Why have you applied to Morgan Lewis? What do you think are the skills and attributes you possess that distinguish you from other applicants?

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP (Morgan Lewis) is globally renowned for the services provided to clients. The small trainee intake ensures more responsibility, ‘hands on training’, and enables the strengthening of personal relationships. This provides greater opportunity to learn as well as make a personal contribution to the success of the firm.

[Feedback: This question is a little trickier than the standard ‘why this firm’ question as it combines ‘why this firm’ and ‘why you’. Whenever law firms combine multiple questions into one, we recommend you split your answer proportionally, covering each part of the question equally. Furthermore, as a quick aside, you do not need to spell out the firm’s name and then abbreviate it if and only if the firm has already used the abbreviation in the question.

The candidate has correctly identified a key aspect of the firm’s training: a smaller trainee intake of approximately eight trainees. However, small trainee intakes are quite common amongst many law firms – for example, Davis Polk takes four, Akin Gump takes six, and Kirkland & Ellis takes ten. Hence, as seen in the candidate’s answer, the explanation of this example of a small trainee intake is a little vague and nonspecific. 

Training is naturally a key part of being at a law firm, but the way this question is structured suggests that a deeper discussion of the firm’s work would be better. Alternatively, if you do want to talk about Morgan Lewis’ training – consider thinking a little broader than the intake. For example, consider their headcount in London and how that might impact responsibility and learning, or find some unique elements of their training contract (perhaps they run special internal teaching sessions, etc.).]

The firm’s leading finance practice in London has earned a reputation for an exceptional ability to provide the highest standard of advice. Morgan Lewis advised We Soda Ltd. on a $1.66b loan facility provided by a consortium of international lenders. We Soda Ltd. is the world’s largest soda ash producer, indicating the magnitude of work Morgan Lewis is involved in. Having already experienced legal work from a financial perspective during an internship at Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets (LBCM), this core capability of Morgan Lewis is of importance as I wish to advance knowledge in this area.

[Feedback: The candidate now pivots to a discussion of the firm’s work. The first half of the paragraph is good: the candidate correctly identifies Morgan Lewis’ leading practice area and uses a deal to evidence their claim. The candidate has demonstrated great research, and an interest in the firm and its work.

The second half of the answer could be improved. This part only highlights the candidate’s work experience without actually linking it back to what they have just discussed regarding Morgan Lewis’ work. The candidate would have been better placed to identify some financial legal work that they completed at LBCM and then link that back to the work that Morgan Lewis does.

Nevertheless, bringing up LBCM as evidence for ‘why firm’ to then use the example to pivot to ‘why me’ (as in the next paragraph) is an excellent and ingenious tactic as it maintains the answer’s flow and cohesion. If you wish to employ a similar tactic in your answers, make sure that you do not repeat yourself. Using the same example is always something we would advise against just because it is too easy for a candidate to repeat themselves. However, we would just highlight that this rule can be broken in exceptional circumstances and to great effect.

As the only intern in the legal department of LBCM, I developed strong analytical skills in a financial setting. Several presentations I produced during the internship were provided to clients of the bank, ensuring that I paid close attention to detail and worked successfully under pressure. A strong lawyer should be orally articulate and maintain strong communication with clients and colleagues, skills I have evidenced through conducting mock interviews for Oxbridge law applicants. Being able to adapt communication style is vital as a solicitor.  Showing tenacity and perseverance to achieve the highest standard of work serves to distinguish me from other candidates.

[Feedback: This answer correctly highlights many competencies that law firms are looking for including analytical skills, attention to detail, working under pressure/resilience/perseverance, and communication. Additionally, the candidate evidences these competencies with personal examples and adds an extra one to avoid excessively belabouring the LBCM example.

To improve this answer, we would recommend employing the PEE/AL framework: point, evidence, explanation, link. For example:

• Point: A lawyer needs strong oral and written communication skills.
• Evidence: Giving mock Oxbridge interviews to non-native English speakers.
• Explanation: [Explain how a difficult time/difficult scenario required the candidate to bring their communication skills to the fore to solve the issue].
• Link: As a trainee solicitor, I will employ my communication skills to [mention different kinds of work that a trainee solicitor does that requires strong communication skills].

Furthermore, the candidate sometimes employs some clunky phrasing: ‘Several presentations I produced […], ensuring that I paid close attention to detail […]’. This could have been rewritten to improve clarity of argument like, for example, ‘I produced several presentations for the bank’s clients. To produce high quality work for these clients, I worked accurately but quickly under the pressure of tight deadlines of [insert time frame here]. Specifically, I paid close attention to detail to [insert specific aspect of work here] to ensure that the clients always got the greatest benefit out of my work’.]

How do you feel your skills and attributes would suit a legal career at AG? (2000 characters)

Firstly, my strong ability to simplify complex information would suit a legal career at AG. This is a skill I developed in my role as a writer for my university's student newspaper. My articles range from film reviews to commercial news stories. I recently wrote a piece about the [redacted IP law tech platform]. Not only did this increase my commercial awareness, but it also required me to write about complex copyright infringement laws in a way that was easy-to-understand and engaging for the readers, most of whom were not legal experts. In advising their clients, solicitors have to ensure their clients understand often very complex laws, therefore, an ability to communicate these laws in a simplified and clear manner is vital. This skill would especially suit a legal career at AG because of their focus on delivering clarity and efficiency, which is evident from the simple design of their website, to AG Integrate.

Feedback: The candidate has structured this paragraph well. You should note how the candidate first sentence answers the question directly, by using its exact wording. The recruiter knows exactly what skill the candidate has and how it might aid their legal career at AG. Not only does this focus the candidate’s subsequent writing, but it provides a good logical platform on which they can develop an argument. You should follow the same approach. It’s crucial for you to state your point from the beginning, so the recruiter understands what your argument is and how it addresses the question.

The candidate then follows the PEEL/AL (point, evidence, explanation/analysis, link). Once the candidate states their point, they introduce a high-quality and relevant personal example. We like that the candidate has not only identified a general work experience (i.e. they were a writer for their university’s paper), but they also identify a specific example from that experience (i.e. they wrote a specific relevant article). Then, the candidate succinctly explains/analyses exactly how they developed the aforementioned skill from their specific experience as a writer. The candidate does so by writing clearly and in plain English. This leaves very little doubt in the recruiter’s mind that the candidate can communicate complex information in an accessible manner. Finally, the candidate draws a neat link back to the question. They conclude their answer with a brief explanation about how they would apply this skill as a lawyer at Addleshaw Goddard. This results in a coherent, well-structured and sensible first paragraph.

We think this candidate could have improved on a couple of points:

1. The candidate’s writing tends to be a little unfocused in some places. For instance, the candidate shoehorns in that they developed “commercial awareness” from this experience. They never explain exactly how they developed commercial awareness by writing this article. In any case, it’s not clear how commercial awareness is relevant to the candidate’s initial point. They do not mention commercial awareness anywhere else in this first paragraph. As such, it feels as though the candidate has shoved in a reference to “commercial awareness” to try and tick boxes for the recruiter. As a rule, you should not assert that you have a skill/attribute unless you explain it in full.

2. The candidate’s conclusion/link sentence is quite weak. The candidate tries to tailor their writing to AG but is not completely successful in doing this. Firstly, the candidate asserts that AG is “focused on delivering clarity and efficiency” but it is unclear precisely how AG is unique in this regard. Every firm will have a focus on “clarity and efficiency” – you would be hard-pressed to find a firm that prefers obscurity and inefficiency! Secondly, the candidate namedrops AG Integrate but never explains (1) what this is nor (2) how it is relevant to the question. If you are trying to tailor your writing to a firm, then it is not enough simply to namedrop facts about said firm. You must carry out detailed research and find specific evidence that supports your arguments.

3. We think the candidate could have used a better word than “simple” in describing AG’s website, as it could carry negative connotations. The candidate should have instead used more neutral or positive language like “clear” or “accessible”.

