Hogan Lovells Interview

[Nicole]

When was your Hogan Lovells interview?

November 2017

What was it for?

Winter Vacation Scheme

Please describe the interview process at Hogan Lovells.

The assessment centre consisted of a situational judgment test to confirm the scores achieved online- followed by a case study being handed out to prepare for the Partner interview. The case study was about the Saudi Aramco IPO and about the controversy surrounding a potential listing in London. The interview lasted an hour and was with two partners. For the first half hour it felt like a general interview, covering why I wanted to work for Hogan Lovells. This did not go well for me at all as this was my third round of applications and they knew I had never applied to the firm before and I had not prepared a good enough answer for why I was only applying to them now. Also i don't think I was clear enough on why I wanted to work for them in terms of their specialisms. The case study carried the second half of the interview (lasting another 30mins with the same people) and was fairly straightforward- discussing the pros and cons of a listing in London versus Saudi Arabia, what lawyers were doing, what the controversy was about.

What advice would you give to future applicants for the Hogan Lovells interview?

If you are an older/more experienced candidate have a good answer for why you are only just applying to Hogan lovells (particularly if you have experience at 'better' firms)

 

[Nicole]

TC interviewee for Birmingham office (now future trainee at Hogan Lovells):

Was for the Birmingham office. 6 candidates! Still haven't heard back from last Wednesday. If I don't get it, I don't exactly know what they were looking for - the other candidates were very different. SJT with HR and Sen. Associate. was tough, but I expect everyone finds that. Partner interview was with a tough corporate partner. He didn't ask about much I had prepared for, focusing instead on my previous education (I'm a career-changer). We spoke about my dissertation at undergrad. Completely inscrutable; but I thought I handled most questions well. Case study was on investor issues ahead of Saudi Aramco's proposed IPO - followed PEST etc. Could see that that would be challenging to anyone with limited prior knowledge (not that I had a great deal, but had followed the story).

Group exercise - split into two groups of three, and asked to assess three potential clients each. Tried to follow SWOT, PEST. Tough to know how to act. Again, tried to be collegiate and insightful.

 

[Nicole]

Hogan Lovells vac scheme interviewee (2018):

Hey, so the day starts with the Watson Glazer.

You then get given the case study which is a short article with a few bullet points at the end. You can't take your notes with you to the interview but you're not expected to give a presentation; you'll just have a discussion of the bullet points. Reading up a bit on shares and financial markets (and recent events in this area) will be helpful (although they'll probably change the case study for future years). There are also the standard questions - why law, why commercial law, why Hogan Lovells etc. I was then given a few more off-the-wall questions e.g. I needed to discuss an area of academic law which interested me with them. They also picked up on a few things on my CV e.g my interest in access work.

The second interview is a 'situational' one. You're given scenarios and need to talk through how you would react. I think that it's just about showing you're a team player and client-focused. So, for example, one of them was about handling a fellow trainee who was acting superior to the paralegals. Another concerned whether you would still go on a client secondment if other trainees had told you that it was bad. Another was about a Partner inviting you to a client dinner at the last minute but you have a lot of work to get through.

 

[Jaysen]

From original first post:

A Hogan Lovells future trainee for the vacation scheme:

Basically, just go over your app and make sure you can talk about stuff at length. As you're a law student they might quiz you on current legal/business issues e.g. cryptocurrency. Then there's the situational judgment test. Basically they go over scenarios and you say what you would do. Just basically say you would always consult your supervisor if possible but if not you would just use common sense. They usually revolve around work deadlines conflicting or time management. Just basically show that you can prioritise properly and show awareness of the legal work environment. Also think of a couple of interesting questions to ask at the end. If in doubt just ask the interviewer about what challengers are facing them in their particular area of work.

 

[Jaysen]

When was your Hogan Lovells interview?

March 2016

What was it for?

Vacation Scheme

Please describe the interview process at Hogan Lovells.

Once we arrived, we were taken to a room and had the day explained to us. We did some ice-breakers, sharing an interesting fact about ourselves, saying where we studied or what we are currently doing, etc. Then we re-took the Watson Glaser test, presumably just to verify that we hadn't cheated when we did it as part of the application.

Then there were two interviews. The first was with an associate and a member of HR. This was a situational judgement interview, where they read out a card - and you could read it as well - explaining scenario and then asked you how you would respond.

The final interview started with a case study, a short piece on a commercial issue that we then had to discuss with two partners. After we discussed that, they asked the usual questions on motivation for a career in law, why Hogan Lovells etc., and then some competency questions.

What advice would you give to future applicants for the Hogan Lovells interview?

For the Watson Glaser test, if you're fine with the test the first time round, then you should be fine on the day. In any case, if you're there for interview then you did well enough on the test the first time round, so it's just a case of doing it again and you'll probably be completely fine.

The situational judgement interview is something you cannot really prepare for well. They discussed whether my answer really was the best thing to do, even if I got it exactly right the first time, and often told me what was the ideal response if I hadn't quite said that myself. There were some more questions to see if I understood the roles of trainees, the benefits of secondments to other offices and clients, how much they would charge for a trainee's time. So just make sure you're familiar with what you would be doing as a trainee, your roles, the departments, and understanding about commercial law.

Try to build up commercial awareness generally to approach the case study. It would be helpful to think about how it would affect Hogan Lovells specifically, thinking about the different departments, emerging markets, maybe how key clients will be affected, what potential new areas there will be for development etc. Be confident in your motivation answers, and really think about it. Try to be unique and personal in why you want to go to the firm, as otherwise you are just repeating the generic answers they hear every interview.