Ask 3 future trainees (Magic & Silver Circle, International Elite) ANYTHING! *New TCLA Team Members*

[R203]

Hi @Jacob Miller thank you very much for your kind tips on the forum. I have a related question regarding accommodation too and have sent you a DM as well.

Thank you for taking the time!

 

[Dheepa]

Hi all, this isn't really application related but I hope it is ok to ask! I am so thrilled to say that I have been made a TC offer this week! I expected to begin in 2023 but they want me to begin the LPC as soon as possible (July this year) which means once face to face teaching begins in August I will have to make the move pretty fast (I am from Scotland). I really do not know London that well in terms of areas etc - does anyone have any advice in regards to living arrangements that is central for Canary Wharf? I am happy to live on my own or flat share but I don't know anyone in London! Any advice is appreciated, thanks so much

Personally when me and my friends did flat hunting we always went through an agency because you can get multiple house viewings that fit your requirementS done that way. In terms of areas that are close to Canary Wharf, I know Canada Water is closeby (and feels a bit more residential which for me is always a plus haha) and much cheaper than other nearby areas like Bermondsey/London Bridge. Look at tube lines too and see which areas are within the commute (that you’d be willing to make!) to Canary Wharf - generally any areas on the Northern/Jubilee like will be your best bet. Looking for a flat share can be tough, you’re likely to make friends on the LPC who you can move in with come TC time, but there are groups on Facebook like “Southeast London Flatmate Co-op” that always have people advertising spare rooms. Pretty sure there’s a central London version of the same group so maybe join and see what comes up! Hope that helps and congrats on your TC!

 

[Jessica Booker]

In addition to Dheepa’s comments, basically anywhere on the DLR is also a good call for Canary Wharf. It means you can get further out to zones 3/4 if you head East/South, and find cheaper regions. It really depends on your budget and also what you are looking for.

The diagram of the tube map and rental prices is a good indication of areas that will be within your budget and with good connections to Canary Wharf.

https://media.timeout.com/images/102882214/image.jpg

From my experience of London, I’d recommend Canada Water/Greenwich - as Dheepa said, it’s just a little less like the city. Personally I don’t really see the attraction of living right in the city (as it’s often dead at the weekend) and the green spaces would be a great addition.

But it really depends what you are looking for. Some people also factor in how easy it will be to get home too, so being East and close to city airport might be a good call:

 

[Selggib16]

In addition to Dheepa’s comments, basically anywhere on the DLR is also a good call for Canary Wharf. It means you can get further out to zones 3/4 if you head East/South, and find cheaper regions. It really depends on your budget and also what you are looking for.

The diagram of the tube map and rental prices is a good indication of areas that will be within your budget and with good connections to Canary Wharf.

https://media.timeout.com/images/102882214/image.jpg

From my experience of London, I’d recommend Canada Water/Greenwich - as Dheepa said, it’s just a little less like the city. Personally I don’t really see the attraction of living right in the city (as it’s often dead at the weekend) and the green spaces would be a great addition.

But it really depends what you are looking for. Some people also factor in how easy it will be to get home too, so being East and close to city airport might be a good call:

Personally when me and my friends did flat hunting we always went through an agency because you can get multiple house viewings that fit your requirementS done that way. In terms of areas that are close to Canary Wharf, I know Canada Water is closeby (and feels a bit more residential which for me is always a plus haha) and much cheaper than other nearby areas like Bermondsey/London Bridge. Look at tube lines too and see which areas are within the commute (that you’d be willing to make!) to Canary Wharf - generally any areas on the Northern/Jubilee like will be your best bet. Looking for a flat share can be tough, you’re likely to make friends on the LPC who you can move in with come TC time, but there are groups on Facebook like “Southeast London Flatmate Co-op” that always have people advertising spare rooms. Pretty sure there’s a central London version of the same group so maybe join and see what comes up! Hope that helps and congrats on your TC!

Thanks so much for your responses!