Secondly, my strong collaboration skills would suit a legal career at AG. From playing violin in an orchestra, to working in a team at [redacted coffee shop], I have learnt the importance of collaboration in achieving success. Furthermore, from working on group projects in university, I know I learn better when hearing from others and taking on different perspectives. Because of this, I always make an effort to ensure inclusivity when working in a group. For example, when working on a project for my [redacted] class, in order to ensure everyone was able to input their ideas, I decided to create a Google Doc where people could write their ideas before our meetings, and during the meetings, I would make sure to ask those who have been quite reserved to communicate their thoughts. In the solicitor role, discussing information with others will allow for different ideas to be proposed, and in turn will provide the best solution to clients. AG encourages "open arms, open minds and open doors", evidencing how collaboration is especially important at AG.

Feedback: The candidate does well to state their point from the outset, once again. It is immediately clear that (1) the candidate has good collaborative skills, before arguing that (2) this makes them a suitable candidate for a legal career at AG. By and large, the candidate also follows a decent structure in this paragraph. The candidate eventually identifies a specific example from their class, before explaining (1) precisely what they did and (2) how that example developed the collaborative skills they will need at AG. This means that the candidate’s writing is generally well-structured and simple to follow.

Nonetheless, we consider this a weaker paragraph than the first for the following reasons:

1. The candidate’s writing is somewhat unfocused and all-over-the-place at the beginning. The candidate tends to jump from example to example. They start with a violin example, before name-dropping a coffee shop experience before finally settling on a university paragraph. The issue is that these two first examples are insufficiently explained. The candidate never tells us (1) precisely what they did nor (2) exactly how that developed their collaborative/teamworking skills. It is not enough simply to name-drop experiences. You must contextualise and explain them in full. It is not self-explanatory that you would be a great team-player simply because you worked in a coffee shop. For this reason, we typically advise students to focus on one example per paragraph so that you can analyse it in depth. You are facing a restrictive word count, so you will not be able to mention every experience you have in the space of one answer.

2. The candidate offers a good example on paper, but we receive no insight into the outcome of the candidate’s actions. It is not clear precisely how the candidate’s Google Doc led to a tangible positive outcome for the project. In turn, this omission weakens the candidate’s overall argument. You should always quantify your experiences with specific achievements and detailed outcomes, so that you can prove to the recruiter that you have the relevant skills.

3. The candidate’s tailoring is quite weak, once again. The candidate asserts that solicitors need to “discuss information with others” and “propose different ideas”, but this is true of any professional service job. It is not a unique feature of commercial law. Moreover, the candidate namedrops a quote about AG without ever explaining what it means or how it makes them uniquely suitable for AG. You should always make sure your analysis is tightly focused on the firm you are applying for.

What motivates you to pursue a career as a commercial Solicitor? Explain how you would add value as a Trainee in the London office of Akin Gump.

As a trainee I would add value to the firm by applying my entrepreneurial, hardworking nature to the role. An example of this is when I worked at my father’s catering butchers and I spearheaded the development of a shop. I managed this Monday to Saturday in addition to generating marketing material and expanding the shop's product range to enhance the customer experience. This proactive attitude will push me to seek out work as a trainee and ensure that I am contributing as much as I can to Akin Gump. This will be further facilitated by my strong communication skills that have been honed in a variety of roles such as working at Refinitiv.

Feedback: This paragraph addresses the second part of the prompt, i.e., “Explain how you would add value as a Trainee in the London office of Akin Gump”. Echoing the comment made supra, its readability is immediately boosted by its topic sentence and its credibility is cultivated through an illustrative example. What makes this paragraph particularly persuasive is the fact that it references attributes that US-heritage firms such as Akin Gump tend to look for in candidates, i.e., entrepreneurship and proactivity, and it explains their relevance to the role of a trainee solicitor. For emphasis, the candidate could have framed their answer in terms of Akin Gump’s small trainee intake for its London office. For instance, they could have argued that a particularly entrepreneurial, proactive trainee such as themselves could add a great deal of value to their work environment because they would be entrusted with more responsibility and more high-stakes tasks within a small trainee intake versus a large trainee intake. In other words, their entrepreneurial drive and their proactive attitude would go further in a small trainee intake versus a large trainee intake. To fit the foregoing into the allocated word count, the candidate could have omitted the last sentence, not least because it does not add any value to their answer; it shoehorns a broad, inadequately substantiated claim into an otherwise fine answer.

Please use this section to tell us about yourself, your skills, achievements and why you want to train as a solicitor and work at Ashurst. (738 words)

I want to work as a commercial lawyer as it is engaging to immerse myself in the commercial aspects of a client's business. For example, as a debt recovery paralegal, I acted on behalf of several 'Big Six' energy providers. I was exposed to the commercial implications of the recent energy crisis and the breakdown in trust between our clients and their customers. I helped to rebuild this relationship by creating a complaints log to refer specific issues, such as Ombudsman complaints, to the client. I also ensured that any complex details were explained clearly to debtors, such as Ofgem guidelines throughout the Supplier of Last Resort process. As a result, our Q2 recoveries exceeded targets by over 150% and we received minimal complaints from debtors. I enjoy considering both commercial and legal issues in conjunction; it highlights the real-world impact that the law can have on businesses. As such, I would embrace the opportunity to work at Ashurst, where lawyers act as commercial, rather than purely legal, advisors.

Feedback: This is a classic cover letter requiring you to cover (1) why you want to be a commercial solicitor, (2) why you have specifically chosen Ashurst and (3) why you are suited to a career at Ashurst. In that sense, the candidate has structured this section well. The candidate splits it out into three distinct paragraphs addressing each element of the cover letter, which in turn makes the candidate’s writing easy to read and follow.

Starting with this first paragraph, the candidate adopts the PEEL/AL structure well (point, evidence, explanation, link). The candidate begins by addressing the question directly. They state a concise point outlining their reason for interest in commercial law. Then, the candidate deploys specific and personalised evidence in support of their point. We particularly like the level of detail that the candidate gets into. The candidate highlights a specific and relevant experience, before painting it with statistical and factual details. This adds persuasive weight to the candidate’s overall argument. It demonstrates a clear, consistent interest in commercial law. Finally, the candidate explains how this experience developed their interest in commercial law. They finally link the evidence/explanations back in with their initial point of interest. This results in a coherent paragraph that the recruiter can easily follow.

That said, this paragraph needed to improve in a couple of regards. First, the candidate’s initial point is not particularly well-tailored to commercial law. The candidate asserts that they want to “immerse themselves in commercial aspects of a client’s business”. However, this is not a unique feature of commercial law. Any advisory or consultancy position would allow you to immerse yourself in a similar way. Although the candidate goes on to explain why this point is relevant to commercial law, it nonetheless leaves a questionable first impression on the recruiter

Secondly, the candidate’s writing about their debt recovery experience is a little unfocused. The candidate argues that they developed an interest in “considering commercial and legal issues in conjunction”, but does not explain precisely what these issues were nor how they interested the candidate. Instead, the candidate seems to discuss their experience as though it were addressing a competency question. The candidate spends time telling us how they helped the company exceed targets, but it is not clear how this is relevant to the question. When discussing your personal experiences, you should always make sure they contribute to your wider arguments in some fashion.

I am applying to Ashurst specifically as the firm has a friendly and collaborative culture. Whilst all firms state they have a friendly culture, during the Evening with Ashurst Event, I learned that these were principles genuinely embedded throughout the firm. For example, trainee Saba Nasrolahi shared how after just two weeks at the firm, she was involved in high-level social inclusion and mobility meetings. The fact that a trainee can participate in prominent internal discussions highlights that Ashurst is a firm that is accepting of trainees and places value on their input. Personally, I enjoy applying myself within a collaborative and accepting culture. As a team leader at the [redacted university] Students' Union, I was given agency to create new initiatives. I organised a [redacted event] charity event, involving over 25 staff members and raising over £1,000 for Sport In Mind. As someone who thrives in a friendly working culture, I see myself as a natural fit for a career at Ashurst.

