2020-21 Direct Training Contract Applications Discussion

[Louise88]

is anyone still waiting to hear from S&M for direct TC 2023 (law)

For finalists and grads it opened in Oct i believe!

Me! I applied in December.

 

[sparky10]

Is anyone waiting to hear back from slaughter and may for direct tc?

 

[E.A]

Guys, NRF FINALLY(!!!) picked up my call. They are apparantly still reviewing TC applications (I still have not received a PFO or WG invite following my app) in case this applies to anyone else too.

 

[AlRJ]

They start reviewing in early June I think

@CJCH Hey guys, I spoke to grad rec a couple weeks ago and they said they are rolling but there's plenty of time to submit your applications as they won't start reviewing/interviewing until April

 

[CJCH]

@CJCH Hey guys, I spoke to grad rec a couple weeks ago and they said they are rolling but there's plenty of time to submit your applications as they won't start reviewing/interviewing until April

Thank you!

I was wondering as they didn't explicitly mention that it is non-rolling on the TC page like they did on the VS page. It's really helpful that you clarified.

 

[Sebastian Clark]

Having completed applications like this, I know how brutal and unfair it can seem.

At the risk of sounding antiquated, back in 2014, I spoke to a QC at an SC firm who explained that the application process can be really lengthy or convoluted in order to put individuals off applying. Whilst this seems counter-intuitive, he explained that their firm receives thousands of applications, and so they need to use the entire recruitment process to streamline the candidates they take for final interview/training.

The sheer volume of questions/steps you have to go through is intentionally off-putting in order to dissuade candidates who 'kind of' care about the firm from applying. It is true that this might dissuade the best candidates from applying, but they do not just want the best candidates, but those who are really passionate about the firm in question. Hence, the candidates who are willing to tough out such an onerous application process are the ones who (supposedly) really care about the firm, and the firm would like to hire.

I know that this can be really painful when you are a candidate (the number of cover letters I have drafted that are now in my recycling bin is rather distressing!), but I hope that explains why they might do it (on top of GR getting lots of important information about you/your ability/your motivations!)IM’s application length put me off as well.. and I suppose the opposite effect of this is that WBD’s Grad Rec will have a mountain to get through 😂

Yeah very true! Clearly worked as well haha, didn't end up applying in the end

IM’s application length put me off as well 😂 and I guess the opposite effect of this is that WBD will have a mountain of applications to get through 👀

 

[Asil Ahmad]

Anyone heard from Baker McKenzie as I know some of you have been waiting since early February for a direct tc application.

 

[JoNo]

Anyone heard from Baker McKenzie as I know some of you have been waiting since early February for a direct tc application.

I have heard they tend to look at all direct TC apps after their deadline. I think it mentions it on their website as well. So don’t worry!

 

[Josh Hardy]

Hi everyone!

I'm going to apply for Shoosmiths (with Nottingham location my first choice) and just wondering about this question:

"As a legal advisor you will spend time reviewing documents and will need to quickly obtain the most relevant and necessary information. Describe a time when you’ve had to analyse information or data to provide recommendations or solutions. How did you go about the task, and what was the outcome?"

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Would it be appropriate to talk about academic information analysis do you think? I got 91% on my GDL case analysis exam which I think is a pretty strong indicator of my natural analysis skills. The only thing is linking it to the 'to provide recommendations or solutions' part - quite a lot of the exam questions were about using the case judgment we were given to provide advise to hypothetical client scenarios, but not sure if that would cut it.

If academic examples aren't appropriate I'm not sure what else I would talk about since none of work experiences (legal or non-legal) have really involved lots of information/data analysis... :/

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

 

[Dheepa]

Hi everyone!

I'm going to apply for Shoosmiths (with Nottingham location my first choice) and just wondering about this question:

"As a legal advisor you will spend time reviewing documents and will need to quickly obtain the most relevant and necessary information. Describe a time when you’ve had to analyse information or data to provide recommendations or solutions. How did you go about the task, and what was the outcome?"

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Would it be appropriate to talk about academic information analysis do you think? I got 91% on my GDL case analysis exam which I think is a pretty strong indicator of my natural analysis skills. The only thing is linking it to the 'to provide recommendations or solutions' part - quite a lot of the exam questions were about using the case judgment we were given to provide advise to hypothetical client scenarios, but not sure if that would cut it.

If academic examples aren't appropriate I'm not sure what else I would talk about since none of work experiences (legal or non-legal) have really involved lots of information/data analysis... :/

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

You can definitely talk use an academic example here and I think providing solutions for a fictional client/scenario still counts. Your example will actually matter much less than the actual steps/methodology you took to analyse the information. If you're using the STAR approach to answer this, the A-action part is always the most important. So really focus the bulk of your answer on things like how you kept track of the various sources of information, how you identified the relevant information, any additional steps you took to ensure the solutions addressed the issues, etc.

