TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25

[yasmars]

I thought that too but I applied 20/10 and was invited to do WG 21/10. Pretty fast turn around to be reviewed?

Maybe they changed the process this year because last year it was definitely selective.

 

[lolasparks]

I wouldn't write it off just yet, apparently, they shortlist so they may take the application itself into consideration -For practice I used the below links CC has a practice application as does LL - AD has a good number of free tests:
https://www.assessmentday.co.uk/watson-glaser-critical-thinking.htm
https://jobs.cliffordchance.com/early-careers-me

Your application | Early Careers | Linklaters

careers.linklaters.com

Thank you!!

 

[Ram Sabaratnam]

Anyone not done Weil's Virtual Experience Programme and still pass application stage?

Heya @KBanana

Yep, I’ve successfully progressed through the application stage without completing the Weil Virtual Experience Programme. In general, this has never really been an issue for me (it's only ever come up once during an interview). If you can demonstrate genuine engagement with a firm and its work, you’ll usually be in a strong position. This “engagement” doesn’t necessarily have to come from attending open days or completing virtual internships; even conducting thorough research into the firm and its key areas of focus can demonstrate good engagement.

While virtual experience programmes like those on Forage can be really helpful in giving you insight into the types of tasks and documents trainees typically handle, I really don't think they’re a requirement to write a strong, convincing application. People gain relevant skills and experiences in a variety of ways, whether through legal or non-legal work, volunteering, or other professional experiences.

The most important thing is to focus on crafting a well-written, well-researched, tailored application that highlights why you’re a strong fit for the firm. Please do apply to Weil!

 

[Ram Sabaratnam]

@Jessica Booker is there anywhere I could find a list of commercial awareness questions that are actually useful for interview prep.

Hiya @cleojwilliams

I've attached a link to the TCLA question bank below. This was an absolute godsend for me when preparing for interviews! It helped me craft great skeleton outlines for a variety of question, pre-empting many of those that could come up during an assessment centre or partner interview. I’d highly recommend exploring the questions listed under the commercial section (as well as those in other sections) to guide your preparation for any upcoming ACs or interviews. You can find the question bank here: TCLA Question Bank.

Good luck with your preparation!

 

[Ram Sabaratnam]

any advice for Clifford chance application question? there seems to be a lot to it and not sure what to prioritise/ how to structure?

Heya @member7830

I remember thinking the question was quite broad when I initially applied in a previous cycle, but I think you can use the general open-ended nature of the question to your advantage

When approaching the question, I think you can just jump straight into your experiences without a general introduction. I'd recommend starting with a specific, impactful example that immediately demonstrates your strengths. When I drafted my application, I began by describing one of my proudest achievements, which consisted of overseeing a really difficult water installation project in rural India. In general, when describing an achievement you are most proud of, ensure it's clear why this moment is significant to you. Did it push you out of your comfort zone? Were there significant challenges to overcome? Did it force you to draw on a range of skills, which ultimately led you to making a meaningful impact? You should use the example as an opportunity to demonstrate your drive, values, and skills, indicating why you think these make you specifically suited to joining and excelling at Clifford Chance.

I'd also suggest focussing on a few standout achievements that highlight different aspects of your skillset and character. Try to draw on achievements and extracurriculars from a range of contexts. For instance, I used one achievement from my time as a student, another from my time in my full-time job, and a few others from my time carrying out volunteer or extracurricular work. When doing so, I tried to be explicit about my role in each experience: what actions I took, what was distinctively challenging about the experience, and how my actions overcame those challenges to achieve a favourable result.

Finally (and this actually applies to any other application you create), make every word count. If you find you're using "filler" words or sentences, trim them out. Avoid vague descriptions, but convincingly explain what you personally did during these achievements and extracurricular activities. You want to ensure each sentence contributes to showcasing your potential as a future Clifford Chance lawyer, tying your experiences to their values.

Overall, I think the goal is not only to highlight your achievements but also to demonstrate how they position you for success at the firm. Good luck with the application!

 

[elsx]

Hi,
For Hogan Lovells, Reed Smith and CMS, how long did it take for people to revise the test.

 

[Ram Sabaratnam]

Thoughts on Wedlake bell? Possible internship and wanted to know others thoughts on them as a firm I’ve not done any research on them as of yet.

