Does anyone have any advice for the final stage
Gibson Dunn interview? Any help would be greatly appreciated 😊
Hey
@happyhippo0402 and
@Thudson (I have seen you have the interview too so I thought I would include you too)
First of all, Congratulations for getting through the next stage of the process, it is a huge achievement and definitely not an easy one to get so huge congratulations!
In terms of the second stage, I am sure you are aware that it is split into two parts. The first part is a motivations based interview with a partner and a senior associate (at least in my case last year) and the second one with a partner and an associate on an article that they send you some minutes before (with some time to prepare).
When it comes to the first part I would say to treat it exactly as the first stage interview with graduate recruitment. Mine was very lovely, we talked a lot about my CV, my motivations to join the firm, my aspirations, my interests. Funny enough, in my first stage I mentioned that I really admired one of the lawyers (a Partner in ESG and Human Rights Litigation) and she ended up interviewing me! So I also got to talk about why I was interested in her path and she was very flattered! For this part I would just advise to focus on your motivations to join the firm, be able to justify your answers and give valuable examples as to why you are interested in
Gibson. I did not get any competency question!
For the second part, they give you an article (it was a very easy article and not properly commercial in nature so do not worry! a very easy topic that everyone could speak about) and you have a discussion with the associate and partner. I found this very interesting and engaging! The associate was trying to contrast all my points and she felt quite detached from the interview in my opinion (however when I got the call, she called me and she actually said that I was very convincing). This is basically to tell you to not panic if they seem quite harsh or they disagree a lot with your points, they want to test you! Always be nice, always acknowledge that they point they are making is very valid and could make you change your mind, and then bring your counterargument.
Good luck with the interview I am sure you will both do great!