I'd look at their Chambers and Partners or Legal 500 entry and pick a landmark practice area you're genuinely interested in. I chose private equity last year, and I got the open day.
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Hey Guest, check out Andrei's new guide to building a winning law firm application strategy here. Good luck this cycle :)
TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25
- Thread starter Jessica Booker
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Hi Shatu, this is a great question. It is important to take a step back and think about what Ashurst are trying to see from you in these questions. In the first, they are looking for professional skills (e.g. leadership, adaptability, attention to detail), so use these as a starting point, and then relate them back to an example from any work you have done or any extracurricular activities, such as university societies or other clubs. I think that they add in 'extracurricular activities' in this question because they are aware that many students may not have worked before, but nevertheless have had opportunities throughout life to develop these skills.
The second question is a much more personal one about hobbies and interests, so focus on things you like to do in your spare time outside of work or extracurriculars, which show that you are a well-rounded person. Of course, there may be some overlap, and that's fine as long as you can talk about them separately. For example, if one of your hobbies is snow sports, you could talk about this in question 2, but if you organised an event or trip for the snow sports society, you could talk about the skills you developed during this task for question 1. I really hope that helps but let me know if anything is unclear!
Hi everyone - BCLP are asking: 'What is your understanding of how a business generates and maintains a profit? (Please provide examples)'.
I am afraid I am approaching this too academically. It feels like an exam question lol, but I am trying to infuse it with examples which demonstrate commercial awareness; things like BCLP's merger in 2018 etc. But it still feels quite impersonal and I feel like I am doing it wrong. Please help!
I am afraid I am approaching this too academically. It feels like an exam question lol, but I am trying to infuse it with examples which demonstrate commercial awareness; things like BCLP's merger in 2018 etc. But it still feels quite impersonal and I feel like I am doing it wrong. Please help!
Hey guys,
I have a question. I have applied to a couple of winter vac schemes, but I am an international student and a lot of these run during term time (therefore, the 20-hour cap per week comes into play). Therefore, assuming I get an offer, do you think the firm would change the schemes to spring or summer if I asked?
I have a question. I have applied to a couple of winter vac schemes, but I am an international student and a lot of these run during term time (therefore, the 20-hour cap per week comes into play). Therefore, assuming I get an offer, do you think the firm would change the schemes to spring or summer if I asked?
Jones Day PFO :/ not sure if I’m upset as I’ve heard they give out a lot of interviews or impressed that they got back to me so soon! 😂
Jessica Booker
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This is a possibility with some firms and you can at least ask. However, some firms will have wanted you to factor this into which scheme you applied to and therefore may not be able to move your programme and you may just need to turn their offer down.
Other firms have found ways around the timings of winter schemes to incorporate international students into their programmes, by either splitting the scheme across two weeks or just reducing the number of days you attend. This is not ideal, but is another way I have seen international candidates and law firms make it work.
Jessica Booker
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This does not need to be BCLP-specific (or even law firm-specific).
I think they are asking a really open question like this on purpose. It is open to a lot of interpretation and direction in how someone describes this or the aspects they focus on. Ultimately, people complete whole degrees on this topic, so it isn't really going to be about there being a specific answer, but more your analysis and thoughts on what the most important factors are to consider out of the many hundreds of points you could potentially identify.
Same! I applied on 05/09 so atleast they were really fast
HSF Open Day PFO… I thought my application was good as well. If I’m getting rejected at Open Day’s how am I going to get a VS 😳😳😳
I was rejected from that too. Don't worry - they have fewer spots than some VSs on those sometimes. It's not the end.
While Latham does have an employment & benefits practice in London, it is definitely one of their smaller ones. As with other top US firms, its role is probably to generally service clients on the employment-law elements of a deal the firm's transactional departments leads on, rather than working on independent employment law-focused mandates. Thus, Latham is not really focused on employment, and is not particularly known for its expertise in this area - if you check the latest Chambers UK rankings here, you'll see Latham has not been ranked for its employment practice (https://chambers.com/legal-rankings/employment-uk-2:23:224:1). On a side note, if you are really interested in employment law and want to work with the best law in this field, Chambers ranking are a really good guide to finding the right firms to apply for.
For Latham, it's London focus (and top expertise) is on private equity, banking & finance, capital markets, and corporate M&A. Latham also announced it would seek to grow its litigation practice, but there is still some way to go before it will account for a substantial portion of the office's revenue and headcount. If you want to maximize your chances of succeeding in your application, even if you are somewhat more interested in employment law, consider choosing one of the transactional practices. The caveat to that is that you should only talk about a practice you have a genuine interest in - there's no much point in making applications for firms which focus on work you would not want to do, and recruiters are likely to notice if you are feigning interest anyways.
However, if you do not presently have a genuine interest in any of those practice areas, I would not completely rule out applying to a firm like Latham. In my experience, many people (myself included) do not know from the start what parts of commercial law they could be attracted to. What tends to happen instead is that as you learn about different practice areas, you will slowly start developing an interest in some of them. Thus, if you do not currently have an interest in many transactional practices, and if you have not already done so, I'd encourage you to read some introductory materials on M&A/finance deals before deciding on whether to pursue an application with Latham.
You don’t need to do an open day, I was rejected from all open days I applied to last cycle and still got two VS!!
I was also rejected by HSF a few days ago, my vac scheme app will be stronger 😄
I actually did not make any winter scheme applications for this reason, but in retrospect I think this was a mistake. I ended up in this exact situation with one of the spring scheme offers I had (because of my own oversight, I had not realised the scheme was happening in the last week of my term). Fortunately, after a very long back-and forth email chain with graduate recruitment, I was fortunately able to join the scheme. Thus, just to add to @Jessica Booker great points here, whether you can be accommodated on the scheme will also depend on the following:
- The length of the scheme: the primary reason I was eventually able to go on the scheme was because it was only one week long. Because of the limited time, the firm organised the scheme by having us sit for practice areas sessions/presentations for half of the day, and sit with our supervisors to get involved in work in the other half. As such, the graduate recruitment team concluded that I actually would not need to work more than 20 hours in total, which meant they could accommodate me on the scheme. However, for my other vacation schemes, which were all longer than a week, I definitely ended up working more than 20 hours.
- The type of firm: generally, the larger the firm, the more will its recruitment process be highly-bureaucratic and strict on the rules. Smaller firms (and, anecdotally, US firms specifically) tend to be a bit more practical minded and solutions-oriented, and you may have a higher chance of convincing them to take a more flexible approach. Some flexible solutions they may be amenable to are the ones Jessica suggested - reducing the number of days you work or splitting them across two weeks. Alternatively, you could try to persuade them to allow you on the scheme, but only do 'actual work' for half of your time, and spend the rest on networking/learning activities.
- The description of the vacation scheme: Some firms emphasize that they want the vacation scheme experience to have involve a lot of actual work and be as close as possible to your training contract experience. Other firms emphasize the learning aspect of the vacation scheme, or emphasize the assessment element for TC recruiting. It should generally be easier to convince the latter category to accommodate you.
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