Heya @IneedaTCASAP

Just following up on what cwhite233 said. Completely agree that they're a really nice mid-sized firm with a great culture. There’s been some excellent reporting on the firm in The Lawyer (which is unfortunately behind a paywall), but the firm has been doing particularly well from a financial standpoint. They essentially smashed their 2023/24 targets, achieving a 15% rise in revenue to £58.2m and a 61% increase in net profit to £11.5m. This brought their profit per equity partner (PEP) to £479,000, a 26% rise. It’s also worth noting that they acquired another firm, Moon Beever in 2021, and the managing partner Martin Arnold has announced the firm’s aim is to see consistent annual growth, with ambitions to reach £64m revenue by 2024/25.

From just a quick Google search, it seems the private client practice is really driving the firm's growth (in addition to their real estate work). They also made some important hires in this area, including Tim Maxwell and Rudy Capildeo from Charles Russell Speechlys, which will undoubtedly have improved their reputation among private wealth clients. Their new senior partner, Camilla Wallace, has also focused on improving working culture and employee satisfaction (You can find a little podcast they did here). Overall, if you’re interested in real estate matters and private client work, and want to join a firm that’s had an impressive growth trajectory, I’d encourage you to make an application! At the very least, an internship will give you much greater insight into this sort of work and their culture.

 

[Ram Sabaratnam]

Hello, @Andrei Radu @vera.mekhonoshina @Jessica Booker. Could you please help me with how to structure this argument, do I use the STAR method do I just describe tasks which helped me develop competency skills?

Using the three pieces of work experience you have included above, please outline the skills these have enabled you to develop, that are transferable to the role of a Trainee Solicitor. (500 words)

Heya @V2002

I think @Andrei Radu @Amma Usman and @Jessica Booker would definitely have more to say here. But thought I'd add my two cents. I think using the STAR method is a great idea for structuring your response. It can provide your answer with clarity and organisation, making it easier for the reader to follow how each experience helped you develop relevant skills.

That said, the key here isn’t just structure. It’s about depth and reflection. A common pitfall I see when applicants approach these questions is that they describe their skills in overly generic terms, like “This experience helped me develop my written communication skills” or “This experience improved my teamwork abilities.” These descriptions are too generic and vague, offering little detail or insight into how the experience shaped these skills.

For example, if you’re discussing written communication skills, try to be more specific. Did your role involve a variety of writing tasks that taught you how to adjust your tone and style for different audiences? Did you learn to organise information clearly and concisely for a professional document or email? By showing this level of reflection, you demonstrate not just the skill itself but also your awareness of its nuances.

Another example would be when describing your 'research skills'. Did you learn how to assess the credibility of different sources or distil key insights for a specific audience? Did you develop techniques to manage large volumes of information effectively? Highlighting these specifics will make your examples stand out and show how the experience you're discussing has prepared you for the responsibilities of a trainee solicitor.

Ultimately, this question is asking you to showcase how these experiences helped you grow, not just stating the skills themselves. Using the STAR method will help structure your answer, but again use some reflection to answer this question with appropriate depth. Best of luck with your applications!

 

[IneedaTCASAP]

Heya @IneedaTCASAP

Just following up on what cwhite233 said. Completely agree that they're a really nice mid-sized firm with a great culture. There’s been some excellent reporting on the firm in The Lawyer (which is unfortunately behind a paywall), but the firm has been doing particularly well from a financial standpoint. They essentially smashed their 2023/24 targets, achieving a 15% rise in revenue to £58.2m and a 61% increase in net profit to £11.5m. This brought their profit per equity partner (PEP) to £479,000, a 26% rise. It’s also worth noting that they acquired another firm, Moon Beever in 2021, and the managing partner Martin Arnold has announced the firm’s aim is to see consistent annual growth, with ambitions to reach £64m revenue by 2024/25.

From just a quick Google search, it seems the private client practice is really driving the firm's growth (in addition to their real estate work). They also made some important hires in this area, including Tim Maxwell and Rudy Capildeo from Charles Russell Speechlys, which will undoubtedly have improved their reputation among private wealth clients. Their new senior partner, Camilla Wallace, has also focused on improving working culture and employee satisfaction (You can find a little podcast they did here). Overall, if you’re interested in real estate matters and private client work, and want to join a firm that’s had an impressive growth trajectory, I’d encourage you to make an application! At the very least, an internship will give you much greater insight into this sort of work and their overall culture.

