TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25

[missfuturetraineemaybe]

congrats! when was your ac?

Thanks! It was 3 weeks ago

 

[👩🎓]

If I didn't hear from Squire Patton Boggs for VI, am I cooked?

Me too, not sure if they give them out in batches.

 

[tdbaby]

hey, has anyone done the Mayer Brown AC? Would really appreciate some insights!

 

[FoxStella]

Congrats! Was your email from last night or today? Hoping they r gonna send more today lol

Came in just before midnight last night

 

[Amma Usman]

These are Russell Cooke's application questions:

Discuss a news article that interests you and why.
Please give details of any prizes, scholarships, positions of responsibility (or something you are proud of) and any other noteworthy achievements that will support your application.
Please tell us about something which did not turn out as you expected.
If you couldn’t work in law, what do you think you would do and why?

None of them specifically relate to the firm, so does anyone have advice for how I should tailor my answers to explain my specific interest in Russell Cooke?

I presume for 1,3, and 4, it will be difficult for you to tailor to RC. This is not a problem in my opinion as they have their reasons for asking such questions. If you do feel the need to tailor the application which is great, then you may likely do so in question 2. The reason is because the end of the question references, “that will support your application“, implying some flexibility in linking these elements to the firm/their values/ key trainee competencies, and so on. Best of luck!

 

[Amma Usman]

Hi there,

This is a totally valid feeling that I commonly got. How I best navigated all the info, was to take a deep breath first. After doing so, I would look at the question being asked. Then, I will read all the materials carefully, while having the question in mind. Whilst doing so, I would make any notes relevant to the task at hand.

This approach works because it ensures you have all the relevant facts and info, before jumping straight to the task. It minimises the chances of errors. It instills a certain level of confidence from being informed on all the facts.

Remember: Everything you need is right in front of you.

I have quoted another recent post I made to help.

Dear @Amma Usman,@Andrei Radu and @Ram Sabaratnam,

I hope you guys are well and enjoying this sunny day.

I am trying to prepare for an upcoming written exercise, which is my weakness during AC.
I would like to ask if you could advise me on how to structure my thoughts in an organised manner without allowing my anxiety to take over.

How do you think I should organise my time when tackling the case?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Hi there. I have quoted a post I made on this to help. You will need to click on the post itself to see the links I have tagged. Another thing to add is that succeeding in ACs is more mental, than technical. One may have all the technical knowledge in the world, but easing yourself mentally throughout ensures you remain calm and less likely to produce errors.

 

[Amma Usman]

This is super last minute but would really appreciate some insight. I have an AC tomorrow and really struggling with how to choose a deal that the form has worked on and discuss it. What factors should i consider when discussing the deal?

@Ram Sabaratnam @Amma Usman would really appreciate your advise as well?

The truth is, you don’t have to discuss a deal to succeed in an AC. Many firms work on similar deals, so unless the deal you are referencing has a unique aspect to it, then you will find it difficult to show demonstrated interest. If you really want to discuss a deal, you may find it worthwhile considering the below aspects:

• Overview of deal itself.
• Position/effect in market.
• Firm’s advisory role to link to their strength in a specific practice.

NB: This list is non-exhaustive.

 

[AS24]

Hi there. I have quoted a post I made on this to help. You will need to click on the post itself to see the links I have tagged. Another thing to add is that succeeding in ACs is more mental, than technical. One may have all the technical knowledge in the world, but easing yourself mentally throughout ensures you remain calm and less likely to produce errors.

You are an angel!

 

[AS24]

Hey @AS24 I definitely am, their scarcity here has really taught me their value 🥲. On this brighter note, I will split up my thoughts between how to organize your time and then your ideas.

Organizing Time
To ensure you are managing your time well, before you start working through the exercise I advise you to take a few minutes to make a plan. First, take a look at the number of tasks and read the prompts. Then, briefly skim the annexed briefs and readings - but only very briefly. You want to see how many pages of readings you will have per task and how dense those look. Based on this information, make an estimation as to how much time each task or part of the exercise will take compared to the others - ie you might see the first task as requiring about twice the workload of the second and that the third is roughly the same as the second. Then, you should spend around 1/2 of your time on the first, around 1/4 on the second and another 1/4 on the third. However, before dividing the time using the relevant fractions, subtract around 10 minutes from the initial total time: 5 to account for the planning part at the beginning and 5 for contingencies and reviewing spelling and grammar at the end. I think this should be your basic approach, but do keep in mind these further considerations:

• You may want to make a further separation between the estimated necessary time to do the reading and the estimated necessary time to write your analysis for each part. One of the most significant issues I have had with written exercises has been giving in to the temptation to take more time than I should reading and taking notes; and simultaneously underestimating the time it would take me to write my analysis. In my experience, the materials in these exercises are not that difficult to work through and do not attempt to trip you up, so they do not require that much time. Thus, it might be a good idea to plan ahead how much you want to take on them: it should help you keep yourself in check during the exercise and not let your anxiety and overthinking make you waste precious time by reading the same passages again and again.
• You may not be able to estimate such a simple fraction split as in my aforementioned example. That is fine, and you definitely should not spend time overthinking this element. Simply go with your gut in making some judgement about the relative workloads and move forward with that. The most important part of this planning is not maximum accuracy in representation of the time each should take, but in providing a rough framework which will enable you to keep yourself to account and thus improve efficiency.
• If your tasks/parts of the exercise have different priority levels you should adjust your time allocation fractions. I would still aim to have a rough representation of what the workload of each involves but I would also allow adjustments to that to ensure a high quality work product for the most important ones.

Organizing Ideas
As for structuring your thoughts, it is unfortunately more difficult to give very concrete advice, as the right way to go about it will be highly dependent on the details of the exercise. My main advice is to find multiple distinctions between the different categories of information that you will be presenting ; and to organize them under multiple headings. The last thing you want is a huge block of text. It will almost always be more difficult to read and understand and will often also end up confusing your analysis as well. To give some examples of how you can go about this:

• Split the descriptive part of your writing (where you are essentially summarizing uncontroversial facts) and the analytic one (where you are advancing your opinion based on the aforementioned facts);
• If your argument is more complex, separate the analysis of the different inferential steps necessary to establish the conclusion;
• Separate the pros considerations, the cons considerations, and the synthesis view;
• Split your analysis of the different alternatives based on the facts;
• Separate your analysis of the relevant considerations based on their class (financial, legal, social, reputational etc) and based on the relevant class of stakeholders (shareholders, clients, the government, the public etc).

Of course, no piece of writing in an AC will need or be capable of supporting categorizations based on all the above. I have only listed some ideas to keep in the back of your mind; once you go through the actual exercise, you should be able to intuitively decide which is the most appropriate and easy for you to use.

Thank you so much!

 

[AnnaHJ12]

Congrats, when did you submit VI?

It must be like three weeks ago now.

 

[TC19881]

Rejected post AC for Addleshaw Goddard.

Happy to offer help and advice for anyone with an invite.

I sent you a message! Please check 🙏🙏🙏 Thanku!!!

 

[AnnaHJ12]

It is a pretty relaxed AC compared to others I have had. When you arrive be very proactive and get to know everyone because they might end up in your group. It's better to have already built that sort of rapport beforehand so it makes the group exercise less daunting! Written exercise was an email of a client enquiry about one of their practices. Make sure that you know about their strengths and key practice areas because you will 100% be tested upon this in both the written exercise and interview. In the group exercise we were given a topic to present on with key PESTLE factors to be considered. I did mine last year so I'm not sure if it has changed since but thats my general advice!

Thank you thats great advice !

 

[fxy]

BCLP rejection after assessment centre
I applied to the Spring Vacation Scheme.

sorry about the bad news, but if you wouldn't mind me asking what you felt was particularly hard about the AC and if they gave you any feedback

 

[walterwhite]

should I expect a Debevoise PFO if I didn't receive an invite? Just wanting to prepare for the worst😁

 

[Chris Brown]

should I expect a Debevoise PFO if I didn't receive an invite? Just wanting to prepare for the worst😁

I think I did see someone say they have 3 open days so these invites may have just been for the first open day.

Best of luck for Debevoise & Plimpton! 🙂

 

[Mango]

should I expect a Debevoise PFO if I didn't receive an invite? Just wanting to prepare for the worst😁

I’m in the same boat and I don’t know what to expect anymore - I haven’t heard from Weil either so I’m starting to bug out a little 😭

 

[fxy]

has anyone heard anything form the TLT beyond programme

 

[AveragePoster]

Hi, is there a 'complete' list of open days that fast-track you through a Vac Scheme or TC process anywhere, e.g., as with Linklaters

 

[m.phan]

I just wanted to thank everyone for the openess on this forum. I am a first year law student and is very helpful.

I did some research on some firms and have a question about written exercise. does this website allow personal message and are members ok with personal contact to ask questions? I am sorry I only found this forum recently so i am trying to go through more pages a

 

[Divyani Jethwa]

The truth is, you don’t have to discuss a deal to succeed in an AC. Many firms work on similar deals, so unless the deal you are referencing has a unique aspect to it, then you will find it difficult to show demonstrated interest. If you really want to discuss a deal, you may find it worthwhile considering the below aspects:

• Overview of deal itself.
• Position/effect in market.
• Firm’s advisory role to link to their strength in a specific practice.

NB: This list is non-exhaustive.

Hi Amma,

I was wondering what you would recommend to discuss when asked 'why this firm' in an interview? Do you go for particular talking points each time and how in depth would you recommend going?