 

[a.shrivastava]

Hi , I am a litigating advocate in India and enrolled in the bar council here. My brother is a British citizen and i am thinking about moving to UK myself. What little research i have done, indicated that, now for any person to qualify as a lawyer in UK has to clear the new solicitors qualification examination which is to be held in November 2021 for the first time. And further UK has opened up the student post study work visa again in 2021 which allows students to look for jobs and work for two years. the plan of action i had in mind was to clear SQE1 and preferably SQE2 from india itself and enroll myself in an corporate LLM program for fall 2022, which will enable me post study work visa. But i came across a lot of apprenticeship program and training contracts wherein during training u clear the SQE sponsored by the employer.
1. Is it advisable for me to clear SQE before starting my llm or after ?
2. what sort of job opportunities should i be on a look out for? (even after clearing both SQE1 & SQE2 i would need 2 years of work experience to qualify as a solicitor) training contracts? graduate schemes? or lateral hiring ?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi , I am a litigating advocate in India and enrolled in the bar council here. My brother is a British citizen and i am thinking about moving to UK myself. What little research i have done, indicated that, now for any person to qualify as a lawyer in UK has to clear the new solicitors qualification examination which is to be held in November 2021 for the first time. And further UK has opened up the student post study work visa again in 2021 which allows students to look for jobs and work for two years. the plan of action i had in mind was to clear SQE1 and preferably SQE2 from india itself and enroll myself in an corporate LLM program for fall 2022, which will enable me post study work visa. But i came across a lot of apprenticeship program and training contracts wherein during training u clear the SQE sponsored by the employer.
1. Is it advisable for me to clear SQE before starting my llm or after ?
2. what sort of job opportunities should i be on a look out for? (even after clearing both SQE1 & SQE2 i would need 2 years of work experience to qualify as a solicitor) training contracts? graduate schemes? or lateral hiring ?

As a qualified lawyer in another country, once you complete SQE1 and SQE2 you will be a qualified lawyer in England and Wales. That poses a problem, as many firms may choose to not take you on as a trainee where you are qualified. You don't need the two years of work experience to qualify as a lawyer - that only applies to candidates who are not qualified in another jurisdiction.

The English system is complicated. For qualified roles, you will typically need at least three years of experience and for that experience to be with comparable clients/matters/deals/cases, otherwise you just will be far less competitive than other lawyers in the market.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

Hi guys. I have a really stupid question given how much time it's been since I started learning about the TC process. Could anyone please tell me, what is the duration between when you sign your TC offer and your first day of work as a trainee? I've heard most firms recruit 2 years in advance so I guess the answer to my own question is 2 years but I've heard of other possibilities like starting your TC earlier than you were scheduled to? How frequent is that ? And is this time frame same for every firm ? What are people going to do in this 2 year time frame and are things the same for international candidates or is there any difference?

Secondly, with the SQE coming in, are people more likely to do their SQE-1 and SQE-2 exams alongside their TC or are they going to take those exams in the 2 year time frame, I mean the time that they have from the day that they're made the TC offer to the day that they start their first day as a trainee. Wouldn't it be hectic preparing for these exams alongside your life as a trainee?

Thanks a lot and my apologies if this could have been answered from a little reading on my part. I just want to be really sure.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi guys. I have a really stupid question given how much time it's been since I started learning about the TC process. Could anyone please tell me, what is the duration between when you sign your TC offer and your first day of work as a trainee? I've heard most firms recruit 2 years in advance so I guess the answer to my own question is 2 years but I've heard of other possibilities like starting your TC earlier than you were scheduled to? How frequent is that ? And is this time frame same for every firm ? What are people going to do in this 2 year time frame and are things the same for international candidates or is there any difference?

Secondly, with the SQE coming in, are people more likely to do their SQE-1 and SQE-2 exams alongside their TC or are they going to take those exams in the 2 year time frame, I mean the time that they have from the day that they're made the TC offer to the day that they start their first day as a trainee. Wouldn't it be hectic preparing for these exams alongside your life as a trainee?

Thanks a lot and my apologies if this could have been answered from a little reading on my part. I just want to be really sure.

No time frames are not the same for every firm. Some firms are currently recruiting for 2021 and 2022 intakes for instance.

There can be instances of being recruited for a TC for one year, and then your TC being brought forward. It happens enough, but I wouldn’t say it is overly common. Maybe less than 5% of trainees across firms will have this opportunity.