Feedback: As with the previous paragraph, the candidate structures this paragraph well. They lead in with a point that specifically addresses their interest in Ashurst, before developing that point with detailed research and personalised evidence. We particularly like the following features of this application:

1. The candidate uses high-quality and detailed research into Ashurst, which flows from their personal experience at an Ashurst event. This helps convert a generic point about Ashurst’s culture into something that is specific and reasonably well-tailored. In attending the event, the candidate also demonstrates that they have a long-term commitment to a career at Ashurst. This demonstrates to the recruiter that the candidate has thought seriously and taken the time to research Ashurst, before ultimately deciding to apply there.

2. The candidate identifies a subjective feature of Ashurst and tries to back it up with objective points about the firm (i.e. that trainees are involved in social inclusion and mobility meetings from the outset). This goes at least some way in tailoring the candidate’s reasoning towards Ashurst.

3. The candidate backs up their interest in Ashurst with a specific, detailed personal example that is clearly relevant to the question. The candidate not only name-drops a relevant example, but they explain how it demonstrates their interest in the initial point. This illustrates to the recruiter that the candidate’s personal values/interests align with a career at Ashurst.

Regardless, we are not convinced that candidates should rely on culture as a central motivational point. This is because it is a subjective feature of the firm that is hard to quantify. It is impossible to understand a firm’s culture until you have begun working there. This makes it hard for candidates to tailor their writing and craft persuasive arguments about the firm’s culture. For instance, the candidate asserts that they are interested in Ashurst’s “collaborative and accepting culture”, but nearly all firms will claim that they are accepting and collaborative. It is also difficult to tailor culture points to firms. For instance, the candidate discusses Ashurst’s social inclusion and mobility meetings but this does not go far enough in tailoring their reasoning. Many City law firms will organise socials, committees and diversity networks that trainees can get involved in from the outset. As such, the candidate’s reasoning is not truly tailored enough to Ashurst. 

Throughout university, I worked as bar staff for my Students' Union. Approaching my role with enthusiasm, I made a significant impact and I was promoted to Team Leader within just two months. As Team Leader, I developed communication, delegation and leadership skills. In freshers week - the busiest time of the year - I managed a different team every night, composed mostly of new staff. To tackle the problems this posed, I formally introduced myself to each team member and explained their role for the night. Additionally, I ensured that experienced staff were spread throughout the venue so that inexperienced staff could learn by osmosis. This approach allowed us to achieve great results. One memorable night included leading the team to a record-breaking revenue of over £20,000 within a single day. As a result of my interpersonal skills, I was also elected as social secretary of the Union staff base, going on to organise various fundraising and social events. I believe that I can apply my interpersonal skills at Ashurst to forge strong relationships with my colleagues, fitting into the open and friendly culture of the firm.

Feedback: The candidate now moves towards explaining why they are suited to Ashurst. This initial paragraph is strong because the candidate deploys a high-quality position of responsibility, before explaining (1) what they did and (2) identifying a specific example of their success. The candidate writes about their experience succinctly, which makes it easy for the recruiter to infer the skills they might have learned from it. We also like how the candidate quantifies their achievements with specific numerical detail. The candidate identifies a specific amount of money the Student Union raised because of the candidate’s actions. This adds persuasive value to the candidate’s argument and helps the recruiter understand the candidate’s precise impact in their role.

That said, this paragraph needed to improve on the following points:

1. The candidate has a tendency to “tell” their competencies rather than “showing” them. For instance, the candidate asserts that they developed “communication, delegation and leadership” skills. However, the candidate does not explain precisely how they communicated with staff or applied their delegation skills. In your own writing, you need to make sure that you back up your stated competencies with specific evidence and examples.

2. The candidate asserts that they would apply interpersonal skills at Ashurst, but does not go much further in tailoring their writing. While it’s true that you would need good communication skills at Ashurst, the same is true for nearly any professional services firm in the City. The question wants to know why you are suited to Ashurst specifically, so you need to make sure that your writing hones in on this point.

I also possess strong analytical skills that I apply to complete tasks with efficiency and purpose. For example, as a debt recovery paralegal, the firm took on a new client and received an influx of 1,000 cases spread between three team members. Over 100 of these cases were linked to the same debtor. This created confusion and inefficiency for the department as different team members were contacting and researching the same individual. Noticing these issues, I took the responsibility for the cases and considered how best to approach the task. The two issues I identified were (1) the lack of a single contact point to resolve the cases, and (2) the confusion caused by the spread of data across 100+ files. Firstly, I placed all the files in my name so that I could serve as the contact for the debtor going forwards. Secondly, I created a spreadsheet which contained the relevant information from all the linked accounts. Effectively, this collated the cases into a single document, which allowed all parties to easily input information to resolve the disputes. As a result of these actions, the files were closed within 6 weeks and we received a record-breaking payment of over £300,000. I believe I can apply these analytical skills to a career at Ashurst to approach tasks efficiently and effectively.

Feedback: This looks to be an excellent paragraph – it is a major improvement on the previously. It follows the STAR structure (situation, task, action, result) to a very high level.

First, the candidate identifies a specific example from their work as a debt recovery paralegal. They begin by concisely outlining the situation and tasks/challenges they faced, using quantified and specific numerical detail. By contextualising the challenge and providing numerical values, the candidate’s writing becomes more persuasive. It becomes clear to the recruiter that the candidate can handle high volumes of complex cases with efficiency and organisational skills. 

Then, the candidate explains precisely what skills they possess and how they applied them to the situation at hand. Instead of simply “telling” the recruiter they have organisational and analytical skills, the candidate outlines specific and detailed steps they took to achieve a positive outcome. This allows the recruiter to infer competencies from the specific actions carried out by the candidate.

As with the previous paragraph, the candidate also does well to quantify their achievements with specific and quantified details. We are told that the files closed within exactly 6 weeks and resulted in a record level of payments to the firm. This adds great persuasive value, by highlighting the scale and high level of the candidate’s achievements.

As a minor point for improvement, the candidate should have explained more clearly how they developed analytical skills in this situation. The candidate asserts they have analytical skills. However, the candidate’s steps/”actions” seem to focus instead on their organisational skills. The candidate tells us that they improved processes and created spreadsheets, which goes a long way in demonstrating the candidate’s efficiency. It’s less clear how the candidate developed analytical/critical thinking skills through these actions. We think the candidate would be better off modifying their initial point so that it focuses on organisational skills, rather than analytical abilities.

Please use this section to tell us about yourself, your skills, achievements and why you want to train as a solicitor and work at Ashurst.

I am a first-class English literature graduate studying the GDL at the University of Law, Moorgate. With varied and robust legal work experience, I am applying for a direct training contract with Ashurst.

Feedback: For all intents and purposes, this question asks you to write a cover letter. It is crucial that you structure it effectively. As such, you should split your answer into distinct sections addressing each element of the question with 2-3 compelling points. We advise the following approach: (1) why commercial law, (2) why Ashurst and (3) why you (with your achievements backing your points up). This means you can start your letter broadly, before honing in on why Ashurst should interview you.

There is nothing wrong with a brief introductory paragraph. That said, the recruiters already know that the candidate is a first-class English Literature graduate studying the GDL at ULaw. The candidate could safely cut this out if pressed for space.

I have decided to become a commercial solicitor because I find the prospect of working on commercial matters exciting. Commercial law requires an understanding of specific industries to assist clients in achieving their strategic goals, including the key risks and opportunities associated with different commercial sectors. This requires a deeper level of business understanding and grasping industry nuances and their wider implications is something I find stimulating. For example, during my internship at XXX, I enjoyed applying my commercial knowledge when identifying a clause that distorted the meaning of an IP contract relating to a music video.

Feedback: For “why commercial law?” answers, we advise adopting a point, evidence, explanation, link (‘PEEL’) structure for each paragraph. You should begin by making a point/claim about why you find the career attractive. You should then provide evidence for that claim and explain how that evidence proves your point. Lastly, you must link your point back to the overall question at hand: explain why your point makes the career path interesting to you. We recommend, as this candidate has done, that you offer at least two detailed reasons so that you demonstrate what the profession involves.

