banking and finance practice, the firm's main rivals would be Latham, A&O, Linklaters, Clifford Chance, White & Case, and Milbank. For its private equity investment funds offering, we would be looking at Kirkland, Simpson Thacher, Debevoise, Clifford Chance, and Goodwin.
• Closest US firm competitors: looking at other V20 firms with a focus on finance/capital markets practices, I would say Milbank, Weil, and Ropes & Gray.
• What makes Paul Hastings unique: the firm has market leading expertise in the CLO and hotels & leisure space; and as opposed to many of its finance-focused US competitors it has strong expertise in a set of practices that can be complementary for many transactions, such as employment, real estate, and white collar crime.
• Securitization: securitization essentially involves taking illiquid assets (so, assets that cannot be traded) such as loans, pooling them together, and repackaging them into securities (such as bonds) that can be sold to investors. The pooling of many different assets (such as mortgages, student loans, credit card receivables etc) in theory will provide the investors with greater protection from impact of defaults, which makes buying the package of assets more attractive than purchasing specific assets individually. This is a method used by banks and other lenders to take credit off their balance sheets and transfer risk to investors; freeing them up to loan more money to others. It is also a highly-regulated area of finance following the Great Financial Crisis, so there is a lot of work for lawyers to ensure business remain compliant.
• High-yields products: this refers to the offering of high-yield bonds; sometimes also called 'junk bonds'. The term is used in opposition to investment-grade bonds to refer to bonds issued by companies who are at a higher risk of default. To compensate for it, the companies will have to offer investors significantly higher yields (essentially, higher interest payments) than for investment grade bonds.

Finally, I have recently written an in depth post describing the differences between debt and equity finance, I will quote it bellow:

The basic distinction is that with debt financing a company will borrow money from a lender and will in return make a promise to return the initial borrowed sum + an agreed upon interest. With equity financing, the company gets money from an investor but never has to pay the investor back in return. Instead, in exchange for the money the investor gets equity in the company, which is just another term for shares in the company/a percentage of the ownership of the company. Equity financing always takes place when a private company goes public, in that the company issues shares to the public through an IPO and in exchange gets capital which can be used for further growth. However, equity company can also be used by a private company in a private transaction, when existing shareholders agree to sell a part of their shares or issue new shares to a particular investor/group of investors.

To look in more detail at debt financing, the main two methods to obtain it are loans (normally taken from a bank) and bonds (which can be issued to any investors). The difference is that loans normally have to be repaid on a monthly period (the borrower pays a proportional part of the total borrowed sum + interest) while with bonds, the issuer (ie the company that borrowed the money) only has to make the interest payments on a regular basis - the initial borrowed sum (or "the principal") is paid all at once at the end of the agreed upon repayment period (the "maturity date"). While there are a number of other differences that are relevant in assessing the pros/cons of using loans or bonds, for the sake of comparison with equity financing I will look at only advantages and disadvantages that equally apply to both. It should be noted however that in PE generally and for buyouts in particular PE firms normally use highly leveraged loans. Essentially, to minimize the amount of investor capital spent on any transaction (and thus to maximize the total number of profitable transactions a given fund can enter into), a PE firm will normally finance around 75-80% of the cost of a buyout by getting a loan from a bank and then offering as security the assets of the target company itself.

Now, to list some of the main advantages of debt financing I can think of:

• Allows the company (and the controlling PE firm) to keep compete control of the target company. This is particularly important for the PE firm to be able to implement its growth/efficiency improvement plans and its desired exit strategy.
• Allows the PE firm to keep all the dividends and profits from selling the company later on.
• It is often makes for a simpler and more standard negotiation process both for the financing deal and for the actual buyout. For an industry like PE where deals tend to be very fast paced and where targets normally have a number of suitors, this is also a benefit that should not be understated.
• Interest payments are tax-deductible.

Whereas the main advantages of equity financing are:

• It does not add any financial burdens on the target company. This means it should have more capital which can go towards investments in growth rather than repayment of debt. It also decreases risks of insolvency.
• It often means working with institutional investors or huge corporates with significant resources and expertise, which can make them invaluable partners for growing a business. A very successful example of such a relationship is that between Open AI and Microsoft.

 

[Legallywhatever]

Has anyone heard back from michelmores post test?

 

[Wannabe_Lawyer]

Has anyone heard back from michelmores post test?

Can I ask if this is for the vac scheme or dtc?

 

[bruno17]

Has anyone heard from VWV post-ac? Been 3 weeks since the london one and i thought we were supposed to hear after 2..

Hey I got a response a little while ago

 

[Andrei Radu]

Interesting developments taking place with Trump’s war on DEI of Big Law firms, and how it would impact recruitment of future talents to the respective firms that have made deals. Also would this affect the recruitment policies of the firms satellite offices around the world in the future?

In terms of impact as to recruitment and retention, while it remains to be seen how pervasive it is, there are certainly arguments to be made that there will at least be some negative effect on the firms who have gotten most media attention for striking a deal (as of now, Paul, Weiss, Skadden, Milbank, Willkie, and if rumors are to be believed, Kirkland). We have already seen a number of Skadden associates quit, and there are reports of widespread internal discontent. On the partner side as well it is thought that there might be lateral moves from (i) the partners with strong connections to the Democratic Party (such as Kamala Harris' husband, Douglas Emhoff, who is a partner at Willkie) and (ii) the star litigation partners (as many argue striking these deals under the threat of potentially illegal executive orders could damage firms' reputations on the contentious side, especially for representation in cases involving Government interests). Nevertheless, this will likely depend on how many other firms strike their own deals or change their DEI policies, as if this becomes the status quo in the industry, practitioners may have no choice but to accept it.

On the recruitment side, some argue that the firms that have struck deals will become less attractive and thus lose out on top talent, particularly in the US - where there is a lot more competition between firms to recruit candidates with high GPAS from target universities (which is why they employ the 'campus interviews' system). It is however unclear how much the firms themselves will change their recruitment policies in regards to DEI and use of contextual data: as I have seen it reported in the press, the firms generally seem only to say that as part of the deal with the US Administration, they have affirmed their commitment to being compliant with federal anti-discrimination employment rules. Nonetheless, presumably these firms already considered themselves to be compliant before they struck the deal; so perhaps this involves a commitment to compliance with a different interpretation of said rules. Since the details of the agreements have not been published, little can be said as to what this interpretation could be and how major a revision of recruitment policies it requires.

Finally, on the question about impact to recruitment policies of satellite offices, it is again difficult to opine with any level of certainty. If US firms have large satellite offices and if keeping current recruitment policies keeps them in better standing with the relevant foreign government and their foreign practitioners (which would both likely be the case in London), it is plausible this could happen. In my view it is unlikely that the US Administration would be too interested in the employment practices of firms in foreign jurisdictions.

 

[Legallywhatever]

Can I ask if this is for the vac scheme or dtc?

For the vac scheme!

 

[laila03]

Hey I got a response a little while ago

thank u! i literally just got mine