TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25

[trainee4u]

Ignoring other factors like diversity and business etc, i'm really debating over this for my next cycle.

I'm from near the peak district and could easily work in Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds. If it's 40k vs 100k then it's London no brainer. But for the higher paying firms like DLA piper, I'm not sure which to apply to. I'm keen to experience London, but if I can live at home and commute to Sheffield, earning 75k NQ (mind, DLA is an outlier), I would be RAKING IT IN. Could be putting 40k a year into savings/investments/house deposit. Vs earning 110k in London, and just about being comfortable.

London is very broken, and standards of living in this country have been declining for decades due to the idiots we have governing us.

£75k is £54k take-home, whereas £110k is £72k.

If you're renting that's still a better lifestyle in London, but hours likely to be longer, and in the long term, the price of more substantial property in London is quite insane - it's over £1m for a 3-bed house that was historically for working-class people, and the sort of house that my grandfather would have considered a middle-class property is around £4m, and you're still likely to be mugged for your iphone on the way to work.

 

[lina.b]

Hi, does anyone know some free practice case studies I could use?

 

[Jamil Max]

Hi all, does anyone have any experience or information about doing a vac scheme on a skilled workers visa? Would rather not lose out on my dream firm over visa regulations 😢.

Are you a student in the UK, or are you already on a Skilled Worker visa? I know many international students who have completed vacation schemes. If you're on a student visa, you can work up to 40 hours per week outside of your university term time. So, if the vacation scheme falls during your holiday period, you wouldn’t need sponsorship.

 

[adrian_nlh]

could somebody please confirm this?

Mishcon got back to everyone for VIs for Summer VS in mid Feb and will get back to everyone who did their VIs sometime this month, if that's helpful to you.

 

[Hana ♥]

anyone know when last NRF AC is for SVS? and roughly when we will hear back?

When I sat it they told us they're holding 8 ACs and that we will hear back by the first week of March, latest second week!

 

[Tintin06]

More law dreams happening to me. This time I'm doing a VS. At the firm 'Vantage & Watkins'. Too much time spent on Vantage.io?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Ignoring other factors like diversity and business etc, i'm really debating over this for my next cycle.

I'm from near the peak district and could easily work in Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds. If it's 40k vs 100k then it's London no brainer. But for the higher paying firms like DLA piper, I'm not sure which to apply to. I'm keen to experience London, but if I can live at home and commute to Sheffield, earning 75k NQ (mind, DLA is an outlier), I would be RAKING IT IN. Could be putting 40k a year into savings/investments/house deposit. Vs earning 110k in London, and just about being comfortable.

Salaries are not £40k in the North West if a firm is paying £100k in London.

For instance, DLA is £110k in London and £75k outside of London for an NQ role

CMS is £110k in London and £62k in the North West

Eversheds is £100k in London and £65,500 outside of London

 

[fcac98]

Hi, does anyone know some free practice case studies I could use?

Also looking for this!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Also looking for this!

If it is more of a written case study format, you could attempt our old written case studies. Unfortunately we no longer provide feedback on these, but they can be a useful practice assessment to at least try/attempt:

• https://www.thecorporatelawacademy....ies-interviews-and-vacation-scheme-resources/
• https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/...+Case+Study+1+-+The+Corporate+Law+Academy.pdf
• https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/...+Case+Study+2+-+The+Corporate+Law+Academy.pdf

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi, does anyone know some free practice case studies I could use?

Please see my post above

 

[trainee4u]

Salaries are not £40k in the North West if a firm is paying £100k in London.

For instance, DLA is £110k in London and £75k outside of London for an NQ role

CMS is £110k in London and £62k in the North West

Eversheds is £100k in London and £65,500 outside of London

Right, and e.g. Simmons is £66k take-home in Bristol, £76k in London. The Bristol package is clearly better.

 

[The-PFO-Collector]

Right, and e.g. Simmons is £66k take-home in Bristol, £76k in London. The Bristol package is clearly better.

Simmons sets regional record with £96k salary for Bristol NQ solicitors - Legal Cheek

Whopping 25% increase 😲

www.legalcheek.com

 

[A worried graduate]

I have restructured my answer all by myself, copied and pasted on AI detectors like contentai and originalai, and it's coming out as 100% human. However, in quillbot, it's still flagging at 56% ai. Will be grateful for any input on how to deal with it?

AI softwares can have varying criteria for what is AI.

If I were you I’d write a few random sentences and see what the Quillbot % is.

 

[Chris Brown]

Ignoring other factors like diversity and business etc, i'm really debating over this for my next cycle.

I'm from near the peak district and could easily work in Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds. If it's 40k vs 100k then it's London no brainer. But for the higher paying firms like DLA piper, I'm not sure which to apply to. I'm keen to experience London, but if I can live at home and commute to Sheffield, earning 75k NQ (mind, DLA is an outlier), I would be RAKING IT IN. Could be putting 40k a year into savings/investments/house deposit. Vs earning 110k in London, and just about being comfortable.

Salaries are not £40k in the North West if a firm is paying £100k in London.

