Ask A Graduate Recruiter Anything!

[hopefullawyer123]

Hi @Jessica Booker
I’ve been invited to complete a video interview which will cover ‘ my motivations, commercial awareness and understanding of law firms’.
I don’t know where to begin with my preparation for the commercial awareness and understanding of law firms aspect. Commercial awareness is so broad so I was wondering if you had knowledge on the type of commercial awareness questions that could be asked on a VI?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi @Jessica Booker
I’ve been invited to complete a video interview which will cover ‘ my motivations, commercial awareness and understanding of law firms’.
I don’t know where to begin with my preparation for the commercial awareness and understanding of law firms aspect. Commercial awareness is so broad so I was wondering if you had knowledge on the type of commercial awareness questions that could be asked on a VI?

A whole range unfortunately. Which firm is it and we might be able to give some more specific guidance.

 

[hopefullawyer123]

A whole range unfortunately. Which firm is it and we might be able to give some more specific guidance.

The firm is Willkie Farr & Gallagher

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

Hello Jessica! If there is no limit to the pieces of work experiences one can add in the work ex section, should we add everything that we've done since University? I read somewhere that every piece of experience you add dilutes the focus on the most impressive ones (which I guess is legal work experience), so how should we approach this?

Thank You.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hello Jessica! If there is no limit to the pieces of work experiences one can add in the work ex section, should we add everything that we've done since University? I read somewhere that every piece of experience you add dilutes the focus on the most impressive ones (which I guess is legal work experience), so how should we approach this?

Thank You.

it’s not a case of adding everything. Add what you think is appropriate/important and that demonstrates a range of skill sets and commitments.

it’s not that your most impressive work experience will be diluted by others? Where did you read that? Feel free to PM me about it, as it’s yet again one of those awful generalised bits of advice out there that doesn’t translate well

 

[SA123]

Hi Jessica! An application question I have come across asks 'what advice would you give to a friend who wants to set up a business?'. Do you think they are looking for an answer that focuses on things like registering a business/legal structure of the business or do they want one that goes through the process of starting a business e.g. conducting market research, securing funding, type of business etc.? Brain is going mad with the difference between setting up a business and starting one!!

Thanks for any guidance you can give!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi Jessica! An application question I have come across asks 'what advice would you give to a friend who wants to set up a business?'. Do you think they are looking for an answer that focuses on things like registering a business/legal structure of the business or do they want one that goes through the process of starting a business e.g. conducting market research, securing funding, type of business etc.? Brain is going mad with the difference between setting up a business and starting one!!

Thanks for any guidance you can give!

I would expect it to be both

 

[SA123]

I would expect it to be both

Thank you! It's only 250 words so, with choosing the legal structure, I was going to say something along the lines of 'I would advise my friend of the available UK business structures and their liability and tax implications' rather than go into detail about them all. Would you say that is sufficient?

 

[Jessica Booker]

The firm is Willkie Farr & Gallagher

It might be worthwhile reading this interview on LCN: Willkie Farr & Gallagher (UK) LLP - Meet the Recruiter (lawcareers.net)

 

[Jessica Booker]

Thank you! It's only 250 words so, with choosing the legal structure, I was going to say something along the lines of 'I would advise my friend of the available UK business structures and their liability and tax implications' rather than go into detail about them all. Would you say that is sufficient?

Sorry - it is really difficult (even impossible) to give guidance on this when it is 17 words out of 250!

 

[Daniel Boden]

Hi @Jessica Booker , thanks for your previous response. Willkie are currently recruiting for trainees who can start in Sept 2021,2022 and 2023. On Legal Cheek it says they have 6 training contracts in total. This leads me to the question of whether that means only 2 trainees will be taken on each year.

I am aware you probably can’t provide an insight into how true this is , but does that sound right?

Your logic makes sense but this is their first year of recruiting for TCs so I guess time will tell... no harm in emailing and asking them though if the website or brochure doesn't mention it!

 

[pkedits]

Hi @Jessica Booker - hope you're well!

I've been invited to do a video interview; the email says I have three days to complete - the deadline is 18 January 2021 (GMT+00:00) - does that mean midnight on Sunday or midnight on Monday? My interpretation was midnight on Monday but my flatmate thinks Sunday so I'm now worried I have a day less to prepare than I thought. (I work full time so can only prep this weekend).

