Definitive Guide to Law Firm Case Studies! *Monday Article Series*

[Veep9]

Apologies - we'll soon put them somewhere where they are easier to find!

Legal Analysis: https://www.thecorporatelawacademy.com/forum/threads/case-study-1-legal-analysis.77/
M&A Analysis: https://www.thecorporatelawacademy.com/forum/threads/case-study-2-m-a-analysis.78/

Thank you so much!

 

[Han.louise]

@Jacob Miller Is it okay to use bullet points when completing a written exercise? For instance when you are going into greater detail about your reasonings. I always find it clearer to read and easier to understand.

 

[Daniel Boden]

@Jacob Miller Is it okay to use bullet points when completing a written exercise? For instance when you are going into greater detail about your reasonings. I always find it clearer to read and easier to understand.

I occasionally did bullet points but majored on using headings mostly. If you think bullet points will help convey to the reader the meaning of what you are trying to say better than longer, wordier sentences then go for it imo! But in most cases, a law firm will want to see how you draft so I would say use headings if you can and then use bullet points as like a summary section.

I think in a memo it is common to use bullet points at the beginning to give an outline of what you would cover and then you develop those points in more detail later in the document so that's another way of doing it

 

[Jacob Miller]

@Jacob Miller Is it okay to use bullet points when completing a written exercise? For instance when you are going into greater detail about your reasonings. I always find it clearer to read and easier to understand.

I tended to use bullet points in executive summaries and full prose in substantive paragraphs

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

Hey Guys. Firstly, thank you @Jacob Miller for this fantastic article. I just wanted to ask you, what are the case studies at CC & Linklaters? Are those M&A case studies?

Thank you.

 

[Dheepa]

Hey Guys. Firstly, thank you @Jacob Miller for this fantastic article. I just wanted to ask you, what are the case studies at CC & Linklaters? Are those M&A case studies?

Thank you.

I don't think Jacob or anyone else will have a definitive answer for this. Although M&A case studies tend to be the norm, firms change their assessment materials all the time. I know for a fact CC's case study last year was on the Thomas Cook collapse and CVAs. You can have a look at the interview experiences section of the forum for firms you're interested in as people usually provide a broad overview of what the case study involved.

Linklaters Interview 2019 - 2020

Please state the month/year you interviewed at the firm. November 2019 Please specify what the interview was for. Winter Vacation Scheme 2019 Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings. 9am Arrival, 9.30am Sit-down for case-study and online test section, 10.30am Interview...

www.thecorporatelawacademy.com

Clifford Chance Interview 2019 - 2020

Please state the month/year you interviewed at the firm. January 2020 Please specify what the interview was for. IGNITE Training Contract 2022 Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings. Day 1: General Training Contract Round 13:00 - Arrival 13:15 - Presentation by...

www.thecorporatelawacademy.com

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

I don't think Jacob or anyone else will have a definitive answer for this. Although M&A case studies tend to be the norm, firms change their assessment materials all the time. I know for a fact CC's case study last year was on the Thomas Cook collapse and CVAs. You can have a look at the interview experiences section of the forum for firms you're interested in as people usually provide a broad overview of what the case study involved.

Linklaters Interview 2019 - 2020

Please state the month/year you interviewed at the firm. November 2019 Please specify what the interview was for. Winter Vacation Scheme 2019 Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings. 9am Arrival, 9.30am Sit-down for case-study and online test section, 10.30am Interview...

www.thecorporatelawacademy.com

Clifford Chance Interview 2019 - 2020

Please state the month/year you interviewed at the firm. January 2020 Please specify what the interview was for. IGNITE Training Contract 2022 Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings. Day 1: General Training Contract Round 13:00 - Arrival 13:15 - Presentation by...

www.thecorporatelawacademy.com

Thank you so much Dheepa.

 

[LawGrad19]

Thank you so much @Jacob Miller for this! I have an AC coming up and this is super useful! I was wondering how you would recommend structuring a business report where you have to outline risks and opportunities? Would I still say things like 'To X' and 'Kind regards' or is that more for a letter? Any input would be great

 

[Dheepa]

Thank you so much @Jacob Miller for this! I have an AC coming up and this is super useful! I was wondering how you would recommend structuring a business report where you have to outline risks and opportunities? Would I still say things like 'To X' and 'Kind regards' or is that more for a letter? Any input would be great

I wouldn’t use letter style formatting for a business report as it doesn’t seem entirely appropriate. Instead you can structure it by starting out with a title so maybe “Key risks and opportunities in X” followed by an executive summary (clients generally want to know the most important stuff first + often don’t have the time to read pages and pages before getting to what they want to know so the summary in the beginning is always a good idea imo) followed by sub-headings to highlight each main point and then the explanation/reasoning. I would also bullet point the explanations rather than use full prose but this is just because I think it makes things easier to read.