This is amazing. Thank you for this information @Ram Sabaratnam will definitely take it on board.

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hi All, I have recieved an A/C invite to DLA Piper - would anyone have any advice or support materials I could use to prepare please? I'm a bit nervous and new to the A/C process @Jessica Booker @Andrei Radu (apologies, I saw others tagging you, so I hope its ok to ask for your help in this way also)

Hi @Nathan_CareerChanger and first of all huge congratulations on getting to the AC stage, it is a huge achievement! It is definitely alright to tag us, this is what we are here for - so feel free to do so as often as you need our help!

Now, for the DLA AC, I will first give you some DLA Piper-specific resources that I think will be helpful. This are just meant to familiarize you more with what you can expect and to allow you to identify any particular areas to focus on during your preparation.

• A thread where forum members were discussing their DLA Piper AC experiences
• A detailed post discussing interview experiences at DLA - this type of post was particularly useful for me when I was preparing for ACs last year.
• A shorter, similar post from the 2020 recruitment cycle
• A shorter, similar post from the 2022 recruitment cycle
• A shorter, similar post from the 2024 recruitment cycle

Besides that, I thought it may be useful to also link some more general preparation resources for you. I have recently wrote a comprehensive guide for the competency interviews specifically. This includes a step-by-step preparation approach which led to me getting a VS offer from top US/MC firm 4/4 times I implemented it last year.

I also have here three amazing guides written by @Jacob Miller, which should prepare you for the other parts of the DLA AC:

• One for case studies
• One for negotiations
• One for general interview preparation.

 

[TJM23]

bird and bird pfo since i didn’t meet the benchmark for wg. quite disappointed 😔

I'm sorry to hear that- I'm sure you will succeed at other applications! Can I ask how fast the turn around was between doing the test and hearing back?

 

[TJM23]

I did mine this weekend. Haven’t heard back yet.

hey can I ask how fast the turn around was between doing the test and hearing back?

 

[stargazed]

bird and bird pfo since i didn’t meet the benchmark for wg. quite disappointed 😔

Hi! Was this for the spring or summer VS?

 

[_shims_]

Hi! Skadden's application asks 'If you could choose a career other than law, what would you choose? (250 words)'

I am unsure how to approach this question, as I don't want the person reading my application to wonder why I didn't choose that career instead. Any advice will be much appreciated - thank you!

 

[0livia.pope]

hey can I ask how fast the turn around was between doing the test and hearing back?

I heard back the next day to say I passed

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hi everyone, I just submitted an application, but I think the system had a technical error, and even though I wrote my application correctly, the system made it seem as if I made a typo. I was supposed to write "conducting", but on my form it says "conducti ng". This happened after I tried to change it multiple times, and even when I thought I did it turned up like this. I am now very upset that this happened, do you think this would automatically be a rejection? I have no other mistakes in the application other than a few redundant spaces before commas, again due to the system. Is it worth emailing grad rec?

Hi @soldofa8 I would not worry about this too much. You will definitely not be rejected because of one typo - especially since the graduate recruitment team may be aware of occasional system errors. Recruiters have told me in the past that 98% of applications have at least one typo and even the "strictest" recruiters operate at most something like a three-strikes-and-you're-out rule. Even if you have multiple typos, while not ideal, recruiters will likely be willing to overlook it if the quality of the application is otherwise very high - this actually happened once to me.

However, I don't see any reason why emailing the firm about this would be a bad idea. They might even appreciate it as they might find out about a system error they were previously unaware of.

 

[Tclarocks123]

I was someone who kept failing firms WG tests and getting filtered out in my first cycle. This cycle I got 37/40 for Linklaters and passed DLA and CC, although idk my exact scores.

I think while practising tests definitely helps, to consistently score high, using resources or watching videos on the underlying reasoning as to why X is the correct answer is what will help you score high consistently. Going off intuition alone never worked well for me.

Really useful.Thank you.

 

[seferiades]

Does anyone know if Clifford Chance is okay with bullet points for work experience, or do they prefer long-form answers?

