Hey
@lovelaw223, thank you so much for the question which I think will be very useful to some people on here!
I think that some of the questions you might be asked are:
- Why do you want to become a commercial lawyer?
- This question aims to understand your motivations for entering the legal profession. In this kind of question you need to be both personal and professional, that is the approach I would take and I have always taken. So you start with a personal anecdote that pushed you to wanting to do law and you immediately connect it to a professional experience you have done that made you realise the importance of the law in the business field.
- What specific area of law are you most passionate about, and why?
- This question evaluates your interest and commitment to a particular field of law. They might ask you about a specific practice area so be ready to have a well-thought out answer for this.
- Can you describe a challenging problem you would face as a trainee solicitor and how you'd handle it?
- This question assesses your problem-solving skills and how you approach complex legal issues. As a trainee you might very overwhelmed sometimes so one thing they would want to understand is how you handle stress and anxiety as those would be part of the job.
- Tell us about a time when you had to work under pressure to meet a deadline. How did you handle it?
- This question assesses your ability to handle stress and work effectively in time-sensitive situations. This ties into the previous point a bit but this is a common question I have been asked quite a lot so having a confident answer to this is essential.
- Can you provide an example of a difficult client interaction and how you resolved it?
- This question evaluates your interpersonal skills and your ability to manage client relationships. This question might be asked to understand how you would handle a difficult client so always be positive when answering a question like this.
- Describe a situation where you had to work as part of a team. How did you contribute, and what was the outcome?
- This question assesses your teamwork and collaboration abilities.
Remember to provide specific examples from your experience and demonstrate how your motivations and behaviours align with the demands of the role of a commercial lawyer at the firm.
Yes, this will probably both a strengths-based and motivations-based question so be ready to answer both types of questions!
Good luck with the interview!