TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25

[futuretrainee101ac]

Yes me too!! Have u taken it yet

No I haven't taken it yet! Have you??? Hopefully tomorrow. If you have taken it , how did you find it

 

[br2000]

Has anyone heard back from Dechert post written exercise for spring?

 

[HLL]

Should/can I email Ashurst's GR to update my grades that were published after I applied? Does anyone have a similar experience? Appreciate any insight thx

 

[Hana ♥]

Akin test invite

 

[LawJourney101]

To those complaining about Bakers, some people did a W&C VI in October and still haven't heard back lol

 

[trainee4u]

Im 19, play lots of hard videogames and still found to reaction time tests difficult for NRF. It sounds like it is very similar to Gowlings

thanks, yes i did read up and it LOOKS like maybe they are testing things more like getting distracted, so e.g., the WRONG xs are designed to make you feel stressed and if you just ignore them and maintain a certain level of performance without getting flustered then it's perhaps more the key than raw response time.

 

[Moo&mak]

Did anyone get a PFO from Taylor Wessing? Or are they just sending the test invites? I just want to know if I should assume it is a PFO for me since I have not heard back from them.

 

[mariistm]

Anyone who has done the Kennedys VI, could you please share how you found it? 😊

 

[mulan0]

Am I the only one that didn’t get anything from forsters😂

 

[MH05]

Has anyone who has done the K&I AC got any insights they’d be willing to share?

Have you been invited to it?

 

[andrecsaa]

Here's the full Forsters PFO, which is very good:

• Eligibility: Some candidates applied too early. To be eligible for the 2025 vacation scheme or 2027 training contract, you need to be able to complete your degree, law conversion (if needed) and SQE before September 2027. Therefore, if you are studying a history degree finishing in 2026, you would not have sufficient time to complete the PGDL (one year) and the SQE (one year) prior to commencing your training, for example.
• Firm name: we saw many people spell the firm name incorrectly e.g. Fosters, Foresters. It is also Forsters’ rather than Forster’s. Some applicants used the wrong firm name, e.g. Farrer
• Grammatical errors: we saw a lot of American spellings where it was not expected e.g. organized, prioritized and realized. This can be a sign that AI has written the answer and shows the answer has not been thoroughly checked before copying into the for
• AI sentences: Some applicants left sentences in their applications which made clear the answer had been created in AI. For example, the paragraph would start with ‘here is an updated version with more information on…’.
• Length: many applications were too short, we provide a relatively short word count to encourage applicants to be efficient and succinct with their answers, however you should be aiming to reach within 10% of the word count. If you do not provide enough information, it limits the number of marks you can achieve.
• Marylebone: some applicants mentioned that they are excited by the idea of working in Mayfair, however we moved to Marylebone in January 2024

Question One was

"Work experience: Tell us about any paid employment, position of responsibility or volunteer work you think is relevant to your application (up to three separate roles). We want to understand your role, what you learnt and why the position was of interest to you. Please include dates for the role. (approx. 100 words per item)"

the feedback:

• Dates: some disregarded the element of the question asking for the dates.
• Lack of explanation: some applicants didn’t actually explain what their job was.
• Lack of variety: two or three very similar examples were given. You would have benefitted from selecting a wider variety of experiences e.g. rather than 3 1-week legal internships. The selection of similar examples limited the skills and achievements you spoke about. You may like to choose examples of different types (e.g. paid, unpaid, voluntary, position of responsibility), and different lengths (e.g. 1-week, 3-month summer placement, holiday job you return to, gap year work experience).

Question Two was
"Why Forsters: What are two things you have personally found interesting about Forsters through your research? Please explain why these are interesting or matter to you."

the feedback:

• Options picked considered too safe: many candidates avoided talking about clients, cases, lawyers and departments. In summary, they avoided talking about anything legal. We want to know which areas are of interest to you, and be able to see you have researched them thoroughly. We would advise you aim for a legal element, as well as talking about the easier elements to talk about, such as values, culture, D&I and CSR (which required less research
• Six seat training contract: the rotation system was one of the most commonly listed answers. To avoid a generic application, it would be better to choose something less obvious from the website. Some people made the mistake of calling it a four-seat training contract.
• Variety of legal areas: many applicants said they were attracted to the wide variety of departments on offer, but they did not go into detail as to which appeal the most/why they would like to sit there/what they know about the team.
• For insight, the most common answers were the Tate case, Art and cultural property, an interest in private wealth (without further details) and our value of We take happiness seriously,

Question Three was
"Tell us about one goal you have set for yourself recently and describe the steps you are taking and skills you are developing in order to achieve it."

the feedback:

• Need to break down the steps further: often steps were too broad e.g. ‘I am focusing on my health’, this needed further clarification of the steps e.g. I have designed a meal plan, I have designed a weekly gym schedule, I have challenged myself to 10,000 daily steps. You may like to make the steps more measurable to add detail.
• Lack of skills identified: many candidates missed identifying the skills they have developed.
• For insight, the most common answers were running, learning a language, building confidence, improving public speaking, time management skills.