The two year timeframe was designed as it took a year for someone to complete their final year of their law degree/GDL and a year to complete the LPC. For those firms that don’t sponsor those courses, then tend to recruit later on.

The SQE makes this complicated - there isn’t a set route. Many firms will continue the existing system and just replace the GDL/LPC with SQE1 and 2. The interesting point is that these courses could be of any length, while the GDL and LPC were regulated courses that had to meet certain time commitments and education level. Some firms are getting their trainees to take the SQE during their TC though - they tend to be recruiting earlier intake though as they have far less need to recruit two years in advance

 

[Asil Ahmad]

Hello I wanted to know what is meant by synergies and what is the difference between revenue enhancement and cost reductions in relation to synergies thank you in advance.

 

[Jacob Miller]

Hello I wanted to know what is meant by synergies and what is the difference between revenue enhancement and cost reductions in relation to synergies thank you in advance.

Hi Asil,

So synergy in an M&A context is, essentially, the idea that two entities combined will have a greater return than the sum of the companies individually.

With that in mind, one might say that merging companies X and Y would produce a revenue-enhancing synergy. Revenue enhancement is, as it sounds, any measure taken to increase the revenue of the company so merging entities for a synergy effect can be a type of revenue-enhancing measure.

Cost reductions, on the other hand, are simply any measure taken to reduce the costs of doing business, usually with the aim of increasing profitability. This might involve cutting overheads like shop space, increasing efficiency to reduce process costs or increasing automation to reduce staff costs just to name a few options.

 

[Asil Ahmad]

Hi Asil,

So synergy in an M&A context is, essentially, the idea that two entities combined will have a greater return than the sum of the companies individually.

With that in mind, one might say that merging companies X and Y would produce a revenue-enhancing synergy. Revenue enhancement is, as it sounds, any measure taken to increase the revenue of the company so merging entities for a synergy effect can be a type of revenue-enhancing measure.

Cost reductions, on the other hand, are simply any measure taken to reduce the costs of doing business, usually with the aim of increasing profitability. This might involve cutting overheads like shop space, increasing efficiency to reduce process costs or increasing automation to reduce staff costs just to name a few options.

Thank you very much for this Jacob.

You summarised it and explained it in the simplest way possible thank you very much for this.

 

[a.shrivastava]

As a qualified lawyer in another country, once you complete SQE1 and SQE2 you will be a qualified lawyer in England and Wales. That poses a problem, as many firms may choose to not take you on as a trainee where you are qualified. You don't need the two years of work experience to qualify as a lawyer - that only applies to candidates who are not qualified in another jurisdiction.

The English system is complicated. For qualified roles, you will typically need at least three years of experience and for that experience to be with comparable clients/matters/deals/cases, otherwise you just will be far less competitive than other lawyers in the market.

Thank You. This clears up my dilemma. its better to just do an LLM, work really hard to secure a training contact and then attempt the SQEs . Thanks again.

 

[San]

Hey guys! Hope you are well. I hopefully (results of telephonic interview aren't out yet) have an assessment day with HSF scheduled in a few days time.

I was hoping if you could give me tips regarding how should I go about preparing for the same, especially given the tight timeline. For some context - they have replaced the case study interview with a scenario based one, meaning there will be two scenario based and a competency based interview. It would really help if you could also direct me to the resources that were helpful to you or you know have been helpful for others. This will be my first experience of an assessment day, so I do not have any context or experience, thus, things that I should not be doing would also be specially helpful.

I really appreciate your help, thank you! )

 

[tkhkat]

Hi there, I hope that you're well! I wanted to ask how you went about rejecting the firms that you received TC offers from after your vacation schemes (if you had more than one TC offer to choose from). I am incredibly blessed to have been given TC offers from two different firms after completing vac schemes with them, and I have decided which firm I'd like to train at. However, I'm not sure how to go about rejecting the firm that I've decided not to train at - would an email to Graduate Recruitment/my supervisor/trainee buddy suffice? Or should I give them a call to explain why I am not taking up their offer? I would really appreciate your insight into this, thank you 😊

 

[Dheepa]

