TCLA Direct Training Contract Applications Discussion Thread 2023-4

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amrita6399

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    @axelbeugre I am planning to apply to Goodwin. However, I wanted your opinion on whether the firm prefers to hire from VS or if they have direct TCs, too. I completed my LLM in October 2023 and have work experience by completing summer/ winter internships. I really appreciate any help you can provide.
     
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    Jessica Booker

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    Hi @axelbeugre and @Jessica Booker
    When answering VI questions, would you say it’s best to have an introductory sentence or just go straight into points 1, 2 and 3 that I want to discuss. For example, I am interested in commercial law at X firm for 3 key reasons vs going straight into each point (firstly, secondly and finally)
    I would just get into it - saves you time and means you can say something more meaningful. You can reference the number of points when explaining your points.
     
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    axelbeugre

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    axelbeugre

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    Hi, question for @axelbeugre (feel free to answer if anyone else can too) - "I feel like, especially as a mature student or international student, US firms tend to be more interested in you and your life journey and why you are transitioning in law, recognising your diverse skillset and how it could be useful to them too. So I would encourage you to focus on US firms." - you said this in the latest thread and I wanted to know your experience applying to US firms.

    I'm an international student applying from India for TCs in the UK in the penultimate year of my law degree.

    Is there any particular advice for US firms? I'm applying to Weil for now, but I'm not sure if I should apply to Goodwin too. I know you're there and wanted to know your experiences!

    This is my first cycle but I'm super confused because MC firms keep rejecting me and I have no idea why - I have great legal and non-legal work ex along with lots of legal tech, marketing and starting my own biz experience. Sure, I'm not that great at WGs but I've been good at cracking SJTs.

    Just wanted an honest perspective from the forum as well :)
    Hey @Samridhi Jain,

    Can I ask you if you are studying in the UK? I am asking because I do believe this is a key factor to my success and I would hate to give you advice based on this assumption so I just want to be clear so I can give you more tailored advice!

    In terms of my experiences at Goodwin, I really enjoyed my vacation scheme at the firm and everyone I met was very supportive, eager to learn my different experiences and open to get to know me for me, which was very surprising. I also thoroughly enjoyed working in the Technology and Life Sciences Corporate department, which is very unique to Goodwin and exposes you to a variety of different financing deals for start-ups which I found extremely fascinating. I also appreciated the diversity of the cohort of vacation schemers as well as the lawyers at the firm. Having lawyers who are also international (so recruited from other countries and jurisdictions) means that a lot of biases when it comes to academic background in the UK or outside are often taken out as the international lawyers would not have that bias against candidates, which makes the application stage at the firm very objective, which I liked.
     
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    axelbeugre

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    @axelbeugre I am planning to apply to Goodwin. However, I wanted your opinion on whether the firm prefers to hire from VS or if they have direct TCs, too. I completed my LLM in October 2023 and have work experience by completing summer/ winter internships. I really appreciate any help you can provide.
    They do recruit from direct training contract but I would say that the majority of training contracts are given to the vacation scheme students so if you can, I would advise to apply for a vacation scheme!
     
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    axelbeugre

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    Hi @axelbeugre and @Jessica Booker
    When answering VI questions, would you say it’s best to have an introductory sentence or just go straight into points 1, 2 and 3 that I want to discuss. For example, I am interested in commercial law at X firm for 3 key reasons vs going straight into each point (firstly, secondly and finally)
    I would go straight into it as there is no time to waffle unfortunately! This will also give you an opportunity to have more time explaining your reasoning rather than rushing through the answer.
     

    Samridhi Jain

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    Hey @Samridhi Jain,

    Can I ask you if you are studying in the UK? I am asking because I do believe this is a key factor to my success and I would hate to give you advice based on this assumption so I just want to be clear so I can give you more tailored advice!

    In terms of my experiences at Goodwin, I really enjoyed my vacation scheme at the firm and everyone I met was very supportive, eager to learn my different experiences and open to get to know me for me, which was very surprising. I also thoroughly enjoyed working in the Technology and Life Sciences Corporate department, which is very unique to Goodwin and exposes you to a variety of different financing deals for start-ups which I found extremely fascinating. I also appreciated the diversity of the cohort of vacation schemers as well as the lawyers at the firm. Having lawyers who are also international (so recruited from other countries and jurisdictions) means that a lot of biases when it comes to academic background in the UK or outside are often taken out as the international lawyers would not have that bias against candidates, which makes the application stage at the firm very objective, which I liked.
    Hi @axelbeugre I'm an international student applying from India for TCs in the UK in the penultimate year of my law degree. I'm doing my law degree from India and am due to graduate in 2025.
     
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    LB24

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    Sep 26, 2023
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    I’ve been invited to a video interview at Irwin Mitchell (which I think are just recorded video questions). Anyone have any hints or tips as to what questions or types of questions might come up?
     
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