- Feb 17, 2018
- 4,717
- 8,627
Allen & Overy Training Contract Interview 2018/19 (by Anonymous)
I just thought I would share my experience of my successful A&O TC interview, for anyone who may have assessments with them in the future.
The interview consisted of a case study, partner interview and HR scenario-based interview.
Case study
The case study was immensely time pressured – you are only given 30 minutes. I tried to make notes on a separate piece of paper for everything that I read, but in hindsight I should have just marked the booklet I was given and created a quick structure on a piece of paper, and noted the page numbers instead.
Stick to the brief given – there is an overwhelming amount of information and it will be difficult to even answer all the questions you are asked to examine in the instructions, so really just stick to the questions given or you will not finish the exercise in time.
You have to be familiar with balance sheets and with basic financial calculations like EBITDA. I was asked to advise on a fictitious M&A scenario. I would recommend being familiar with basic contractual mechanisms like warranties, representations and indemnities, but also with corporate boardroom mechanics, like how a minority shareholder might be protected from a majority shareholder etc.
Current commercial awareness is a bonus but not vital – at the end, I was asked to provide my opinion on the deal given my broader commercial knowledge. I was lucky enough that I had read an FT piece on the subject area a day prior, so I had something intelligent to say about the deal.
Partner interview
In my experience, the A&O interview was really unique because I wasn’t asked any standard questions like ‘why law’ or ‘why A&O’. That was just in my experience though.
The partner interview is based purely on your case study. You are given 15 minutes to make a presentation on the case study. I structured my presentation with a brief introduction, and then ran through the key points of the brief and ended with my recommendation on whether it was a good/bad deal.
It is unlikely you will have covered everything in the booklet in your presentation, and I think this is deliberate. My partner directed me to issues that I had missed – we discussed boardroom tactics in quite some detail, and although I wasn’t as quick on the ball as I would have liked, I took my time to think and ask for more clarification before eventually arriving at an answer. The key is to stay composed and confident even if you’re treading really deep water!
My interviewing partner was also a part-time Obligations lecturer, so my interview was particularly technical on the law. Questions I got included:
This was described to me as purely forward-looking, but in reality it was a mixture of forward-looking and competency-based questions. The questions asked are similar to the SJT – ‘what would you do if X’ – and then you are asked ‘have you ever had a similar situation where you had to do X’. Again, you can take your time to ask clarification – I asked my interviewer to repeat questions when they were particularly lengthy, and made notes on a notepad before answering questions.
Questions I got included:
Standard chance to speak to a trainee about life at the firm and have a coffee on A&O's stunning roof terrace. This part is completely unassessed.
I just thought I would share my experience of my successful A&O TC interview, for anyone who may have assessments with them in the future.
The interview consisted of a case study, partner interview and HR scenario-based interview.
Case study
The case study was immensely time pressured – you are only given 30 minutes. I tried to make notes on a separate piece of paper for everything that I read, but in hindsight I should have just marked the booklet I was given and created a quick structure on a piece of paper, and noted the page numbers instead.
Stick to the brief given – there is an overwhelming amount of information and it will be difficult to even answer all the questions you are asked to examine in the instructions, so really just stick to the questions given or you will not finish the exercise in time.
You have to be familiar with balance sheets and with basic financial calculations like EBITDA. I was asked to advise on a fictitious M&A scenario. I would recommend being familiar with basic contractual mechanisms like warranties, representations and indemnities, but also with corporate boardroom mechanics, like how a minority shareholder might be protected from a majority shareholder etc.
Current commercial awareness is a bonus but not vital – at the end, I was asked to provide my opinion on the deal given my broader commercial knowledge. I was lucky enough that I had read an FT piece on the subject area a day prior, so I had something intelligent to say about the deal.
Partner interview
In my experience, the A&O interview was really unique because I wasn’t asked any standard questions like ‘why law’ or ‘why A&O’. That was just in my experience though.
The partner interview is based purely on your case study. You are given 15 minutes to make a presentation on the case study. I structured my presentation with a brief introduction, and then ran through the key points of the brief and ended with my recommendation on whether it was a good/bad deal.
It is unlikely you will have covered everything in the booklet in your presentation, and I think this is deliberate. My partner directed me to issues that I had missed – we discussed boardroom tactics in quite some detail, and although I wasn’t as quick on the ball as I would have liked, I took my time to think and ask for more clarification before eventually arriving at an answer. The key is to stay composed and confident even if you’re treading really deep water!
My interviewing partner was also a part-time Obligations lecturer, so my interview was particularly technical on the law. Questions I got included:
- Do contractual assignments cover rights and obligations?
- What is the difference between tag-along and drag-along rights?
- Advantages/disadvantages of a New York jurisdiction clause vs an English jurisdiction clause?
- What is the difference between a warranty and representation?
This was described to me as purely forward-looking, but in reality it was a mixture of forward-looking and competency-based questions. The questions asked are similar to the SJT – ‘what would you do if X’ – and then you are asked ‘have you ever had a similar situation where you had to do X’. Again, you can take your time to ask clarification – I asked my interviewer to repeat questions when they were particularly lengthy, and made notes on a notepad before answering questions.
Questions I got included:
- If your colleague was slacking at work because of personal issues that they didn’t want to share with their boss, what would you do?
- What would you do if your boss removed you from a project you’d been working on for a long time?
Standard chance to speak to a trainee about life at the firm and have a coffee on A&O's stunning roof terrace. This part is completely unassessed.
