Adult son 27 and Law TC.

[Cryingforthemoon]

My son has a good job working for a top comms firm in London. However he really wants to get a law training contract to become a lawyer in the city.

He has been applying for 18 months now - some 30 or so applications and has made vacation schemes twice and the final round twice, but has been turned down on all 4 occasions.

The last one was last week. He was down to the final two out of 600 or so, was shown round the office, told that the final interview was just a getting to know you type of one, then was given a savage grilling for 45 minutes by 2 partners. Told 2 weeks later he hadn't got it.

I think it has upset me more than him. Is this par for the course with big city law firms? Should he keep going? Any tips? How do you as a parent cope with it all?

Any advice - law or life - gratefully received.

He can always keep going but they'll get cheaper grads onto a tc

TCs usually pay a standard amount so cost won't be the issue.

The reality is that it is daftly competitive. A lot of rejections is completely normal. If it is what he really wants to do he will need to keep plugging away. It sounds like he is getting close so he probably has a chance. What are his academics like?

(I was a partner involved in trainee recruitment for a City firm for many years.)

He has a high 2.1 from Durham and a Masters in Politics from LSE. As well as 3 years solid business experience with Comms for FTSE 100 firms.

My son had similar in terms of many rejections and being told you’re in the final 4 for 3 TCs then being the one who missed out. However he stuck at it and worked as a paralegal for several months before getting a TC at a firm he was really keen on. It sounds like your son is getting really close so should probably grit those teeth and keep going if it’s what he really wants. Good luck !

He needs to make sure he gets honest feedback as to why he wasn’t successful.

Did he have law experience before @Holidayhooha . Mine doesn't.

@Soontobe60 he does, they mostly tell him we really liked you etc and that it was a difficult decision etc. No real concrete facts.

His law experience was the vac schemes you mentioned and work experience in law when he was at school. 2.1 from Russell group uni.

@Holidayhooha so he hadn't had any legal training/done the GDL/ studies law at Uni?

How old was he out of interest?

He could consider:

• as above, becoming a paralegal
• volunteering somewhere like a law centre or CAB (maybe try to align with the CSR activities of the firms he's targeting)
• looking into jobs related to regulation which may be more open to generalist backgrounds such as compliance, corporate governance, or ESG, or alternatively jobs similar to what he's already doing but at a law firm
• reading the FT

He was 25. He’d done Law and Spanish at uni however first graduate job not in law but a management trainee grad scheme.

@Holidayhooha thanks. My son hasn't done any law - needs a conversion course

@Cryingforthemoon , well done to your DS for getting this far in his TC applications. He's clearly doing something right to get to that stage. From everything I now know, I think it's a numbers game with far, far more people applying for TCs than places available. I've got 2 DCs doing their second round of TC applications, alongside also doing law conversion courses and it's like having a full-time job - just doing the applications. So your DS is also doing really well working f/t too.

My DCs feel like they're needing to put in a massive amount of energy for such an elusive end goal with the odds stacked against them. Both have good 2:1 Oxbridge degrees, and quite a bit of law related work experience (one DC more so than the other). They're younger than your DS - just out of university - but are now assuming it'll take a years to land a TC and they'll probably need to do a few years as a paralegal and/or work in the commercial world first.

I agree that it's tough as a parent not being able to do anything to help and seeing them get almost to the final few candidates and then rejected. It seems a lot harder than applying for a 'normal' job/ grad. scheme or doing university applications and exams but stamina / staying power is crucial.

@Soontobe60 many law firms don't seem to give feedback at all to unsuccessful candidates and those that do - ie when someone is at the final hurdle - appear to make feedback very generic, so it's not possible to discern exactly what made them get rejected.

Some of those who're successful in getting a TC seem to have less relevant work experience/ worse academics/ worse social and communication skills/ commercial knowledge than those who don't get an offer. In other cases, it's clearer why someone succeeded and someone else didn't. From what I've heard, there may also be law firms needing to diversify their trainee profile and this can also be a factor in the selection process but I just think that those who really want a TC, have to persevere with applications.

I wish I could do something - anything - to help my DCs at this point, as there's nothing worse than feeling and being powerless and standing on the sidelines watching them fall yet again. It was so much easier when they were little and you could take action on their behalf. Now all you can do is be there, in the background, trying to help them stay positive.

Maybe we need a TC applications thread to support each other through this!

Has he done anything that exposes him to the law - volunteering, work experience, working with compliance or in-house legal?