Clifford Chance Training Contract Interview 2019

[Jaysen]

Clifford Chance Training Contract Interview 2019

The day started with an intro session by a member of the Grad recruitment team. Just to go through the day and answer any questions.

There was a group of 8 candidates and we were each collected by our interviewers.

Competency interview

The first interview was a competency for everyone with two associates. Not sure if this has any impact on the weighting or was to get nerves out of the way. I had two associates.

Interestingly, I didn’t get the traditional why law or why CC.

As CC are CV blind, I had to provide an intro to myself. Questions were on teamwork, challenges, achievements, leadership and commercial awareness. I found the later a little difficult, as I was just a little thrown by the way they were phrased. The associates have a long list of questions which they can ask, so prepare for a very broad range of potential competencies.

The impression I got was that they would grade your answers from 1-5. So not sure how my answers will stack up or be judged. Felt like I was doing a lot of talking. Wasn't easy to build rapport in this interview as it was a back and forth, question and answer.

Case study interview

30 minutes to prepare a typed email to a Partner on a fictional acquisition. And then 10 minutes to present key points to the Partner.

Advice here would be to structure the email so that it’s easy to present. In terms of content, focus on practice areas and apply the facts to these practices to explain how they will be involved. The Partner interviewing me looked through the typed email, but for others the Partners didn’t. (Apparently the writing is not judged – but I find that hard to believe).

The Partner then follows up to clarify any points and to ask some more questions on the case study. These questions are just generally on common sense and how would you react in the situation. For example, client wanted the DD complete in a short timescale or you have conflict commitments. What would you do.

Once the case study element is over, the Partner then asks some general questions for about 10-15 minutes, why CC, and why law, etc. Again given the CV blind element, they asked about background and journey to this point. The Partner felt I had an interesting journey so we spent some time talking about this. In this interview it was much easier to develop rapport with the Partner and it felt more like a conversation. I actually enjoyed this interview, and almost wished it carried on for a little bit longer!!

No response yet, but they advised a timescale of one week.

 

[Jaysen]

Clifford Chance Training Contract Interview 2018

"The day starts off with a competency interview. It's relatively straightforward - just a chat about what you do outside the university, some basic competencies and your motivations for Clifford Chance.

Arguably, the hardest part of the day is the next part - written exercise and Partner interview. The case study is a written task where you have to highlight issues about a potential acquisition to a partner. The exercise is really time-pressured, so I would advise writing very concisely, with clear headings and mainly highlighting key points. It is essential that you know how transactions work, what practice areas may be involved and any current affairs that may affect the proposed transaction.

When presenting to the partner, its important to tackle is systematically. After that, its up to the partner to probe you and ask you questions about the case study. The partner may even talk about issues or your motivations beyond the case study. For my interview, my partner did not even read what I had typed out in the written exercise!

All in all, the AC at Clifford Chance is not particularly challenging, unless of course you get a Partner who deliberately makes it extremely technical. Even then, the issues in the case study are relatively straightforward. I think that the AC at CC is predominantly trying to get a feel of your personality. Bottom line, just be confident and be calm. As they will emphasise on the AC, they are looking for potential! A few of my friends who got the TC as well thought they bombed the Partner interview, but as long as you show a logical thought processes, you should be fine."