This candidate does well to provide a specific example of a time wherein they applied commercial knowledge in a legal context. That said, the candidate needs to improve this paragraph in two ways. Firstly, the candidate’s point is not specific enough to the work of commercial solicitors. While commercial solicitors certainly assist clients in achieving their goals, this is not unique to commercial law. Both investment bankers and consultants will all “grasp industry nuances” and assist clients with “strategic goals”/”key risks and opportunities”. In fact, if you are truly interested in the commercial implications of your advice, a career in consulting or investment banking might suit you better. To improve, the candidate must demonstrate that they understand how commercial lawyers help clients. It is not enough simply to say that commercial law is exciting because it involves commercial matters. 

While you should read our blog article on “why commercial law” for further details, our view is that one of commercial law’s distinguishing features is that you must help your clients anticipate and pre-emptively manage risk associated with a transaction (e.g., what happens if one party defaults on their obligations, what happens if one party wants to voluntarily terminate the agreement, etc.).  Like insurance, a large part of commercial law is about the management of risk to avoid significant loss.

Secondly, the candidate’s explanations and evidence are unsubstantiated. Though the candidate asserts an interest in industry nuances and business trends, it is unclear how the candidate’s evidence (namely that they worked on an IP contract) relates to this. The candidate needs to tie their evidence and explanations together, before explaining how their evidence proves their point. We are also left asking ourselves “so what?” at numerous points. The candidate tells us that they enjoyed applying commercial knowledge when identifying a clause in an IP contract, but they do not tell us how they did this or why this relates to their point. Without further explanation, the recruiters will question the relevance of this experience.

Your answers should always follow the PEEL structure so that the reader can follow your argument.

I find analysing the impact of long-term dynamic forces and short-term change on business interesting. The prospect of applying a critical analysis of market trends and industry responses to the execution of transactions is appealing. The opportunity to implement these conclusions, for example, in the way facilities agreements might be negotiated and drafted, now with the inclusion of a force majeure, is something I enjoy. Ashurst's strengths in finance, project finance and infrastructure would mean consistent exposure to work that requires a consideration of evolving commercial climates as a trainee.

Feedback: The candidate begins to touch upon some examples of the work commercial lawyers do. That said, this paragraph suffers from the same flaw as the previous. The candidate’s central point is not specific to commercial law. When drafting “why law?” answers, you should always ask yourself whether you can replace commercial law with a similar profession. One such example would be as follows:

• “I want to be a commercial solicitor because I find the impact of long-term dynamic forces and short-term changes on business interesting”.

Here, you could easily replace “commercial solicitor” with the following and it makes just as much sense:

• "I want to be an investment banker because I find the impact of long-term dynamic forces and short-term changes on business interesting”.

 If you can do this, then your reasoning isn’t specific enough.

Though the candidate starts tailoring their reasoning to commercial law towards the end, we are only told that drafting facilities agreements is “something the candidate would enjoy”. The candidate never elaborates on why they find this interesting, nor do they offer any examples in support of this. The candidate also name-drops force majeure clauses but does not show any understanding of what this means. The candidate also offers no evidence or examples to prove their points. Furthermore, the candidate does not need to tailor the paragraph to Ashurst yet (and in any case the candidate never explains why they are interested in project finance). The candidate should only focus on why they want to become a commercial solicitor at this point.

To improve, the candidate should have re-structured this paragraph so that it closely follows the PEEL structure. They should have led in with one well-tailored point about why they want to be a commercial solicitor. Then, they should have provided specific evidence to back up their point and explained it in full. Finally, they should have included a “link” at the end between their evidence/explanations and their overall point.

The candidate also make a minor grammatical mistake in the final sentence - “a consideration” should just be “consideration”. Though this might seem very minor, you should remember that recruiters are looking for any reason to reject your application.

The strength of the finance practice at Ashurst in London is particularly attractive. An important experience for me that encouraged my pursuance of commercial law was negotiating with prospective participants when working for [redacted organisation] (a reusable cup scheme in Oxford). I negotiated the terms of their involvement and recruited five cafés to take part in our launch which equated to an 83% success rate. I would anticipate applying these skills when negotiating share purchase or facilities agreements.

Feedback: The candidate now moves onto the “why Ashurst” element of the question. We would recommend providing 2-3 well-tailored paragraphs that follow the PEEL structure. You should focus on the firm’s work, training and culture in descending order of priority. This candidate begins by discussing Ashurst’s work in finance, before later explaining why they want to train there.

The first half of this paragraph follows the PEEL structure reasonably well. The point of attraction is clearly stated, whilst the succeeding evidence is based on the candidate’s personal experiences. The candidate’s evidence is described well, with the candidate stating clearly (1) what their involvement was and (2) what the outcome was (with a specific statistic given to support this). The reason for the candidate’s motivation for Ashurst is also chosen well. It gets to the core aspect of a law firm, namely its work.

To improve, the candidate should have tailored their point to Ashurst much more closely. The candidate asserts that Ashurst has a strong finance practice, but offers no detail to substantiate this point (e.g., that the department is rated as Band 1 or 2 by Legal 500 or that it includes a particular partner who is recongised as an expert in his or her field). As such, the point comes across as generic. Again, the rule of thumb to follow is that if you can replace the firm’s name with a competitor’s name, then your point is not specific enough. For instance, you could easily replace the candidate’s point with the following sentence:

“The strength of the finance practice at Norton Rose Fulbright in London is particularly attractive”.

This means that the point is not tailored well enough to Ashurst.

Furthermore, the candidate never links their experience/evidence back to Ashurst’s finance practice nor explains why that evidence made finance appealing to them. The candidate instead asserts that they would “apply these skills when negotiating share purchase agreements” without explaining how they would do this or why it relates to Ashurst’s finance practice. It seems that this example would be better off in the achievements/skills section.

Finally, you should avoid words like “in pursuance”.  No one talks like this in real life.  It sounds pretentious and does not demonstrate your ability to clearly communicate.

I would be excited to train with Ashurst given the continual growth of its London office. The lateral hires of Daniel Franks, Jaques McCheseney, Rhiannon Webster and Etay Katz between 2020 and 2021 indicate the firm's commitment to providing value add to clients. I would relish the opportunity to consistently contribute to quality work for prestigious clients due to this notable offering within the legal market.

Feedback:In this paragraph, the candidate continues with their motivations for training at Ashurst. The candidate concisely states their point, before offering specific named examples to back up the point (namely that Ashurst has made several lateral hires in recent times). This specific evidence demonstrates that the candidate has researched Ashurst and knows about its recent performance. 

This paragraph requires the same improvement points as the previous. Firstly, the central point is not tailored to Ashurst. While it is true that Ashurst has experienced continual growth in London, the same can be said for nearly every prestigious commercial law firm in the City post-covid as deal flow increasedThe candidate could enhance this point by (1) identifying distinctive parts of Ashurst’s growth strategy in London (e.g., a focus on a particular area) or (2) provide evidence that Ashurst’s growth outstrips competitors (e.g., X% p.a. growth between 2020-21 vs. Y% average). 

Secondly, the candidate does not offer any quality analysis of their evidence. The candidate simply name-drops lateral hires and asserts an obvious point that these hires would “add value to clients”. We are not told which teams these partners joined or why Ashurst hired them. Consequently, the candidate’s reasoning is not tailored well enough. Every major City law firm will have made lateral hires within 2020-21, not just Ashurst.

Furthermore, the candidate attempts to link their explanations back to their point but does not do so particularly well. The candidate simply asserts that they want to contribute to quality work for prestigious clients, without explaining how this relates to Ashurst’s finance practice. To improve, the candidate needs to link their evidence back to their interest in Ashurst’s finance work. We are mindful that the question’s word count constrains candidates, but you should always provide as much detail as you can and stick to a clear PEEL structure.

