If you need an equivalent essay to work this out, then something is not quite right with the process. Law is not academia either.
Do they give any form of feedback at the application stage? If not, you are getting nothing out of it apart from an automated email in the vast majority of cases.
Imagine writing a 2000 paper in any other situation and getting a robot rejection.
Considering drafting skills are a key component of a lawyer’s job, I understand the logic of longer questions and unique questions to the firm.
It’s not for everyone, but the same could be said for psychometric tests, video interviews, group exercises etc. There will always be parts of the recruitment process people don’t like or don’t think they are good at. And plenty of people will choose to not apply because of that - but firms will have plenty who do, so it’s of little lost to them. In fact the strategy could be to reduce the number of people applying to the most motivated.
The recruitment process is going to be something they have considered carefully, developed and tweaked over time to get to something that works for them.
Interestingly,
BCLP reduced the word count on their application forms last year and everyone went into meltdown (including on here) about how they were going to write their answers with fewer words. The firm then seemed to back track quite quickly and went back to the 500 words per answer. Maybe that was because of the backlash, maybe it was because they were not seeing the evidence that they wanted in the shorter form.
As for the “any other situation” comment, there will be plenty of situations as a lawyer where you won’t get feedback on your efforts. It will happen regularly enough throughout a legal career that people should be prepared for it to go beyond a recruitment process.
All that just to get "we regret to inform you"...
