TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25

[Jessica Booker]

I'm laughing at the self-plagiarism point.

Lots of people keep mentioning it lately. I wonder if this is one of the myths running round universities and particularly if people are paranoid about using things like AI.

 

[sammm10101]

Lots of people keep mentioning it lately. I wonder if this is one of the myths running round universities and particularly if people are paranoid about using things like AI.

In my degree, self-plagiarism definitely is a thing, so maybe it bleeds over from that. In the sense that if you copy something that you've already written and submitted, it gets flagged by TurnItIn to be plagiarism, so you cannot write the same thing twice. They really really emphasise it too.

 

[Jessica Booker]

In my degree, self-plagiarism definitely is a thing, so maybe it bleeds over from that. In the sense that if you copy something that you've already written and submitted, it gets flagged by TurnItIn to be plagiarism, so you cannot write the same thing twice. They really really emphasise it too.

That would explain it! Seems a really odd concept though - why can’t you reuse your own thinking? Most academics would lose most of their back catalogue if it applied to their academic writing!

 

[Apple]

In my degree, self-plagiarism definitely is a thing, so maybe it bleeds over from that. In the sense that if you copy something that you've already written and submitted, it gets flagged by TurnItIn to be plagiarism, so you cannot write the same thing twice. They really really emphasise it too.

Same here, I had a friend get an academic warning for plagiarism because he used parts of his past formative essay in a summative lol.

 

[dollydaydream]

Jones day AC

 

[sammm10101]

That would explain it! Seems a really odd concept though - why can’t you reuse your own thinking? Most academics would lose most of their back catalogue if it applied to their academic writing!

Yeah literally! I think it’s so every assessment you do is unique, and you’re not just writing the same thing for every module as there could be potentially overlaps.

I.e. I do modern history, and so things like the Cold War crop up all over the place. Theoretically, I could write the same essay on the Cold War for different modules, and just tinker with it slightly to make it more aligned with the primary topic of the various modules. You have to also make sure your submitted work does not have a significant overlap, so they caution against using the same sources for different modules.

 

[Apple]

Jones day AC

Ive got like 4 weeks until my first stage interview and people are already getting ACs smh (congrats)

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hey everyone, I need some advice. Taylor Wessing asks for a cover letter, but one of their questions is "What motivates you for a career in Law at Taylor Wessing and what key skills would you bring?". This question essentially overlaps with the content of the cover letter. How can I avoid repeating myself in both?

@Andrei Radu

Hi Bella, I agree with @safari3's advice here. I would still seek to answer the three main questions in the cover letter as well (Why commercial law, Why the firm, Why me) but I would seek to employ more of a 'narrative structure' and speak more about personal experiences. Essentially, you should describe your personal, academic, and professional trajectory more broadly, focusing on how your journey had led to where you are now. In the application form question, while answering the same questions, you should write in a to-the-point style and implement a very clear structure. Your points should be a lot more factual and the experiences you describe should be more academic/work related.

As for the 'Why the firm' section, as @Jessica Booker mentioned, you can make the application form question answer more around the work opportunities (seats and rotations; secondments; practice area and sector expertise; client base etc) and the cover letter answer more around the working environment and why that is a great fit for your personality (here, you can discuss the training programme specifics and culture more, but perhaps also the working environment in the teams/practice areas of the firm you are interested in and more broadly the working environment at a type of commercial law firm like Taylor Wessing).

The one thing I will add is that while avoiding repeating the experiences you mention is ideal, it is not an issue if the points that you are illustrating through those experiences and the details of the experiences you are describing are different in the application form answer and the cover letter. As said before, the cover letter is meant to allow you to show your personality more. As such, you could also provide a more detailed explanation as to your fundamental motivations from a personal perspective in it. For instance, say your basic answer to 'Why commercial law' in the application form question looks something like this:

1. Becoming a commercial solicitor because this is the only career path that involves working at the junction point of legal and business advisory.
2. I have this academic/professional experience (explained with a STAR structure) which has shown me I am attracted to/a good fit for a career that involves both business and legal advisory.
3. Therefore, I want to be a commercial solicitor.