Hi there, I hope that you're well! I wanted to ask how you went about rejecting the firms that you received TC offers from after your vacation schemes (if you had more than one TC offer to choose from). I am incredibly blessed to have been given TC offers from two different firms after completing vac schemes with them, and I have decided which firm I'd like to train at. However, I'm not sure how to go about rejecting the firm that I've decided not to train at - would an email to Graduate Recruitment/my supervisor/trainee buddy suffice? Or should I give them a call to explain why I am not taking up their offer? I would really appreciate your insight into this, thank you 😊

Just an email will suffice - they will usually ask to arrange a follow up call to discuss your reasons. There’s no right or wrong way to phrase the email as well. Personally I just said something along the lines of “I will be declining the offer as I have decided to accept another offer at a different firm. It was a really hard decision to make and I would like to thank you again for considering me and making me the offer” Obviously I tried to phrase it better than that haha but that was the gist of it. Hope that helps!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi there, I hope that you're well! I wanted to ask how you went about rejecting the firms that you received TC offers from after your vacation schemes (if you had more than one TC offer to choose from). I am incredibly blessed to have been given TC offers from two different firms after completing vac schemes with them, and I have decided which firm I'd like to train at. However, I'm not sure how to go about rejecting the firm that I've decided not to train at - would an email to Graduate Recruitment/my supervisor/trainee buddy suffice? Or should I give them a call to explain why I am not taking up their offer? I would really appreciate your insight into this, thank you 😊

Its polite to call graduate recruitment and say you will be declining the offer, and then follow up with an email as they will need something in writing. Everything should go through Grad Rec as they will then coordinate telling other people within the firm alongside the decisions of other candidates.

Its nothing to worry about - the firm deals with this all the time.

 

[San]

Hey guys! Hope you are well. I hopefully (results of telephonic interview aren't out yet) have an assessment day with HSF scheduled in a few days time.

I was hoping if you could give me tips regarding how should I go about preparing for the same, especially given the tight timeline. For some context - they have replaced the case study interview with a scenario based one, meaning there will be two scenario based and a competency based interview. It would really help if you could also direct me to the resources that were helpful to you or you know have been helpful for others. This will be my first experience of an assessment day, so I do not have any context or experience, thus, things that I should not be doing would also be specially helpful.

I really appreciate your help, thank you! )

 

[Jacob Miller]

Hey guys! Hope you are well. I hopefully (results of telephonic interview aren't out yet) have an assessment day with HSF scheduled in a few days time.

I was hoping if you could give me tips regarding how should I go about preparing for the same, especially given the tight timeline. For some context - they have replaced the case study interview with a scenario based one, meaning there will be two scenario based and a competency based interview. It would really help if you could also direct me to the resources that were helpful to you or you know have been helpful for others. This will be my first experience of an assessment day, so I do not have any context or experience, thus, things that I should not be doing would also be specially helpful.

I really appreciate your help, thank you! )

For the competency interview, I would recommend starting with my Definitive Guide to Law Firm Interviews, available via the link in my signature.

Scenario interviews, by the manner in which HSF do them, are somewhat hard to prep for. Bear in mind that their strongest practice areas are corporate and disputes, so I wouldn't be entirely surprised to see one of each scenario, but they could be from literally anything and they are designed to test your legal and commercial understanding in a much more realistic way than a case study interview. I much prefer them for that reason. Anyway, I digress... I would certainly be brushing up on things like the basics of contracts, life cycle of a deal, life cycle of a dispute, etc from a legal perspective.

When youre actually in the room, the scenario will be new to you and you'll need time to think. I personally took some notes as the partner was explaining the situation and then, to give myself extra time, I basically repeated the scenario back to the interviewer and framed it as "so my understanding is XYZ is this correct?". That gave me enough time to start identifying, prioritising and analysing key issues without pausing for awkwardly long lengths of time or feeling contrived.

Hope this helps to some degree!

 

[San]

Definitely helps, thankss so much Jacob! )

 

[Lastseasonwonder]

Hi @Dheepa

I hope this message finds you well.

I am in a similar position as you were in in second year - I have completed one vacation scheme this year and have not been offered a TC afterwards. I am gutted, but I don't want to waste any time and want to start prepping early for the 2021/2022 application cycle. What advice do you have for me? What did you do that felt changed the game for you and allowed you to score 3 TCs!?

I'd really appreciate some insight and advice!