CityLawLIVE organiser: "Talent galore, but attention to detail is lacking"

The application deadline for student delegate places at the CityLawLIVE conference passed on 6 January, and well over 500 applications were received. Selections for the 200 delegates are now being made and most students will be notified within the coming days.

"The majority will hear from us by early next week with a yes or no," confirmed organiser Anna Williams, "but if a student doesn’t hear back immediately it will be because they are on a reserve list. It’s a shame that we don’t have more places available, as the standard was really high. I’d hate for anyone to feel disheartened by a rejection email - in many cases we just felt we needed to see another year of academic results to nudge someone into the offer category, so we hope those people apply again next year." As for those who do receive an offer, Williams added: "Hopefully they will accept or decline promptly so we can minimise the wait for those on the reserve list."

Applications for the event were made using the Apply4Law application form, which is now used by over 70 law firms. It gave conference organisers insight into how firms must feel when they receive hundreds of training contract and vacation scheme applications. "We read all forms at least once and were looking for reasons to make offers rather than rejections. It was always disappointing when a seemingly well-qualified student let themselves down with typographical errors or simply omitted parts of the form," explained Williams. "These online application systems deliberately don’t have a built in spellcheck and its horrifying to see otherwise good applications include needless errors. When it comes to submitting real vac scheme forms, many of which are due in by the end of January, students have got to be so careful."