In the cover letter, you could discuss the same experience and underlying motivation for commercial law, but from a different perspective. You could use the opportunity to dig a lot deeper into your deeper personal interests and motivations: what is it about you that makes you attracted to an advisory role as opposed to an executive one? What is it about the legal and business world that would make learning about it more interesting than other fields? When did you realise you had these interests, and did you consider any other career paths? If so, which did you consider, and what steps did you take to confirm that commercial law is indeed the optimal choice? How did this impact you and lead to the evolution of your professional interests and preferences over time? The point is, you can delve a lot deeper into all the thought processes and less significant prior experiences that led up to the point at which you are now. While the final conclusion of this exposition might be the same attraction to business and legal advisory you mention in your application form answer, this does add a lot of value to the recruiter's understanding of you as a person. This is a lot of useful information and contextualization that would simply be impossible to include in the application form answer due to the space constraints and would therefore likely not be deemed a mere repetition.

 

[bella98]

Lots of people keep mentioning it lately. I wonder if this is one of the myths running round universities and particularly if people are paranoid about using things like AI.

I was also worried about 'self-plagiarism', as I was about to submit the same answer to an application question that I used last year. (improved, but some sentences were the same) It’s connected to our university experience—for example, I had to write my Master's dissertation on a law I think should be reformed. I remember doing an undergraduate essay on the same issue and thought I could reuse parts of it. However, professors said this would be considered self-plagiarism, and we're not allowed to incorporate even our previous work into new essays for university! (and during my undergraduate degree professors also continuously said we were not allowed to use our old work) This made me wonder if the same concept applies to law firms applications ahaha

 

[WillkieGemma]

Does anyone know how many trainees Willkie plans to take on for a 2027 entry?

Hi @sammm10101 around six!

 

[Amma Usman]

Does anyone know how many trainees Willkie plans to take on for a 2027 entry?

Hey @sammm10101, it says on the website HERE, that the firm recruits up to 6 trainees each year

 

[Amma Usman]

does anyone know if latham's test has a vi element? also if anyone has any tips i would appreciate it.

Hey @lolololol , when I did it last year, there was one VI question at the end. I am unsure about this year, but I presume it is the same as there has been a VI element for over 3 years now. In relating to preparing for video interviews, I’d say you should take some time to understand your skills and competencies. VI usually require you to explain how you demonstrated a key competency that is valuable to the firm. You will need to not just state these competencies, but show examples of how you demonstrated these. It’s sort of like an expanded version of STAR, only that you will need to make it more conversational and less script-like than you initially would in an online application.

 

[Andrei Radu]

Can anyone provide some tips for this CMS question? The only tangible instance I've used AI is the use of Grammarly for uni coursework and applications. How do I link it to personal development seeing that my use is not really that fancy?

Describe a specific instance where you have utilised artificial intelligence (AI) or other technologies in your work or studies. How have these tools enhanced your personal development?

Since you haven't used AI for anything substantial, it will be difficult to get to a conclusion that it improved your personal development directly. However, if you are willing to be a bit flexible with your writing, I think you can tie your use of Grammarly to some indirect resulting personal developments. Off the top of my head, I can think of:

1. By using it, you have saved significant amounts of time you would have normally spent reviewing and rephrasing your writing. This enabled you to invest more time and effort into improving your understanding of the subject matter of your coursework and into improving your understanding of the law firms you were applying to. The, you could give concrete examples of this and/or explain the outcomes: did your academic/professional interests change in any way? did you obtain better results - more success in application or better grades?
2. By using it to assess your manner of writing, you have been able to notice patterns in the errors you make when writing. This has allowed you to enhance your attention to detail and also improve your understanding of your strengths and weaknesses in your ability to articulate your thoughts. Then, you can explain how this progressively led to you improving your capacity to use language precisely. This arguably does not only also betters your capacity to express yourself both verbally and in writing, it also improves your ability to minimize ambiguity in thought itself (as the very act of reasoning involved representing concepts in language). Granted, this point might be a bit of a stretch, but I don't think it's impossible to make it fit for an application form answer if you can illustrate it by using some practical examples.