I like their PFO letter very much because it does make it clear that in reality if you so much as make as one bad spelling "decision", e.g., "judgement" for "judgment" or "prioritize" for "prioritise" you WILL be PFOed and there's no mincing of words or pretending that things like this won't get your application tossed instantly.

Grad rec of the year. Amazing the lenght of valuable content to improve applications in the next cycle.

 

[ashwright]

Also - any movement from Linklaters recently?

@confusedbird I noticed you thumbs upped! Could I ask when you heard back & when you applied?

 

[confusedbird]

@confusedbird I noticed you thumbs upped! Could I ask when you heard back & when you applied?

Hey, I haven't heard back...that was a glitch and for some reason I couldn't remove the reaction. Sorry if that created any confusion 😭

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hi @Andrei Radu @Ram Sabaratnam

Any thread you can direct to for AC prep? Particularly case study ones!

Thank you!

Hi @suhana I quoted bellow a post where I listed some of the best resources I found for case study preparation, both from TCLA and from other external sources. Besides this, take a look at the many useful threads you can find under the Interview Discussion heading and at my Complete Guide for Competency Interviews.

Hi @CHLTC I really empathize with your struggles, as case studies/written tasks were always the hardest part of ACs for me as well. I don't think there is a specific method you can prepare, since as you mentioned, they come in a wide variety of formats. In my view, the only way to prepare is by developing the underlying skills every case study will seek to test: time-management and work under pressure, clarity of writing and structure, commercial awareness and analysis, ability to digest large amounts of information, etc.

To do that, I think it is useful to both practice actual case studies and to read more widely about the commercial matters that might be relevant for them. A particularly helpful resource for me was the course offered by TCLA on the matter (which you can find here). It includes a number of mock PE and M&A case studies, recordings of two hour long sessions explaining how to think through written/interview style M&A case studies, and a number of questions that are analyzed in depth by the TCLA team. To link a few useful free resources on TCLA:

• An amazing guide for M&A case studies by @Jacob Miller, which includes both a mock case study and a model answer with detailed explanations of how you should think through the materials (which you can find here).
• A mock written case study offered by TCLA here.
• An excellent article written by @Jaysen Sutton, which explains the process, types, structures, and general terms of an M&A transaction (which you can find here).
• A glossary of M&A terms by @Amma Usman here.

Besides these, I have also found a few external resources you may want to take a look at:

• A great LSE article giving an overview of case studies and preparation methods for each element
• An article with tips from the Oxford Careers Service
• A Next City Lawyer case study available on a fee basis

Finally, I quoted bellow a recent post I wrote which I think you could find useful - it includes my top tips for any written task:

 

[johnnysins]

anybody experienced accidentally leaving another firm's name in a work experience and still being progressed to the AC? 🥲

 

[Andrei Radu]

Any advice for telephone interviews please? What questions can I ask GR

I think for phone interviews I would advise you to keep your answers short and easy to understand, as you will simply have less time and a harder time communicating than in an actual interview. Because of the time constraints most of it will likely be focused on the usual competency/motivational questions, so prepare for them really well.

As for questions you can ask the graduate recruitment team, while I think it is generally best to try to link them with something discussed in the interview, I will list some that I think are fine bellow:

• Are there any particular skills/attributes you are particularly looking for in a candidate? What is the most common quality trainees at the firm have?
• What have you observed to be the most common difficulties that trainees at the firm deal with, and how does the firm support them in overcoming them?
• What is the firm's training philosophy? Are people at the firm offered any training on non-legal matters?
• How does the firm's seat/secondment allocation process work?
• What does the firm do to foster its culture?

 

[Mena M]

That Goodwin VI was unnecessarily stressful!

Hi - Would you be able to share whether the questions were motivation/competency etc. And/or if we get any prep time or if its unlimited?

 

[plsletmein]

Does anyone have any insights into withers’ interview or pinsent masons’ ac? any help would be appreciated!!

 

[Amakaa]

I think for phone interviews I would advise you to keep your answers short and easy to understand, as you will simply have less time and a harder time communicating than in an actual interview. Because of the time constraints most of it will likely be focused on the usual competency/motivational questions, so prepare for them really well.

As for questions you can ask the graduate recruitment team, while I think it is generally best to try to link them with something discussed in the interview, I will list some that I think are fine bellow:

• Are there any particular skills/attributes you are particularly looking for in a candidate? What is the most common quality trainees at the firm have?
• What have you observed to be the most common difficulties that trainees at the firm deal with, and how does the firm support them in overcoming them?
• What is the firm's training philosophy? Are people at the firm offered any training on non-legal matters?
• How does the firm's seat/secondment allocation process work?
• What does the firm do to foster its culture?

Thank you so much!

 

[M_m]

This might be a dumb question, but one of the OC application questions is “Please describe the top three extracurricular and/or work/volunteering experiences that have most significantly contributed to your skills development. Which skills have you developed through these experiences? And why do you believe that these skills are essential for a successful career at Osborne Clarke?”

What exactly counts as “skills”? In the sense, do resilience, adaptability, discipline, etc. count as skills?