We would also recommend avoiding flowery language wherever possible. The candidate uses the word “relish”, which recruiters often cite as a prime example of clichéd flowery language. “Relish” is specifically identified as such by Shearman & Sterling’s lead recruiter (see point 12 in this article:

Commercial law clients have no time to unpack flowery language and essay-like prose. They will expect you to write plainly, clearly and accessibly. As such, recruiters will assess whether you can write in a manner that is concise and easy to understand.

Ashurst's key industry focus allowed it to rebound from the Pandemic in 2020 and continue to take market share. Its capacity to assist clients with unprecedented matters, for example, supporting Santander in relation to the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan schemes, indicates I would be able to apply my innovative thinking as a trainee to contribute to the firm's ability to generate market-leading work in times of crisis.

Ashurst's commitment to innovation is therefore appealing. I appreciate how the NewLaw Division has had an 11% increase in total firm production hours which strengthens the firm's capacity for client work and results in exposure to varied work as a trainee.

Feedback: The candidate seems to be making the point that Ashurst’s work is innovative (and as such, this appeals to them). You should note how the candidate uses specific examples and evidence to back up their arguments. Firstly, the candidate identifies a specific case that Ashurst worked on. This demonstrates that the candidate has researched Ashurst to a high level and has gone beyond simply reading graduate recruitment materials. Secondly, the candidate not only names an innovative Ashurst programme (the NewLaw division) but provides a statistic demonstrating how Ashurst’s innovations have improved its productivity as a business. This is the level of detail that you need to go into when backing up your points.

Once again, the candidate needed to tie this evidence back to their point and explain why it interests them. The candidate asserts that Ashurst’s innovations appeal to them, but never explains why this personally motivates them. We are mindful of the tight word count. As such, the candidate could have cut down on redundant and long-winded sentences (namely “I would be able to apply my innovative thinking to contribute to the firm’s ability to generate market-leading work in times of crisis”) so they could save space. This gives the candidate more space to drill down on their explanations and link evidence back to their overarching point.

You should also vary your sentence structure as much as possible. Much of the candidate’s writing is long-winded. You are not writing an essay or a novel. If you can split up your sentences or vary the structure, then you should do so.

We also do not like the candidate’s random capitalisation of words such as the “Pandemic”.  While it was undoubtedly a seismic event, it does not require capitalisation.  You should check the Economist’s style guide (which is freely available online) if you are unsure whether your grammar is correct.

I am impressed at Ashurst's ability to work seamlessly on complex cross-border matters. I understand that the firm's unique full financial integration encourages collaboration between its offices and adds to this strength. Whilst at XXX, I enjoyed observing a multi-jurisdictional dispute and would look forward to the challenge of providing technical solutions to legally complex matters at Ashurst.

Feedback: The candidate follows PEEL reasonably well in the first half of the paragraph. The candidate concisely states their point, before tailoring their point somewhat by explaining how Ashurst has unique full financial integration (which in turn allows each office to work seamlessly). Then, the candidate brings in a specific example of a time they observed a multi-jurisdictional dispute as evidence to back up their point.

To improve, the candidate again needs to explain what they found interesting about the multi-jurisdictional dispute. It is not enough simply to say that they “enjoyed” observing one. The candidate would then need to link their explanations back to the point much more clearly. The candidate concludes by stating that they could provide “technical solutions to complex matters”, but this reads like a separate point altogether. The candidate would need to tie their own experience with multi-jurisdictional disputes back to their interest in Ashurst.

I possess the requisite skill set for a career in commercial law. I enjoy problem-solving and welcome challenges as I find the analytical process rewarding. I demonstrated strong skills in this regard when I implemented a three-step process to improve my teams' ability to meet disclosure deadlines when working on the document review for a High Court Construction case at national law firm, XXX.

Feedback: In these final paragraphs, the candidate addresses the “why you” element. They discuss their key skills and achievements to date. The candidate rightly takes the opportunity to demonstrate all the key competencies gained from their achievements to date, which might be relevant to a career in commercial law at Ashurst.

The candidate can clearly draw a lot of evidence from their work experience. Notwithstanding that, we always recommend drilling down on the examples given and explaining when each was achieved/undertaken. By giving a chronology, you can show Ashurst how your abilities/skills have evolved and what you plan to do to progress them further. The candidate could have done so here by stating the year of their achievements, and by using language that ties all these examples together.

We would also recommend that every experience specifically backs up their point. Here, the candidate talks about problem-solving as a key skill. They would want to identify a specific example of a problem they faced during this case (perhaps the team struggled to meet disclosure deadlines due to some unforeseen event). Then, the candidate can explain how they overcame this by implementing a three-stage process.

Applying knowledge in a specific context allows me to draw on my critical thinking skills. My first class degree and current GDL average of 75% demonstrate my ability to tackle intellectual challenges perceptively. I have applied this aptitude in a legal context by successfully annotating a 3000 document litigation bundle.

Feedback: We recommend that you avoid using your grades as an example of an achievement, unless you can quantify it somehow (e.g. you were in the top X% of your class, or won a scholarship as a result) and overcame some challenges in achieving said grades. A lot of candidates will cite their grades as an achievement, which in turn will make your writing less unique. In any case, the candidate would need to explain how they applied their skills from the GDL in order to tackle the bundle comprising 3000 documents. 

It’s also not fully clear whether the bundle is 3,000 words, 3,000 pages or 3,000 documents.  3,000 documents makes the most sense in this context, but it’s not completely clear.  The reader is left wondering how big the bundle was, rather than admiring the candidate’s achievement. 

Finally, the candidate assets that they “successfully” annotated the bundle.  Who judged their success?  This an assertion; it does not credibly evidence the candidate’s critical thinking skills.

I am highly organised and take ownership of my workstreams. As a clerk, I prioritised to ensure urgent authorities bundles were completed promptly and that court deadlines were met.

Feedback: The candidate describes their work as a clerk generically here but does not substantiate it with any specific examples of how they organised their work and took ownership. Given word constraints, the candidate could have cut this out altogether and leverage the word count more effectively elsewhere. The candidate presumably would have described this in the work experience section anyway.

I have built and maintained professional relationships with ease as a clerk, office administrator, and developer of a sustainable scheme. I understand the importance of clear communication and the necessity to build client trust through thoughtful interactions. Through volunteering with a reading charity, I have developed the skill of translating information into digestible concepts. This is relevant to making complex legal concepts accessible to clients which I believe is a vital skill for a commercial solicitor.

Feedback: The candidate briefly touches upon their volunteering experiences here. Volunteering is a great way to show firms your commitment, organisation and motivation. Just by presenting this example, the candidate is already beginning to convince Ashurst of their competencies and their suitability for the role.

That said, the candidate should have drilled down on their volunteering experience further. How did they develop the skill of translating information into digestible concepts? Why is this important for commercial clients? To save the space, the candidate should have cut out the first half of their paragraph. They will have the opportunity to discuss their work as a clerk/office administrator/sustainable scheme developer elsewhere in their applications. As such, the candidate should take this opportunity to drill down on their volunteering work.

Diversity and Inclusion are inseparable from a career at Baker McKenzie. Please outline how you would apply D & I in your role, drawing on any initiatives you may have been involved in.

Diversity and inclusion principles and initiatives are incredibly important to me. I am a Parsi Zoroastrian; part of a community that is less than 100,000 people globally. Furthermore, I regard myself to have a sexuality that is deviates from heteronormativity. I love to engage in support, and talking groups that discuss issues that individuals from diverse backgrounds face. This makes sure that those in 'minority' groups are included, but also that the majority are educated on a wider range of issues. In my secondary school, I started up a diversity and inclusivity student discussion group. My school was very traditional, and so I wanted to break the norm and encourage individuality of thought and being. The group I led met every week to discuss a variety of traditionally 'taboo' topics, including, sexuality, race, sexism, xenophobia, and how to merge a foreign culture in a Western environment. 