Also I was wondering if you had any insight into whether video interviews are usually more general/competency based, or whether questions will be more specific to the firm? I appreciate you have no way of knowing what every single firm does but any general tips would be amazing, and apologies in advance if you've answered a similar question before (I'm still making my way through the whole thread). Many thanks!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi @Jessica Booker - hope you're well!

I've been invited to do a video interview; the email says I have three days to complete - the deadline is 18 January 2021 (GMT+00:00) - does that mean midnight on Sunday or midnight on Monday? My interpretation was midnight on Monday but my flatmate thinks Sunday so I'm now worried I have a day less to prepare than I thought. (I work full time so can only prep this weekend).

Also I was wondering if you had any insight into whether video interviews are usually more general/competency based, or whether questions will be more specific to the firm? I appreciate you have no way of knowing what every single firm does but any general tips would be amazing, and apologies in advance if you've answered a similar question before (I'm still making my way through the whole thread). Many thanks!

Monday 18 by 23.59.

Video interview questions can be across the whole spectrum/range of types of questions. Will very much depend on the firm.

General advice below:

 

[Sam55]

Hi Jessica,

I've applied to the Summer vacation scheme at Reed Smith and have passed the initial SST. However, looking at their website I realised that their summer vac scheme is for penultimate year and final year law students/final year non law and that their spring scheme is for 'graduates, career changers and graduates who have completed the lpc'. As I am currently doing the GDL, do I fall into the eligible group for the summer scheme? If not, do you think it is worth sending an email explaining that I have exams during the spring scheme dates so that is why I have applied to the summer scheme? Thanks!

 

[geraniumdreams]

Hi Jessica,

Really sorry if you've been asked this before/if there's another thread, but I was wondering what a bad answer to 'why law/why commercial law/why do you want to be a commercial solicitor' looks like?

Appreciate that it'll be a really personal one for each candidate, but was just wondering if there were any major red flags.

Thanks!

 

[AspiringLawyer112]

Hi Jessica,

I've applied to the Summer vacation scheme at Reed Smith and have passed the initial SST. However, looking at their website I realised that their summer vac scheme is for penultimate year and final year law students/final year non law and that their spring scheme is for 'graduates, career changers and graduates who have completed the lpc'. As I am currently doing the GDL, do I fall into the eligible group for the summer scheme? If not, do you think it is worth sending an email explaining that I have exams during the spring scheme dates so that is why I have applied to the summer scheme? Thanks!

I am in the same situation as this!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi Jessica,

I've applied to the Summer vacation scheme at Reed Smith and have passed the initial SST. However, looking at their website I realised that their summer vac scheme is for penultimate year and final year law students/final year non law and that their spring scheme is for 'graduates, career changers and graduates who have completed the lpc'. As I am currently doing the GDL, do I fall into the eligible group for the summer scheme? If not, do you think it is worth sending an email explaining that I have exams during the spring scheme dates so that is why I have applied to the summer scheme? Thanks!

yes - probably best to do this. Be aware that they may still say you can only go forward for the Spring scheme though

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi Jessica,

Really sorry if you've been asked this before/if there's another thread, but I was wondering what a bad answer to 'why law/why commercial law/why do you want to be a commercial solicitor' looks like?

Appreciate that it'll be a really personal one for each candidate, but was just wondering if there were any major red flags.

Thanks!

• Vague/general statements that could be said of other careers
• Lacks specific detail
• Lacks evidence or rationale as to why things appeal
• Only talks about the headline stuff rather than thinking about why the day job would appeal
• Only says that parts appeal to you but doesn’t explain why they do, and doesn’t have evidence of explanation to back that thinking up

 

[geraniumdreams]

• Vague/general statements that could be said of other careers
• Lacks specific detail
• Lacks evidence or rationale as to why things appeal
• Only talks about the headline stuff rather than thinking about why the day job would appeal
• Only says that parts appeal to you but doesn’t explain why they do, and doesn’t have evidence of explanation to back that thinking up

Great, thanks so much!

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

@Jessica Booker Hello ma'am, hope you are doing well. Could you please tell me, how many questions should we ask at the end of the HR and the Partner interview. My guess would be 1 question each. What are your views?