Magic circle firm extends yesterday’s deadline to 3pm today
Students are fuming after the graduate recruitment website of magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer went offline for “scheduled maintenance” just hours before its vacation scheme and training contract application deadline.
When wannabe lawyers went to submit their applications to Freshfields yesterday evening, they got this message:
Cue an attack of furious students on Freshfields’ graduate recruitment Twitter account:
Deadline reminder: vacation scheme and training contract applications close tonight!
— Freshfields Grads (@FreshfieldsGrad) January 6, 2016
@freshfieldsgrad so called planned maintenance has thrown a spanner in the works. Could the deadline be extended?
— Ruhul® (@ruhul555) January 6, 2016
@FreshfieldsGrad The application website is down and I cannot access my account to send in my application. Please could you advise me.
— Ahmet Kocaturkmen (@ahmetkocaturkmn) January 6, 2016
@FreshfieldsGrad Help! It says the application page is unavailable until tomorrow 6am due to scheduled maintenance..
— Areesha (@areeshamirzaa) January 6, 2016
@FreshfieldsGrad 'Maintenance' on you application website! Will I be unable to apply? Thought midnight tonight was the deadline!!!
— Camile (@camilebridges) January 6, 2016
When contacted by Legal Cheek, Freshfields said it was looking into the problem.
Update 10:02am — Freshfields has extended its vacation scheme and training contract application deadline until 3pm today, and issued this statement:
The IT issues that impacted the firm’s vacation scheme and graduate recruitment website last night have now been resolved. We are currently contacting applicants who have told us that they experienced problems applying to the firm and have extended our deadline for all applications to 3pm today (January 7th). If any applicants would like to check that their submission has been received please contact Freshfields on ukgraduates@freshfields.com.