TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25

[Jessica Booker]

Love the party hats! The site keeps crashing for me now though

Thanks for flagging - is it better now the hearts are back?

 

[LawHopeful1]

I tried to change it from the hearts but sadly it crashes the site. I think we are stuck with it!

I think they’re cute!

 

[Bread]

Thanks for flagging - is it better now the hearts are back?

Yes! seems to be working alright now

 

[Chris Brown]

Haha sure. What kind of discount were you thinking?

Hmm… great question… I was thinking maybe it could be something like: 👀😂😂​

 

[Jaysen]

Hmm… great question… I was thinking maybe it could be something like: 👀😂😂​

Haha - I can do 70% off the first month of a new subscription as it's 7 years. Only valid for today and tomorrow!

 

[AlegalA]

View attachment 6972
So I think there is still time. They also stated the ac dates, which are not any time soon.
View attachment 6973

Oh that's smarter actually, I forgot about that email I was looking at their website

 

[Jamil Max]

Hi, has anyone completed the video interview for the Legal internship at Amex?

Hi, sorry but is this the Campus Internship Programme?

 

[User5678]

has anyone heard back from browne Jacobson or womble bond/ has any idea when we can expect to hear back?

 

[Jamil Max]

Hi, has anyone completed the video interview for the Legal internship at Amex?

Hi, sorry but is this the Campus Internship Programme?

 

[RS Sanjanaa]

Hi! Looking for tips for the CRS VI from anyone who has done it for the vacation scheme program- I applied through the DTC route
Please PM if you can! Thank you

 

[Ram Sabaratnam]

Hi, has anyone completed the video interview for the Legal internship at Amex?

Hiya @a1024


Well done on getting to the video interview! I'm not sure if it's still the same process, but I was successful when I applied several cycles ago and the video interview was actually a virtual interview with several people from their legal team. I wanted to just mention a bit about my experience here alongside the excellent feedback already shared by @Amma Usman. I'd also just note that I think it's important to approach it like any other law firm interview. I found that approaching it this way was really helpful in preparing for the video interview with their legal team.

During my preparation, one key area I focused on was why I was particularly interested in experiencing legal work from an in-house perspective rather than at a City firm. This is important because the role of an in-house lawyer can be quite different, and often involves working closely with various non-legal business teams, thinking about the needs of your particular organisation, and often playing a more strategic, risk-management role rather than purely executing legal transactions. Being able to articulate why such work was appealing to me (and how I was suited to it) was something that I knew I needed to be prepared for.

I also made sure I could build on what I had written in my application when answering “Why AmEx?” and also why I was interested in financial services. I'm assuming this question is still asked in their application form, but we had no more than 100 words to answer the question during my cycle. I think having a more detailed/considered understanding of why you'd like to be at AmEx for the summer can really allow you to stand out. It will also allow you to show that you've had more to say since you submitted your application. I'd encourage you to have a think about specific aspects of AmEx's legal work, its in-house culture, and also why working in the financial services sector more broadly is appealing to you.

Finally, I did a bit of preparation for competency-based questions, particularly around problem-solving, teamwork, and handling legal challenges in a business environment. The STAR method was generally quite helpful here, and I think having concrete examples in mind helped me give structured answers.

Please just bear in mind that the structure of the video interview might have changed since the cycle in which I applied. That being said, I hope this helps and best of luck!

 

[Tintin06]

Love hearts on here or is it just eye floaters?

 

[Chris Brown]

Love hearts on here or is it just eye floaters?

It’s love hearts to celebrate TCLA’s 7th birthday which is tomorrow! 🎂​

 

[Lawlife5]

How long does everyone spend preparing for interviews to be able to recall motivations and competencies etc? thank you

 

[Andrei Radu]

Does anyone have advice for what I can do this summer / time until the next application cycle to boost my cv and general experiences?
This was my first application cycle and am still waiting to hear back from one AC but am not hopeful so I want to get ahead with adding stuff to my CV for the next cycle, especially law related as I don't really have any legal experiences.
I have a summer job, play a sport, volunteer weekly, and attend quite a few online events/complete forages, is there anything else I can do to improve myself for the next cycle or something I'm missing? Any advice very much appreciated as I really want to put my best foot forwards next time. Thanks

Hi @lawstudent2 to boost your CV and general experiences, consider the following:

• Apply to/reach out to any smaller/local law firms and practitioners to see if there is any opportunity for an internship, paralegal, or shadowing work experience available. Browsing LinkedIn and sending emails, texts, and having cold calls for this purpose can definitely be a time-consuming enterprise, and there is no guarantee of success, but I have seen multiple people manage to do it.
• Complete Forage Virtual Work Experiences: this is one of the easiest way to prove interest in a given firm, a practice area, and to simultaneously improve your commercial awareness.
• Attend online firm events: even though events in the summer are a lot more rare than during the normal cycle, a number of smaller firms will still host them, particularly around late July/start of August.
• Complete online commercial law/business-related courses: platforms like edX and Coursera offer low-priced courses that can really improve your commercial awareness and can then be referenced in an application or interview.

