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TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25
- Thread starter Jessica Booker
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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.
- Sep 9, 2024
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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 😄
- Sep 9, 2024
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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.
If you were a Trainee Solicitor at Baker McKenzie, where would you want to go on secondment and why? (this may be client specific, country specific, or both) (300 words)
I am currently answering this question for BM's open day. I have chosen to write about a client secondment. I aim to briefly explain a commercial challenge/issue the client is likely to face and how my personal/professional experiences have motivated me to help the client navigate that challenge/issue. Is this approach good or am I not answering the question? Would appreciate anyone's insights
I am currently answering this question for BM's open day. I have chosen to write about a client secondment. I aim to briefly explain a commercial challenge/issue the client is likely to face and how my personal/professional experiences have motivated me to help the client navigate that challenge/issue. Is this approach good or am I not answering the question? Would appreciate anyone's insights
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They don't - it is just verbal reasoning, situational judgement, and personality assessment. Hope this helps
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- Sep 9, 2024
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Hi there! As @Jessica Booker mentioned, you have a lot of freedom in deciding how to approach this, and it doesn't need to be BCLP or law-firm specific. If anything, I'd advise you to avoid trying to shoehorn firm-specific/legal industry examples to more abstract points which could be better illustrated in another way.
As for other application answers, I don't think you need to aim to 'dazzle' the recruiters with very niche points. Rather, I would focus on having a very good structure, a concise style, and cogent and clear substantive points about how a business works. If a concrete suggestion is of any use, off the top of my head this is how I would go about answering this question:
- Firstly, explain the concept of profit in simple terms, as earnings minus costs, and exemplify with sources of earnings and sources of costs most businesses have.
- Having explained how generating profits essentially boils down to either increasing earnings, or reducing costs, or both, I would then describe in layman terms the general strategies a business can use to maximize earnings. Things I could mention include increasing market share (perhaps via geographic expansion, increased hiring, or M&A) to improve the total volume of business and therefore the margins of profit; or finding gaps in the market, where you can tap on existing demand no one else is servicing; or differentiate your business' brand via effective marketing etc. Whatever general strategy point I would choose to mention, I would the illustrate with the best example I could find of a company successfully doing this.
- The second half of the answer would instead be focused on minimizing costs, where I could mention strategies like: creating economies of scale to increase the efficiency of supply and distribution chains and improve market bargaining power; structuring operations and transactions in a tax efficient manner; automating processes (especially now with generative AI), outsourcing, etc. Once again, I would seek to illustrate these strategies with the best examples of companies who have efficiently implemented them.
Thank you and yes this is a good approach to the question. Is it okay to focus on their work in a specific sector in another jurisdiction like their work in the Asia region where they have lots of clients and link it to why that benefits the firm as they do cross border work. I know I am applying for their London office.
This is a good structure and will take this approach really liked the bit about the issues never thought of discussing that.
Hi @emma.d, I just finished my studies at BPP. If you want to PM me I'm happy to answer any questions you have!
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