The way I would apply D & I, in my role, would be to draw on the wonderful support network of colleagues that are in Baker McKenzie. The best way to make individuals feel included is to talk to them: as Baker McKenzie is a global firm, there is no better way to learn about other cultures, and peoples, than talking to those very individuals! I would also love to throw myself into the variety of D & I programs that Baker McKenzie has including BakerEthnicity and BakerLGBT+.

[Feedback: This is an excellent answer to an increasingly popular question.  The candidate divides his response into two parts: first, he explains his own experience of D&I; second, he outlines how he would apply this outlook at Baker McKenzie.

This candidate has first-experience of D&I initiatives from leading a diversity discussion group group at school.  It’s not a problem if you have fewer obvious examples than this candidate.  You could write about any podcasts or thought-provoking articles that you have listened to or read which helped you to appreciate the importance of D&I.  The aim here is to demonstrate that D&I is an important value to you - something that you share with the firm. 

The second part of the answer is inevitably more abstract.  Like the candidate, you should provide examples of the firm’s efforts to promote diversity.  Most firms talk about this on their website, but you may be able to find additional information in the firm’s annual report (which you can find by searching for the firm’s name on Companies House (link)).

There is a typo in the second sentence which is problematic (“...that is deviates from heteronormativity”).  This is relatively minor, but it definitely detracts from the answer.]

We are proud of our inclusive approach and how we have built an environment where people from diverse backgrounds can thrive, and are key to our success as a Firm. Please outline which diversity & inclusion Baker groups you would support, and detail any initiatives you may have previously been involved in. (300 words max)*

I am intrigued by BakerOpportunity’s focus on social mobility.

Having been selected as [position]for the (Name of Conference) I liaised with legal professionals to invite them to speak to over 200 students from various backgrounds with the aim of increasing representation and accessibility to the legal industry. Baker McKenzie’s active engagement with sixth form colleges in social mobility 'cold spots' through BakerOpportunity therefore particularly resonated with me, especially as I am currently orgnising the (Type of Conference), an (Name of Conference) initiative aimed at disadvantaged sixth form students. The network’s support of the firm’s PRIME Programme also highlights the important opportunities it provides for students from less privileged backgrounds. By allowing access to legal work experience at the firm through PRIME, BakerOpportunity illustrates a drive to break down barriers stereotypically associated with the legal industry, something which I would be thrilled to support and contribute towards.

Feedback: 

Overall, this is a strong and well-structured answer to a question that is increasingly popular amongst graduate recruiters. Baker McKenzie’s inclusion, diversity and equity strategy is amongst its key unique selling points. As such, graduate recruitment asks this question so they can grasp (1) whether you have properly understood Baker McKenzie’s diversity strategy and (2) whether you have any experiences demonstrating why these D&I initiatives are important to you.

The candidate has direct experience working in a law-related social mobility initiative. This makes BakerOpportunity an obvious first choice for the candidate. It’s not an issue if you have fewer clear-cut examples than this candidate. Instead, you could write about any experience you’ve had where you came to appreciate the value of having an inclusive and diverse group. In particular, think about any projects/activities you’ve been involved in that improved your understanding of D&I and made it important to you. Then, link it back to Baker group you’ve mentioned and outline why you would want to contribute towards it.

There are a few minor points that detract from the overall quality of this answer:

1. There is a typo in the middle of the paragraph which is problematic - “especially as I am currently orgnising the (Type of Conference).” When you are competing against thousands of candidates for an extremely limited number of spaces, you cannot afford to make mistakes like this. Always read your answers out loud to make sure you haven’t made any typos.

2. The writing comes across as fluffy at points. The candidate spends a lot of time telling the firm facts it already knows about itself (namely that it runs the PRIME programme). The candidate instead could have elaborated on the conference initiative they involved themselves in. Graduate recruitment will have been interested in what the candidate achieved and how it made social mobility valuable to them. Then, the candidate would need to link it back to BakerOpportunity and outline concisely why they would want to be involved in it.

3. The candidate would do well to vary their sentence structures and lengths throughout the answer. The candidate tends to use long-winded sentences with a lot of commas, which makes the writing less punchy and concise.

I would also support the firm’s BakerWellbeing group. In my role as (position) at school, I organised and fundraised for a non-profit organisation (name of NGO), which aims to provide support for those struggling with their mental health. To accomplish this, I liaised with teachers and set up traditional Cantonese food stalls during House events. The £560 I raised with my team helped the organisation introduce their “Help Me” virtual assistant, allowing users to raise concerns about mental health issues, and subsequently directing them to the relevant resources to access help. In an industry which is as dynamic as it is demanding, I was glad to see that BakerWellbeing prompted Mental Resilience training at the firm, as it demonstrates the firm’s efforts in eliminating the stigma surrounding mental health, whilst providing an important support network for its lawyers. Drawing from my experiences, this is a cause I would contribute to and support.           

Feedback: This paragraph is a much stronger one. The candidate specifically identifies an initiative that appeals to them. Then, the candidate discusses in detail a similar initiative they’ve taken part in. The candidate demonstrates (1) what they achieved during the initiative, (2) why the experience made mental health important to them and (3) why BakerWellbeing’s work specifically appeals to them as a result. As with the previous paragraph, the candidate would benefit from more concise writing and a varied sentence structure. However, this does not significantly detract from the answer’s overall quality.

We would note that the word count for this question is extremely limited. It is best for you to identify no more than two initiatives and explain your reasons for identifying them in depth, as this candidate has done. 

Why do you want to become a solicitor and what key skills do you have that are relevant to the role?

What attracts me to a career as a solicitor is the use of expertise to help clients solve legal problems. I want an intellectually challenging job where I can develop specialist knowledge, but also one where I can build relationships with clients, collaborate in a team, and do work which has a positive impact on the world.

[Feedback:  This question appears to have quite a tight word limit of approximately 200 words. Therefore, we would recommend splitting this answer into roughly two to three sections/points. If you do decide to address more than that, you may run the risk of underdeveloped answers. You should remember that depth is always more preferable than breadth when it comes to application answers.

This paragraph has a clear topic sentence and correctly identifies a key attractor of the career: client service/client-orientated work. However, the wider paragraph seems to be a collection of several points rather than being a development of one area, namely, the paragraph’s opening sentence. Whilst the answer is severely limited with regards to word count, by the candidate cramming too many separate points into one paragraph means that each one is substantially underdeveloped.

For instance, the candidate has not explained why they think the career is intellectually challenging and why an intellectually challenging career is attractive to them. As far as possible, we would recommend sticking to a PEE/AL structure (point, evidence, explanation/analysis, link) for your paragraphs.]

As a logical thinker, I enjoy critically assessing arguments, finding their weaknesses and looking at an issue from all perspectives. I am fast learner; for example as an immigration paralegal, I quickly gained in-depth knowledge of immigration law and progressed to drafting advice letters in more complex areas of law such as overseas adoptions.

[Feedback:  Again, this paragraph starts off really well, however, the candidate then immediately switches tack and begins discussing another skill. This gives the effect of “shoehorning” skills/points in for the sake of doing so. We would recommend writing about one skill/competency and perhaps mentioning other skills competencies in the course of developing your main answer or explaining your evidence.

The candidate has done well to bring up a personal example to evidence their claim of being a fast learner and has provided some great specificity to lend credence to their answer. You should remember that any and all claims about your skills/competencies, as far as possible, should be evidenced with personal examples.

To improve their answer further, the candidate could have provided a ‘link’ sentence at the end of their paragraph. You should be mindful of the question at hand: ‘what key skills do you have that are relevant to the role?’. This question invites you not only to provide evidence for your competencies but also to explain how you would employ such skills in the role as a trainee commercial solicitor.

Hence, the candidate could have explained how being a fast learner would assist them with in completing a specific task that a trainee would reasonably be expected to do (for example, researching case law/legislation changes to draft a legal note then to be presented and explained to their supervisor).]

I am an empathetic and articulate communicator, and am able to explain complex concepts in an accessible manner. For example, during my volunteering I worked with vulnerable clients with sensitivity, to ensure their applications for exceptional case funding were successful. I also developed my persuasive communication skills at [redacted organisation], successfully pitching fundraising to law firms and raising over £20,000.