 

[👩🎓]

Does anyone have any tips for the Hill Dickinson VI - I can offer insight into Reed Smith, Foot Anstey and HFW. (Any tips/ advice would be highly appreciated).

 

[acb0410]

@Jaysen @Jessica Booker @Ram Sabaratnam
I am looking for some practice draft email tasks and negotiation tasks with model responses/ feedback, is this something that is included in the Bronze or Gold Premium membership please?

 

[Chris Brown]

That's a great question, although unfortunately my capacity to give an informed view is very limited (these decisions are made by executive partners through rather secretive internal processes, and while I have a passion for researching these matters after all I am not even a trainee yet 😁).

The closeness of Paul, Weiss and Apollo is actually quite unique even in an industry with many institutional relationships, and one which has attracted its fair share of criticism. Essentially, as you suggested in your question, the problem is that too close of a relationship can give the client an inordinate amount of control over the operations of a firm. In the case of Paul, Weiss it seems like even the firm's post-2008 expansion into transactional practice areas was partially the result of a conversation with Apollo (who at the time was only a disputes client), where the PE firm explained what practitioners Paul, Weiss would have to poach to win over its mandates on the PE front. Subsequent to that Paul, Weiss did in fact foster an extremely profitable relationship, one which Business Insider claims brings the US firm more than $100m per year in fees.

However, the same article holds that there have been a number of negative impacts as the result of this and that this relationship has changed "the DNA of the firm". Apparently some insiders claim that those pursuing partnership are encourage to seek to work on Apollo mandates in particular, and that the power balance in the firm's partnership is tilted in favour of those with ties with the PE giant. This can lead to an always on culture when it comes to this client's demands and it can potentially lead to conflicts in prioritizing them over other clients.

Nonetheless, it is unclear if these worries actually materialize and the evidence is at best anecdotal. What is clear that there are many benefits to this kind of connection. In an industry where partners are increasingly mobile between firms and tend to take their client books with them, an entrenched institutional relationship like this can give a firm a lot of certainty as to a constant flow of work. As you rightly identified, it can give the client a lot of power in influencing the firm's strategic priorities. However, firms' and core clients' incentives are often aligned, as I would argue is the case for Paul, Weiss' London expansion.

Just as London has become increasingly important for PE activity in the last decade, so has the profitability of having a London PE offering increased. This is to such an extent that now many in the legal press argue that for a firm to be part of the so-called the "Global Elite" and be truly competitive i in the market for high-end international transactions, it must have both a strong New York and London presence. As such, while Apollo's asking (coupled with the strategic opportunity to take advantage of internal conflicts within Kirkland's partner ranks) may have been the decisive factor in triggering the hiring spree, I also think it may have simply been the last clear indication Paul, Weiss needed to see where the winds of the legal profession were blowing.

Thank you for this it was genuinely so helpful! I asked this question today in my interview and they stated quite similar things to what you said! They also spoke about how they had been trying to establish a large-scale English law practice for some time and felt that now was the perfect time, especially in light of the increased PE activity and profitability found in London. I was nervous as hell for it because it was my first ever interview but I believe the posts you made on the forum about Paul, Weiss were a massive help! 🙂🙂​

 

[Andrei Radu]

How long does everyone spend preparing for interviews to be able to recall motivations and competencies etc? thank you

For my first interview I spent around 3-4 days preparing (although only the last two were completely dedicated to this) and for the latter ones around 1-2 days. Different people however start at different points and learn at different speeds, so I think everything within a range of 2 to 6/7 days can be justified. More than that I think you would be overdoing it, especially since I think your purpose should not be to memorize answers you previously formulated. Even in the best case scenario where you remember everything perfectly, that comes with a high risk of you sounding robotic and unnatural during the interview. Rather, focus on really internalizing the ideas behind the answers: how your experiences link to the skills and motivations that you have, and how you can discuss the same experiences to infer different motivations and competencies. This type of practice will form your interviewing skills more and will increase the chances that you can find a decent answer for whatever question you are asked.

 

[Andrei Radu]

Thank you for this it was genuinely so helpful! I asked this question today in my interview and they stated quite similar things to what you said! They also spoke about how they had been trying to establish a large-scale English law practice for some time and felt that now was the perfect time, especially in light of the increased PE activity and profitability found in London. I was nervous as hell for it because it was my first ever interview but I believe the posts you made on the forum about Paul, Weiss were a massive help! 🙂🙂​

I'm so glad to hear Chris - and I hope the interview went very well for you, definitely let us know when you hear back