AG pfo (London office)
It is very disappointing.
Addleshaw Goddard was one of my top 2 choices (the other is
Macfarlanes). I put a lot of effort and time into this application.
Thought it was a strong application. I related the answers with my previous experience as a commercial lawyer overseas (civil law country) in addition to the work experience I gained in London during the LLM (4-month internship in a regtech and 3-week outsourced paralegal in a legal project). Also, I explained my interest in contentious, particularly the seat of Global Investigations, a huge case settled by this team, how I got attracted by AG after attending one event with a partner of this same seat, the views from current trainees I spoke during and after virtual Legal Cheek events, my appreciation for public DEI plans, the law firm of the year award, achievements...
I don’t know if stressing my interest in contentious, particularly white-collar and corporate crime, has been an issue for the applications or shows a potential lack of adaptability to other seats (this is my 7th pfo in this cycle - always focusing on firms with leading banking litigation, corporate crime and investigations practices). Perhaps the firms weigh or expect interest in private equity, M&A and other transactional work. Or being a qualified lawyer overseas or not having a local undergrad degree (even knowing I am eligible). Sorry for sharing this. AG was my first application ever (applied in October), and I was not familiar with the online assessment at that time, but I was hoping to get through the application stage.
If anyone who got an AC invite or offer from AG (TC or VS) can look at my application, I would be very thankful. Let's see if i got through
Macfarlanes's application stage. My goal is a TC starting in 2028/2029, so I have time to improve the applications in the worst case scenario.