[Feedback:  Be mindful of spelling and grammar typos and anomalies. The candidate does not necessarily require a comma after ‘communicator’ in the first sentence.

This paragraph reads like the start of two great paragraphs crammed together. If these two sections were taken asunder and developed into full answers, we are sure they would be good answers. However, as it stands, the content of the answer is a little too confused.

For instance, the candidate has started off discussing their communication skills and their articulacy. This is substantiated with a personal example; however, it is unclear how the example links to the identified skills. Though in actuality the candidate may have demonstrated those skills in dealing with vulnerable clients, the lack of further development/explanation of the example, and no link back to the question, means that the example cited does not satisfactorily serve its purpose.

Furthermore, the last sentence of the paragraph reads like a great opening sentence of a separate point; however, in this case, it has been “tagged on” to a completely unrelated point. Though the candidate is talking about communication, they are discussing it with reference to ‘[explaining] complex concepts in an accessible manner’ not regarding ‘persuasive[ness]’.

You should remember to ensure that all of your elements of your PEE/AL structure cohere together and work to substantiate exactly the same point. Otherwise, you may risk writing irrelevant or hypocritical answers which unnecessarily undermine your argument (for example, you do not want to write an unclear answer whilst attempting to claim clear communicative abilities!).]

Finally, I am able to work calmly and efficiently under pressure, and am resilient in the face of challenges or setbacks.

[Feedback: Once again, the candidate certainly demonstrates their knowledge of what skills are required in the role; nevertheless, sentences like these only serve to undermine the quality of their answer. Avoid runaway or “tagged on” sentences – though you might feel pressured to mention certain points, find a way to integrate them appropriately in your answers or avoid bringing them up as one-liners. The reason is not because such statements are incorrect, it is because you are unable to properly evidence, explain and link such points.

Law firms are not just looking for you “say the right things” – any candidate can do that; rather, law firms want to see that you genuinely have the competencies you mention and understand why such competencies are important. Hence, in virtue of what law firms are testing, one-liners simply do not pass muster.]

In your view, what will be the greatest innovation to influence the firm in the next 5 years and why? (150 words)

The greatest innovation to influence the firm will be computer-automated document analysis.

The technology already exists, but it has yet to be implemented or utilised to its fullest extent. Programs such as 'Luminance' have been funded by legal firms (in this instance, Slaughter & May) and are rapidly replacing the way in which legal firms conduct themselves.

The behaviour of the firm will have to change in light of this technology. Although lawyers will not be replaced - machine learning means that details will be scrutinised and picked apart more than ever. Bird & Bird will have to ensure that they employ this technology to draft water-tight documents/agreements.

The litigation/arbitration sector will benefit greatly from this kind of technology, and I would expect to see firms such as Bird & Bird expanding more into those practice areas. The technology will allow solicitors to claim and counter-claim to higher degrees of precision.

[Feedback: Again, the candidate immediately makes their focus area clear and goes on to explain examples of existing innovation in this area to demonstrate their research. 

The candidate is a little vague on how automation will affect law firms.  If the candidate picked a specific area, it would be easier to explain the impact.  For example, contract automation is unlikely to replace the back-and-forth bespoke negotiation that leading law firms specialise in, but it might speed the process up by highlighting problematic clauses and automatically applying the client’s default positions on routine boilerplate clauses like the governing law clause.]

Lawyers at Bird & Bird are all individual and come from a variety of backgrounds, cultures and experiences. One thing that they all have in common is a determination to achieve their goals by working hard and having a positive 'can-do' attitude. Please tell us about the key event or experience that has influenced you to develop yourself as an individual. As we are interested in learning about your non-academic experiences, try to use an example from your extra-curricular activities (music, sport etc) or your work/voluntary experience.

●      What was the key event/experience and how did it come about?

●      What obstacles did you have to overcome?

●      What was the key learning for you?

As a child, I nearly drowned in a dangerous waterfall. As a result, I have a fear of water, but I was determined to conquer my phobia and decided to do a PADI Open Water Diver course this summer. The course emphasised replicating emergency circumstances such as oxygen depletion under the sea. Haunted by my traumatic memories, I stopped my instructor from closing the oxygen tank and ascended to the surface immediately after I failed to calm myself down.

Despite this setback, I convinced myself to try again and made myself focus on the underwater scenery. Eventually, I overcame my fear and passed the training course. I learned from this experience that I should have a positive mindset and persist when facing any obstacles to achieve my goal. I also learned to cherish individual improvements and realised that emotions, if managed wisely, can motivate me to develop. 

[Feedback: This is a heartfelt and personal answer that brings the question to life by using very few words. It isn’t easy to do, but the candidate pulls it off effectively. And as it’s unique, she can be assured that no other applicant would’ve used the same example. She begins with an attention grabbing first sentence and goes on to detail (a) the key event and experience, (b) the obstacle she overcame and (c) the key learning - exactly as the question demands. It is especially difficult to describe key learnings, and the candidate does a good job here to explain what she learned without sounding artificial.

The story is powerful but the writing could be a little less hyperbolic. She could do without some language (“dangerous”, “haunted by my traumatic memories”). The writing is also a little ‘stop and start’ and perhaps overuses commas in a few places as well.]

Please provide your personal statement in the space below. Please outline why have you chosen to become a commercial solicitor and what relevant skills and experience you possess that you feel make you a suitable candidate. (550 Words)

My attraction to the commercial legal profession is a direct result of the ever-changing nature of the commercial law profession; successful lawyers must tailor their advice to their client’s individual circumstances and financial position. This will push me to develop both my legal knowledge and commercial acumen in parallel, ensuring that my work as a lawyer will remain stimulating and challenging over the long-term. I observed this dynamic in practice while working as a paralegal at Freshfields and Slater & Gordon during my university holidays and while participating in recent virtual internships at Latham & Watkins and White & Case. I am excited and motivated by the challenge of adapting to diverse business issues in order to successfully form strategies that guide clients through their complex circumstances.

[Feedback:  This section of the application asks for a personal statement and specifies certain points to cover: ‘why commercial law’ and ‘why you’. We would recommend covering both aspects in equal depth and spend approximately an equal amount of the word count on each. This candidate has condensed their answer to why commercial law into just under 130 words. This has resulted in them not addressing the full question: why would you like to be a commercial solicitor? Make sure you break down the question into its component parts to ensure your answer stays relevant and does not miss anything.

Notwithstanding these points, the candidate does a decent job of giving one main point which attracts them to commercial law. The candidate does well to substantiate their answer with personal, legal experiences which impresses upon the reader the candidate’s genuine motivation for a career in commercial law. In motivation questions, legal experiences are excellent ways to demonstrate commitment to and interest in the career, as well as knowledge of what the career actually entails.

To improve this answer, we would recommend spending some more of the word count unpacking the examples given. It is important that you explicitly link back all examples to the question. For example, the candidate should explain what they did during their internships which gave them such an experience and why they enjoy being in an ‘ever-changing’ profession. Note, the answer must go beyond just saying that it is exciting or attractive, and must give a genuine explanation of why that is the case.]

The relevant skills that I possess that would make me a suitable candidate are:

1. My ability to provide accurate and meticulous drafts of legal documents. As a trainee solicitor, I would be relied upon to provide accurate advice and meticulously drafted legal documents. Mistakes cost clients time, money and reputation, so making sure that I am are thorough and have a good eye for detail is vital. Having completed multiple legal internships in [redacted country] and [redacted country], I am able to spot errors efficiently and reduce my own mistakes considerably. By using this skill, I demonstrated my attention to detail sufficiently to be entrusted with proofreading all client documents.

[Feedback:  This is a decent answer, if not a little repetitive. They demonstrate knowledge of the tasks being a commercial solicitor entails, and provide personal evidence to substantiate their claims.

