AC Jan 2018
I applied for London office but the AC also had people applying to other offices so it the same process for all.
The AC had about 12-15 people on it, and at the start we had about 30 mins to chat and get to know each other a bit.
There were 3 different exercises, and we were split into 2 groups and did them in turn.
Group exercise
I think everyone does the group exercise first. You are given about 15 minutes to read through all the information provided yourself and then have about 40 minutes to discuss as a group.
There was a lot of information to read through, I would first flick through all the pages and decide which to read first based on how important. I managed to at least skim through everything, but some people didn't get to the back pages. There was a different issue to work through on each page. I think the most important thing is to try and read everything but also jot down some ideas that you can contribute to the group discussion.
The most important thing to remember is that you try and work well with the others, so make sure to include people and listen to what others are saying. But if you have a good point and the others aren't keen try and defend it a bit.
Case study
You had about an hour prep time to read through quite a lot of documents and come up with recommendations for a client's business. I would make sure you use the time well, so limit yourself reading to a certain amount of time and then use a decent proportion of it to plan your answer. Try and think broadly and consider the risks and benefits of your approach. Don't forget to pay attention to the figures!
The presentation is about 10 minutes, just to one partner who then asks a few questions. It was actually quite a fun task.
Partner interview
My interviewer was very nice and it felt like more of a relaxed conversation. He did have some prepared competency style questions and definitely asked a number of those but also asked some questions based on my application form. Have some commercial news prepared, I kept up to date with the commercial topic I wrote on in my application and also had another prepared - I talked about both.
Asked why a global law firm appealed, what my strengths were/what I would contribute as a trainee.
It is quite an intense 1/2 day, but the people were nice and helpful. Make sure you eat something before, they said they would provide lunch but it was just a few biscuit snack type things.
I applied for London office but the AC also had people applying to other offices so it the same process for all.
The AC had about 12-15 people on it, and at the start we had about 30 mins to chat and get to know each other a bit.
There were 3 different exercises, and we were split into 2 groups and did them in turn.
Group exercise
I think everyone does the group exercise first. You are given about 15 minutes to read through all the information provided yourself and then have about 40 minutes to discuss as a group.
There was a lot of information to read through, I would first flick through all the pages and decide which to read first based on how important. I managed to at least skim through everything, but some people didn't get to the back pages. There was a different issue to work through on each page. I think the most important thing is to try and read everything but also jot down some ideas that you can contribute to the group discussion.
The most important thing to remember is that you try and work well with the others, so make sure to include people and listen to what others are saying. But if you have a good point and the others aren't keen try and defend it a bit.
Case study
You had about an hour prep time to read through quite a lot of documents and come up with recommendations for a client's business. I would make sure you use the time well, so limit yourself reading to a certain amount of time and then use a decent proportion of it to plan your answer. Try and think broadly and consider the risks and benefits of your approach. Don't forget to pay attention to the figures!
The presentation is about 10 minutes, just to one partner who then asks a few questions. It was actually quite a fun task.
Partner interview
My interviewer was very nice and it felt like more of a relaxed conversation. He did have some prepared competency style questions and definitely asked a number of those but also asked some questions based on my application form. Have some commercial news prepared, I kept up to date with the commercial topic I wrote on in my application and also had another prepared - I talked about both.
Asked why a global law firm appealed, what my strengths were/what I would contribute as a trainee.
It is quite an intense 1/2 day, but the people were nice and helpful. Make sure you eat something before, they said they would provide lunch but it was just a few biscuit snack type things.