For example:

Title: X

[Summary of the main conclusions you’ve come to in the report]

Point 1
- Explanation 1
- Explanation 2

Hope that makes sense! Just to be clear there’s no hard and fast rule on structure for reports. You can google some samples and choose to follow whichever you like best. This is just the rough structure I’ve personally used at ACs with a similar assessment to yours.

 

[Jacob Miller]

Thank you so much @Jacob Miller for this! I have an AC coming up and this is super useful! I was wondering how you would recommend structuring a business report where you have to outline risks and opportunities? Would I still say things like 'To X' and 'Kind regards' or is that more for a letter? Any input would be great

Sorry I didn't see this come in earlier!

I would substantively agree with Dheepa's advice here. A business report isn't necessarily a letter addressed to a person so letter formatting would be superfluous.

If you were being asked to write something like a memo, letter of advice or letter of opinion to a client, however, proper letter formatting is generally advisable at that point.

In this particular context, there are a few ways you could go about laying it out. I would probably structure it as:

- title
- executive summary (in order of descending importance)
- risks (substantive points in order of descending importance)
- opportunities (substantive points in order of descending importance)

Hope this helps!

 

[LawGrad19]

I wouldn’t use letter style formatting for a business report as it doesn’t seem entirely appropriate. Instead you can structure it by starting out with a title so maybe “Key risks and opportunities in X” followed by an executive summary (clients generally want to know the most important stuff first + often don’t have the time to read pages and pages before getting to what they want to know so the summary in the beginning is always a good idea imo) followed by sub-headings to highlight each main point and then the explanation/reasoning. I would also bullet point the explanations rather than use full prose but this is just because I think it makes things easier to read.

For example:

Title: X

[Summary of the main conclusions you’ve come to in the report]

Point 1
- Explanation 1
- Explanation 2

Hope that makes sense! Just to be clear there’s no hard and fast rule on structure for reports. You can google some samples and choose to follow whichever you like best. This is just the rough structure I’ve personally used at ACs with a similar assessment to yours.

Sorry I didn't see this come in earlier!

I would substantively agree with Dheepa's advice here. A business report isn't necessarily a letter addressed to a person so letter formatting would be superfluous.

If you were being asked to write something like a memo, letter of advice or letter of opinion to a client, however, proper letter formatting is generally advisable at that point.

In this particular context, there are a few ways you could go about laying it out. I would probably structure it as:

- title
- executive summary (in order of descending importance)
- risks (substantive points in order of descending importance)
- opportunities (substantive points in order of descending importance)

Hope this helps!

Thank you both so much! This is very useful

 

[LawGrad19]

@Dheepa @Jacob Miller - Just out of interest, if a report asks for risks/opportunities, would it be a good idea to also present solutions to the risks or will it seem as though you are not following instructions?

 

[Dheepa]

@Dheepa @Jacob Miller - Just out of interest, if a report asks for risks/opportunities, would it be a good idea to also present solutions to the risks or will it seem as though you are not following instructions?

I think it would be fine to include one additional line or two on solutions but if this is an AC exercise I'd just be wary of time - do what they want you to do first and then proofread before providing the extra points. Better to stick to the question and do it well than stretch yourself too thin and potentially produce a lower quality answer.

 

[Deleted member 19327]

A weird question but when you present to a "client", do you say "I" or "We" (implying that you're working with other people in your firm)?

 

[emily000]

Any tips for the Slaughter and May written case study?

@Jacob Miller

 

[hibah]

Hi guys- in this case study,

would you firstly address the main points required by the client- i.e. ownership, supply chains- and then move onto the commercial and legal risks of the acquisition? or would you integrate the client's questions and answer them within your broader analysis of the commercial and legal risks- for example- the client wants ownership- so I would first begin by talking about the commercial and legal risks, and then say- this could be a factor that affects ownership.

 

[lawyerletsgo]

if i was writing a letter to the client for a written exercise as part of this case study - who would i be addressing this to? is it KK generally or the managing director? thank you! @Jessica Booker @Jaysen @Jacob Miller

 

[Jessica Booker]

if i was writing a letter to the client for a written exercise as part of this case study - who would i be addressing this to? is it KK generally or the managing director? thank you! @Jessica Booker @Jaysen @Jacob Miller

There would usually be detail of who the client is in the exercise/who you would need to address it to.

 

[Jaysen]

if i was writing a letter to the client for a written exercise as part of this case study - who would i be addressing this to? is it KK generally or the managing director? thank you! @Jessica Booker @Jaysen @Jacob Miller

Yes - in this case it would be 'KK', as the exercise asks you to write a letter to the client