For instance, DLA is £110k in London and £75k outside of London for an NQ role

CMS is £110k in London and £62k in the North West

Eversheds is £100k in London and £65,500 outside of London

I also live a lot closer to the north than London, so I was initially considering cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds as opposed to London. I went to open days for a few of these firms e.g., DLA Piper and Squire Patton Boggs. The trainees and associates there mainly came from regional backgrounds and said they chose to stay there instead of considering a career in London. They said that these firms operate as a single entity in the UK, meaning the work is the same across all offices. I guess if people are interested in working on international matters (cross-border, multi-jurisdictional deals and disputes), there shouldn’t be a concern that all the work is London based. At these firms, I think it is spread across all of their UK offices. 🙂

In addition to the above firms, there are also others which offer similar salaries in both the regions and London:

Hogan Lovells: £85,000 in Birmingham and £135,000 in London.

Squire Patton Boggs: £70,000 in the regions and £110,000 in London.

BCLP: £68,000 in Manchester and £105,000 in London.

Addleshaw Goddard: £65,000 in the regions and £100,000 in London.

Shoosmiths: £63,000 in the regions and £97,000 in London.

Pinsent Masons: £62,000 in the regions and £97,000 in London.

I think if someone is interested in these kind of firms, it is certainly worthwhile to consider their regional offices as well as London (factoring in the insane cost of living in London at the moment), but if someone is interested in the Magic Circle or US firms, which pay £150,000 - £180,000, then perhaps London is more attractive. I don’t know how expensive London is, but I imagine if someone wants a comfortable lifestyle, they would need at least £100,000 after tax. That might be an over estimation though. 🥲​

 

[A worried graduate]

Right, and e.g. Simmons is £66k take-home in Bristol, £76k in London. The Bristol package is clearly better.

Bristol tends to pay more than the North and Birmingham but is more expensive yet the gap is enough to beat London overall

66k in Bristol is equal to 93in London for example

 

[floral.tcla]

Ignoring other factors like diversity and business etc, i'm really debating over this for my next cycle.

I'm from near the peak district and could easily work in Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds. If it's 40k vs 100k then it's London no brainer. But for the higher paying firms like DLA piper, I'm not sure which to apply to. I'm keen to experience London, but if I can live at home and commute to Sheffield, earning 75k NQ (mind, DLA is an outlier), I would be RAKING IT IN. Could be putting 40k a year into savings/investments/house deposit. Vs earning 110k in London, and just about being comfortable.

hmm that makes sense for your circumstances - no wonder you're debating it!

 

[A worried graduate]

Bristol tends to pay more than the North and Birmingham but is more expensive yet the gap is enough to beat London overall

66k in Bristol is equal to 93in London for example

And to add, Scotland and especially NI tend to pay disproportinately worse.

I have seen a few firms that pay close to 40 in London and close to the minimum in Belfast.

Dubai tends to have salaries between Bristol and London

 

[BillSikes]

Im preparing for interview questions in my Assessment Centre next week. What are your go to questions to prep for? I have:

1. Why do you want to be a lawyer
2. What are your strengths and weaknesses
3. Which of our sectors interest you the most
4. How would you pitch our firm to a client (struggling with this if anyone has any advice for structure)
5. What other firms have you applied to and why
6. How do your interests align with our work

I just want to focus on key questions as I have only got a few days to prepare. Any insight will be appreciated!

Teamwork/problem solving/organisation/deadlines competency Qs are most popular

I did Gateley VI and they asked about a legal development which I had no idea what to say. Hard question that could come up which you'd be unable to answer without any prep.

 

[NJS]

I also live a lot closer to the north than London, so I was initially considering cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds as opposed to London. I went to open days for a few of these firms e.g., DLA Piper and Squire Patton Boggs. The trainees and associates there mainly came from regional backgrounds and said they chose to stay there instead of considering a career in London. They said that these firms operate as a single entity in the UK, meaning the work is the same across all offices. I guess if people are interested in working on international matters (cross-border, multi-jurisdictional deals and disputes), there shouldn’t be a concern that all the work is London based. At these firms, I think it is spread across all of their UK offices. 🙂

In addition to the above firms, there are also others which offer similar salaries in both the regions and London:

Hogan Lovells: £85,000 in Birmingham and £135,000 in London.

Squire Patton Boggs: £70,000 in the regions and £110,000 in London.

BCLP: £68,000 in Manchester and £105,000 in London.

Addleshaw Goddard: £65,000 in the regions and £100,000 in London.

Shoosmiths: £63,000 in the regions and £97,000 in London.

Pinsent Masons: £62,000 in the regions and £97,000 in London.

I think if someone is interested in these kind of firms, it is certainly worthwhile to consider their regional offices as well as London (factoring in the insane cost of living in London at the moment), but if someone is interested in the Magic Circle or US firms, which pay £150,000 - £180,000, then perhaps London is more attractive. I don’t know how expensive London is, but I imagine if someone wants a comfortable lifestyle, they would need at least £100,000 after tax. That might be an over estimation though. 🥲​

if a firm has a regional office, its almost always better working there consdidering the pay, London is expensive, REALLY expensive, everyone is getting priced out you can 100% see why everyone wants a US firm...

 

[BillSikes]

if a firm has a regional office, its almost always better working there consdidering the pay, London is expensive, REALLY expensive, everyone is getting priced out you can 100% see why everyone wants a US firm...

Why is everyone so fixated on London then? It seems to be London or nothing for most people.

I applied regional app previous years - but am thinking of London now purely cos that's where my mates will be.