The other point I wanted to mention is that the application question says 'AI or other technologies'. As such, maybe you can think of some other new technology besides AI that you have used recently - perhaps some smarter search engine when looking for further resources in your research for the coursework?

 

[Amma Usman]

bit of a silly question but if a firm has the same app questions as last year, can i reuse my answers knowing that i managed to get past the written app stage with them?

Hey @legallybrunette8 , I’d say you should definitely switch things up a bit. You will have gained so much more knowledge and experiences between last year and now - would be worth demonstrating this via the initial stages. It is also arguable that firms may have ways of testing whether the same application has been submitted twice. I also understand that the reasons for choosing the same firm twice may be consistent between last year and now, so its understandable to repeat a few points. However, consider linking them to new points/developments in your own knowledge, or knowledge about the firm.

 

[NJS]

Ive got like 4 weeks until my first stage interview and people are already getting ACs smh (congrats)

Tbf they are known for interviewing lots and lots of people

 

[Andrei Radu]

Describe the personal event or experience that, more than anything else, made you realise your desire to work in a law firm and specifically at Fieldfisher.

Guys, I’ve got a bit of a dilemma here. I went to an event two years ago where I talked to a trainee at the firm, I've got info on the event and what they said, but I forgot to write down their name in my journal! Now I’m trying to write an answer for this question, and without the trainee's name, it feels like I could’ve spoken to a trainee from any firm about the usual stuff like collegiality and a positive environment. Any ideas on how to approach this? I'm attending an event with Fieldfisher tonight, which I could describe in more detail. But obviously, this isn’t the event that made me realise I wanted to work at a law firm, especially at Fieldfisher – that realisation happened much earlier ahaha

That happened to me in the past as well, it's quite a frustrating experience. What I would advise you to do is to try to speak with people at the firm and ask the same questions that elicited the response you got two year ago - perhaps someone will describe the same/very similar experiences. Then you can quote their names and phrase your answer along the lines of 'Having spoken to trainees at FIeldfisher at X event in the past, I learnt that ... (point about culture/work environment). I subsequently spoke to X person from the firm, who told me ... (and then you explain how their experience reinforces the point) which confirmed my desire to work at the firm'. You could try to engage with the people at the firm you will meet tonight and/or also reach out on LinkedIn.

Alternatively, if you know any further details about the trainee you spoke to in the past (what university they attended, what degree, which seats and potential qualification choice, nationality etc) and if you can invest some time into this, you can try to look for them on LinkedIn using the relevant filters. Assuming you have some recollection as to how they looked like, you may recognise them from the profile picture.

Finally, if neither option works for you I would still advise you to nonetheless mention the interaction - it is still good to discuss firm events you've attended and what you learnt from them.

 

[Jessica Booker]

I was also worried about 'self-plagiarism', as I was about to submit the same answer to an application question that I used last year. (improved, but some sentences were the same) It’s connected to our university experience—for example, I had to write my Master's dissertation on a law I think should be reformed. I remember doing an undergraduate essay on the same issue and thought I could reuse parts of it. However, professors said this would be considered self-plagiarism, and we're not allowed to incorporate even our previous work into new essays for university! (and during my undergraduate degree professors also continuously said we were not allowed to use our old work) This made me wonder if the same concept applies to law firms applications ahaha

Just to stress, law firms will not be acting like academics in regards to this.

They will however be thinking about what you have done since your last application to keep developing your skills and to pursue the career.

 

[nliro85]

For DLA, is it ok to exceed the 200 word limit as long as I stay within the 1500-character limit. I have written about 210 words for Question 1, but my character count is only 1426. Do I still need to cut down on words.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Same here, I had a friend get an academic warning for plagiarism because he used parts of his past formative essay in a summative lol.

I now understand why people are worried about it on here! Thanks for clarifying everyone - I will try to allieviate future fears by explaining this is not a thing for law firms, just academics!

 

[Jessica Booker]

For DLA, is it ok to exceed the 200 word limit as long as I stay within the 1500-character limit. I have written about 210 words for Question 1, but my character count is only 1426. Do I still need to cut down on words.

I think this will be fine as otherwise they would just say it was a word limit.