Hi,
I am just about to go into my third year (studying in France as an Erasmus student) and I am planning on applying for Vac schemes this Autumn and then hopefully TCs at the end of this year. I decided to do it this way because I felt firms put a lot of emphasis on taking penultimate year law students for vac schemes but this might not be the case so I would definitely do some research and consider applying anyway! Also might be worth having a look at the information about TCs and the firm’s dates for their next intake, for example if you will graduate in 2013 and finish the LPC in 2014, it might not be worth applying for a TC where the intake will be in Autumn 2013.
Hope this helps!