- Feb 17, 2018
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Please state the month/year you interviewed at the firm.
September 2019
Please specify what the interview was for.
Training Contract 2021
Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings.
Interview 1
==========
10am Interview with Partner & Associate
11am Tour around the office
Interview 2
==========
10am Written Exercise
11am Interview with 2 training partners
Please provide a summary of each assessment on the day with approximate timings.
Interview with Partner & Associate - very motivation based, not very technical. Some questions designed to make you think. Associate tends to play good cop and partner tends to play bad cop, although this is very mild.
Written Exercise - 1 hour to read through various articles on GDPR and provide a letter of advisement to a fictitious client in a scenario. There is a lot of information so you are required to pick out specifics, and you are given a word limit to get everything in which I recall being quite small (around 700-1000 if I recall correctly).
Interview with 2 grad recruitment partners - much harder interview, one of the hardest interviews I've ever had. Lots of technical questions - they are an IP/Life Science firm, so not necessarily legal questions but not your standard commercial questions. Every single answer I provided would be met with 3-4 followup questions going deeper and deeper into my answer (more than the usual 1 followup you might get elsewhere).
Please list any interview questions you were asked.
Why Bristows?
If you were sat on the train and you saw opposing counsel reading a confidential bundle about your case, which you could read, what would you do?
If you finished a meeting and were clearing out papers and you realised that opposing counsel had left a confidential document on the table, what would you do?
Tell us about a recent story in the news and why it relates to Bristows.
If you were leading a research project at your University, where would you look for funding and why?
What kind of issues do you think you would get with regards to getting this funding?
What role do you think Bristows plays in the IP and Life Science sector, and why does that appeal to you?
If you were a doctor who had produced a new program which would help other doctors diagnose disease, what kind of liability do you think you might encounter?
How would you give other people the rights to use your program, and what legal issues might arise?
Also a small exercise where you are given 2 products and you are asked to walk through any potential IP claims that might arise (they are very similar).
What is your best advice for each aspect of the assessment on the day? Please break this down for each assessment. This can include advice for preparation, as well as tips for the day.
Written exercise - plan your answer. You have a very small word limit, and lots to write, so make sure you write a plan for yourself first as there is a lot of information to get through.
Interview - applies for both interviews, and I can't stress this enough - don't be afraid of thinking about your answer for a good 20-30 seconds before replying. They were impressed that I thought through each answer instead of saying the first thing that came to my head, which meant that when I answered follow-up questions (and there were a lot), I was able to come up with reasoned answers.
Were you successful?
Yes
September 2019
Please specify what the interview was for.
Training Contract 2021
Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings.
Interview 1
==========
10am Interview with Partner & Associate
11am Tour around the office
Interview 2
==========
10am Written Exercise
11am Interview with 2 training partners
Please provide a summary of each assessment on the day with approximate timings.
Interview with Partner & Associate - very motivation based, not very technical. Some questions designed to make you think. Associate tends to play good cop and partner tends to play bad cop, although this is very mild.
Written Exercise - 1 hour to read through various articles on GDPR and provide a letter of advisement to a fictitious client in a scenario. There is a lot of information so you are required to pick out specifics, and you are given a word limit to get everything in which I recall being quite small (around 700-1000 if I recall correctly).
Interview with 2 grad recruitment partners - much harder interview, one of the hardest interviews I've ever had. Lots of technical questions - they are an IP/Life Science firm, so not necessarily legal questions but not your standard commercial questions. Every single answer I provided would be met with 3-4 followup questions going deeper and deeper into my answer (more than the usual 1 followup you might get elsewhere).
Please list any interview questions you were asked.
Why Bristows?
If you were sat on the train and you saw opposing counsel reading a confidential bundle about your case, which you could read, what would you do?
If you finished a meeting and were clearing out papers and you realised that opposing counsel had left a confidential document on the table, what would you do?
Tell us about a recent story in the news and why it relates to Bristows.
If you were leading a research project at your University, where would you look for funding and why?
What kind of issues do you think you would get with regards to getting this funding?
What role do you think Bristows plays in the IP and Life Science sector, and why does that appeal to you?
If you were a doctor who had produced a new program which would help other doctors diagnose disease, what kind of liability do you think you might encounter?
How would you give other people the rights to use your program, and what legal issues might arise?
Also a small exercise where you are given 2 products and you are asked to walk through any potential IP claims that might arise (they are very similar).
What is your best advice for each aspect of the assessment on the day? Please break this down for each assessment. This can include advice for preparation, as well as tips for the day.
Written exercise - plan your answer. You have a very small word limit, and lots to write, so make sure you write a plan for yourself first as there is a lot of information to get through.
Interview - applies for both interviews, and I can't stress this enough - don't be afraid of thinking about your answer for a good 20-30 seconds before replying. They were impressed that I thought through each answer instead of saying the first thing that came to my head, which meant that when I answered follow-up questions (and there were a lot), I was able to come up with reasoned answers.
Were you successful?
Yes