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hi! Skadden's application asks 'If you could choose a career other than law, what would you choose? (250 words)'

I am unsure how to approach this question, as I don't want the person reading my application to wonder why I didn't choose that career instead. Any advice will be much appreciated - thank you!

Hi @_shims_ I would not be too worried about that. When the firm selected this question, it was exactly because they wanted to see what other careers you would be motivated to pursue. I believe this is for three reasons (i) they want to see if there is any overlap between your fundamental motivations for choosing a career in the legal field and your motivations for pursuing an alternative career path; (ii) they want candidates that have seriously considered other careers as well before deciding to commit to law; and (iii) they are interested in recruiting well-rounded individuals with interests and passions outside of law.

The only potential issue of concern regarding tensions with your decision to pursue becoming a commercial solicitor comes at point (i). To address that, I think you want to have as much commonality between the reasons for your interest in the alternative career path and plausible reasons for interest in the work of commercial lawyers. I have recently written a post discussing this, I have quoted it bellow.

While there is no right or wrong answer to this question and while what you can discuss will depend significantly on your interests and experiences, it seems to me that it would be optimal if you can discuss a genuine interest in a job within the commercial sphere. Essentially, I believe the point of this question is to test whether your underlying motivations regarding your career options truly fit commercial law. If for instance you were to say you would have become an art painter if not a lawyer, the graduate recruitment department might be naturally suspicious as to whether your character and aspirations are truly a great fit for being a commercial solicitor. Whilst it is of course possible to have an interest in both fields simultaneously, it might in practice be difficult to write an answer which will not leave recruiters unpersuaded that your true passion lies outside of the work you would be doing for the firm.

For this reason, I think the best answer to this question is to focus on a career path which (i) you think you could actually have had an interest in; and (ii) involves a job experience which has as many similarities as possible to the experience of commercial solicitor. Here, consulting or investment banking seem to me to have lots of common features: you work closely with the same clients you would as a commercial lawyer, you are in an advisory position as well, you need to be very commercially aware, you work across many industries on cross-border transactions etc. Of course, there's many other roles you could choose to discuss besides these two - as long as there's still a substantial overlap between the characteristics of the job you discuss and the practice of a commercial solicitor.

Besides this, I have also thought it may be useful to quote a great post and discussion with @Ram Sabaratnam about this question, which provides you with slightly different perspective:

I think @Andrei Radu and @Jessica Booker would definitely have more to say here, but I don't think there’s really any one-size-fits-all answer. Grad rec isn't looking for you to mention a specific alternative career. Rather, they’re interested in getting to know you and what genuinely interests you in a career. When answering this question, I’ve seen successful applicants talk about a range of alternative careers, from journalism to teaching to becoming a police officer. The common thread is that they used this opportunity to showcase their interests and the skills they would enjoy using in the alternative career they're discussing. For example, when asked this question during interview, I once mentioned going into political science and data analysis as an alternative path because I love working with others to understand the causes and data behind big political issues. I also mentioned the importance to me of getting to delve more deeply into big or complex political events to make them more easy to understand for myself and others. Overall, I think the key is to choose something that resonates with you and allows you to highlight the qualities and skills that are meaningful to you in a particular career.

1. I agree with Ram here that you can choose any alternative career path to discuss as long as you can provide a convincing analysis of your motivation. However, I also think that, all other things being equal, you want your fundamental motivations for the alternative career path to overlap as much as possible with plausible motivations for choosing to pursue a career in law. The reason is that if there is no or only minimal overlap, this might lead some recruiters to doubt the coherence of your career-selection criteria when you decided to work in the legal field. At the very least, you want to provide motivations for an alternative career that will not directly contradict plausible motivations for working in commercial law. For instance, while of course you could discuss an alternative career path as an academic, I think it would be a mistake to cite a desire to work independently on long-term projects as a motivation - as in commercial law you will always have to collaborate with others in an environment that is also 'fast-paced'.

I would therefore say that if you can talk about a career path that has many overlaps with law that would be ideal, as it will be easier to find common motivations for both. Examples that come to mind include investment banking and consulting, as just like Big Law they involve (1) advisory work for varied clients in varied industries and (2) a focus on the world of large international business.

 

[nodustollens]

Has anyone who’s got the virtual workshop at Bristows on wednesday been emailed any details?