Side note: If you've ever done any mooting during the GDL, I think that can be a good example to use for this as well.

Hope that helps!

 

[John Travoni]

I have heard they tend to look at all direct TC apps after their deadline. I think it mentions it on their website as well. So don’t worry!

No, I don’t think so. Their deadline is the start of April but in the confirmation email, they state that the WG and VI will all be done in March and April and AS will be held on specific days in May

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi everyone!

I'm going to apply for Shoosmiths (with Nottingham location my first choice) and just wondering about this question:

"As a legal advisor you will spend time reviewing documents and will need to quickly obtain the most relevant and necessary information. Describe a time when you’ve had to analyse information or data to provide recommendations or solutions. How did you go about the task, and what was the outcome?"

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Would it be appropriate to talk about academic information analysis do you think? I got 91% on my GDL case analysis exam which I think is a pretty strong indicator of my natural analysis skills. The only thing is linking it to the 'to provide recommendations or solutions' part - quite a lot of the exam questions were about using the case judgment we were given to provide advise to hypothetical client scenarios, but not sure if that would cut it.

If academic examples aren't appropriate I'm not sure what else I would talk about since none of work experiences (legal or non-legal) have really involved lots of information/data analysis... :/

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

I would generally avoid academics in most instances, just where people have to complete the same process in the course. However, if you know you have an exceptionally high grade and can show how you went above and beyond the normal GDL student then this is less of a problem.

There isn’t a requirement for it to be “lots of information or data” though.

 

[Josh Hardy]

I would generally avoid academics in most instances, just where people have to complete the same process in the course. However, if you know you have an exceptionally high grade and can show how you went above and beyond the normal GDL student then this is less of a problem.

There isn’t a requirement for it to be “lots of information or data” though.

Thanks Jess - might be a slightly silly question but would you consider 91% exceptionally high enough to talk about it then? In terms of showing how I went above and beyond do you mean in discussing my methodology and how I approached it etc?

 

[Josh Hardy]

You can definitely talk use an academic example here and I think providing solutions for a fictional client/scenario still counts. Your example will actually matter much less than the actual steps/methodology you took to analyse the information. If you're using the STAR approach to answer this, the A-action part is always the most important. So really focus the bulk of your answer on things like how you kept track of the various sources of information, how you identified the relevant information, any additional steps you took to ensure the solutions addressed the issues, etc.

Side note: If you've ever done any mooting during the GDL, I think that can be a good example to use for this as well.

Hope that helps!

Thanks Dheepa - this is helpful

 

[Jessica Booker]

Thanks Jess - might be a slightly silly question but would you consider 91% exceptionally high enough to talk about it then? In terms of showing how I went above and beyond do you mean in discussing my methodology and how I approached it etc?

I don’t know how this compares to other GDL candidates in this module. If everyone gets 90% or above, it will be very different to if the average grade being 50-60%.

This answer requires something with some uniqueness and/or stand out quality to it. If you are just going to talk about it and it sounds like how any other student who took this module would approach the situation to me it is too bland an answer. It might show the competency, but does it really stand out from the crowd? Whether it stands out or not is ultimately going to come down to what you can say you did differently to others or how you went above and beyond the usual process.

 

[Josh Hardy]

I don’t know how this compares to other GDL candidates in this module. If everyone gets 90% or above, it will be very different to if the average grade being 50-60%.

This answer requires something with some uniqueness and/or stand out quality to it. If you are just going to talk about it and it sounds like how any other student who took this module would approach the situation to me it is too bland an answer. It might show the competency, but does it really stand out from the crowd? Whether it stands out or not is ultimately going to come down to what you can say you did differently to others or how you went above and beyond the usual process.

From what I can tell - having taken the average from a nearly 100 candidates results - the average seems to be around 55%. Would this stand out if i mentioned this average?

 

[Asil Ahmad]

I have heard they tend to look at all direct TC apps after their deadline. I think it mentions it on their website as well. So don’t worry!

OMG what the...... I thought they were rolling basis so submitted my application early. Like I could have spent more time on the application to make it even better.

 

[LS12]

OMG what the...... I thought they were rolling basis so submitted my application early. Like I could have spent more time on the application to make it even better.

I think they do review them in the order they come in but the other user is right in saying they review after the deadline I think

 

[Jessica Booker]

From what I can tell - having taken the average from a nearly 100 candidates results - the average seems to be around 55%. Would this stand out if i mentioned this average?

Yes clearly so!

 

[John Travoni]

I think they do review them in the order they come in but the other user is right in saying they review after the deadline I think

No, BM is rolling basis. All of this is confirmed in the email that they send you after you have submitted your application!!!!