Commercial Awareness - Silver Circle Firms

[MrSoprano]

Hi guys,

Got an AC soon for one of the silver circle firms. The firm has strong practice areas in corporate, private client and private equity.

I'm finding it challenging to pick out a news story that would have relevance to one of the practice areas above, and subsequently to that firms' clients.

Please can someone offer their advice, I would really appreciate it.

 

[Jaysen]

Hi guys,

Got an AC soon for one of the silver circle firms. The firm has strong practice areas in corporate, private client and private equity.

I'm finding it challenging to pick out a news story that would have relevance to one of the practice areas above, and subsequently to that firms' clients.

Please can someone offer their advice, I would really appreciate it.

If this is for the typical 'tell me about a business news story that interests you?' question, there's no need to do this. I'd suggest choosing a commercial story that genuinely interests you (and ideally, one that you've been following). You're far more likely to show interest and handle follow up questions that way.

 

[MrSoprano]

Thanks for your reply, Jaysen.

I wish that were the question.

On the open day, we were told that we should prepare by having a business story that relates to the firms' clients or the implications that it may have on the firms' work.

 

[JoNo]

Thanks for your reply, Jaysen.

I wish that were the question.

On the open day, we were told that we should prepare by having a business story that relates to the firms' clients or the implications that it may have on the firms' work.

Hi - May I ask what firm this is?

 

[MrSoprano]

Hi - May I ask what firm this is?

PM'd you!

 

[MrSoprano]

Guys, please any assistance would be much appreciated. Even just pointing me in the right direction would be a huge help.

 

[Abstruser]

I totally agree with Jaysen. You should pick a news story that genuinely interests you, not least because you'll come off as more engaged but also because it'll be easier to handle follow-up questions. The risk of picking a story that is neither familiar nor interesting to you is that follow-up questions may stray into an area that you have absolutely no interest or knowledge about, which I don't think would come across that well in an interview.

I wouldn't say it is strictly necessary to show a link to the firm's particular strengths in private client and/or private equity unless you already have a specific story in mind. As long as you can link it back broadly to commercial law (practically all City law firms will have corporate and finance departments) I think that would be enough to show a link/impact on the firm's clients and business.

Just as a broad starting point, when you're reading a news story, it might help to think about the impact on these departments:

• Corporate
• Finance (PE is under here)
• Litigation / Disputes
• Commercial (contracts)
• Real Estate
• IP
• Property
• Tax