The first and second sentences repeat the same idea and actually repeat the same phrases; the word count could have been better spent extrapolating on the evidence given. Whilst giving evidence is good, it needs to be properly developed. When you give examples, make sure that they are personalised and developed. The candidate could have improved by providing more detail about what they did in the internships which helped her develop the skills she cites.

There’s also a grammatical error in this section (“making sure that I am are through”) which could have resulted in an automatic rejection.]

2. My problem-solving skills. At university, I participated in a paintball league for the [redacted country] Open with a team of five. My team has had no prior competitive experience in paintball, which made this challenging. Nevertheless, as team captain, I was determined to go all the way. Despite the distinct disadvantage, I strategized around my team and used my experience from playing ‘Call of duty’. I placed my fastest teammate as a running decoy and situated my best shooters at prime locations so that we could get a clear shot when the enemy team chased our decoy. By employing creative, strategic techniques, my team came in second and additionally won the medal of ‘underdog of the year’.

[Feedback:  This is quite an eccentric answer; nevertheless, for the most part, it is well-structured and argued. The candidate uses the STAR format as a framework for her answer ensuring that her argumentation is clear, cogent and concise.

To improve, the candidate could have been a little clearer with some of their phraseology: ‘I was determined to go all the way’ is a bit confusing, and could have been simplified with a phrase like, ‘I was determined to win’. Furthermore, be careful with spelling and grammar: ‘duty’ in ‘Call of Duty’ needs to be capitalised.

As a final point, be careful with being consistent with which competency you are addressing. Whilst there is overlap between creativity, problem-solving, and strategy, they are not all synonymous. Although you want your writing to be engaging, do not sacrifice the clarity of your argument in favour of synonyms.]

3. My commercial awareness. As the founder and editor of a business law blog ([redacted]), I help other students better understand commercial issues and how they interact with the legal sector. The 2000+ weekly visitors trust me to cogently explain complicated business issues. I intend to use my writing, knowledge synthesis and commercial acumen at Milbank when drafting documents, providing advice and forging relationships with clients.

[Feedback:  This answer is a little shorter than the other sections; however, it is full of detail and links back to the question at hand. There is a little extravagant language, such as ‘knowledge synthesis’ but it is clear what is meant and so is not a significant area for concern.

Nevertheless, the candidate has mentioned the wrong firm (‘Milbank’ instead of Bristows). This is quite an egregious error and should be avoided by all applicants. Whilst this application was successful, most firms will automatically reject applicants for making this error because it’s so sloppy - it demonstrates a lack of attention to detail, betrays a generic answer, and calls into question the candidate’s motivation for the firm at hand. Whilst it is fine to reuse elements of other applications, carefully proofread your work to ensure there are no typos and mistaken mentions of other firms.]

4. My ability to translate legal issues and legal jargons into layman’s concepts and terms. As, a trainee solicitor, I would be required to translate legal issues into layman’s terms as clients would most likely be unfamiliar with legal jargon. I give weekly lessons as an extension of my blog regarding M&A theory & process. To do so effectively, I learned how to use more straightforward examples to explain large terminologies such as M&A arbitrage. I have developed and mastered the essential skills of effective communication through these weekly lessons.

[Feedback:  This answer demonstrates good use of personal evidence, and clearly lays out why the skill is useful and how the candidate has developed such a skill. However, there are several grammatical errors (such as the comma after ‘As’ in the second sentence, and the mistaken pluralisation of ‘jargon’ in the first sentence).  At a minimum, you should use a spelling and grammar checker, but ideally you should print off a hard copy of your application to re-read or ask a friend or relative to proofread for you.  We often find that we spot errors in legal documents that we review in hard copy, which we probably would not have noticed if reviewing on screen]

Through my extensive legal work experiences and relevant and transferrable skills that I have built over the course of my university and non-university curriculum, I am in a good position to not only thrive at Bristows but also to value add.

[Feedback: This sentence is a little superfluous and could have been cut without too much detriment to the application. The 41 words may have been better spent fleshing out some of the candidates previous answers; however, if you do have some words to spare, a concluding sentence, similar to this one, is a nice way to end a personal statement.]

Please provide your personal statement in the space below. Please outline why you have chosen to become a commercial solicitor and what relevant skills and experience you possess that you feel make you a suitable candidate. (550 words)

Dear Graduate Recruitment Team,

I want to become a commercial solicitor as I am driven by wanting to understand and help clients to achieve their aims. I found this to be the case as an in-house paralegal at [redacted large UK property landlord], where I managed and advised on all of the contracts that went through the EMI, business technology, finance and operations teams. I was able to be at the centre of transactions, balancing commercial and legal risks for the teams I was overseeing when negotiating contracts. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to utilise my problem-solving skills in analysing and assessing the risk for the business as well as building a daily rapport with the teams. As such, I was nominated for the [redacted] Customer Services Award, which consolidated my interest in advising clients on the legal aspects of transactions and the client facing nature of the work. Furthermore, my time at [redacted small UK law firm] highlighted the critical role commercial law played in one’s business, which drew me to becoming a solicitor further. As a corporate paralegal, I worked with entrepreneurs and small businesses on various corporate matters regarding their ventures, such as drafting asset purchase agreements. I saw how commercial law facilitated and executed the goal and the vision of businesses. Playing such a fundamental role to businesses in this way and exploring this role further at a firm like Bristows would be a fulfilling experience.

Feedback: This part of the application requires you to provide a personal statement with specific points to cover: (1) “why commercial law” and (2) “why you”. You should cover each aspect in equal depth, spending approximately 50% of the word count on each section. The candidate has done so here, spending 236 words on motivations and 296 words on skills.  The candidate does well to draw upon personal, legal experiences that demonstrate their genuine interest in the commercial solicitor path. In motivation questions, you must substantiate all your points with specific personal examples and explain how each experience relates back to your reasons for commercial law. Legal experiences demonstrate not only that you are committed to this career path, but also that you grasp what commercial law actually involves.

You should also note how the candidate uses the PEEL structure (point, evidence, explanation, link back to the point) in the second part of their answer. The candidate leads with a concise point, namely that they are interested in the critical role that commercial lawyers play in businesses. Then, the candidate illustrates their point with a specific example of their own legal experience. Then, the candidate explains what they did and how that relates back to their point (ie they assisted businesses and entrepreneurs by drafting legal documents). Finally, the candidate attempts to link their explanations back to their point about commercial law.

To improve, the candidate could have spent more time unpacking their examples. You need to tie all your explanations and examples directly back to the question asked. For example, the candidate explains that they “saw how commercial law facilitated the goals of businesses” and that this would be “fulfilling” but does not explain why they find this interesting.  Your answers must go beyond asserting that something is attractive or fulfilling, instead giving a genuine explanation of why you think that is the case.

Furthermore, the candidate could have improved both the first point and the final link back to the question. Firstly, the initial point (namely that they want to be a commercial solicitor to help clients achieve their aims) is not unique to commercial law. Though the candidate later elaborates on their point, we recommend that candidates state a concise, well-tailored point from the beginning. Secondly, the candidate does not link their explanations for point 1 back to the question. Instead, the candidate names an achievement (namely that they received a Customer Services Award) without explaining how that award consolidated their interest in commercial law. We recommend that you read through every sentence carefully, making sure that each one meaningfully contributes to your answer to the question.

One of the qualities that a commercial lawyer would possess is the ability work well as a team. Teamwork is essential as you are required to not only work within your team but also across practice areas and jurisdictions. I believe I am well suited as a candidate because I understand the importance of teamwork, having worked as a group on numerous occasions as a part of the choir, orchestra and string ensemble for seven years. At [redacted university], I was part of the Live Music Society, where I was selected to be a part of show called Rhapsody in a six-part harmony number. After weekly rehearsals for two months, we successfully performed to a sold-out 450 seat [redacted] Theatre. Through music, I have learnt the importance of commitment, open communication in providing honest feedback and teamwork in producing an excellent performance for the audience to enjoy.

Feedback: The candidate structures their argument reasonably well overall. They lead by explaining a competency that commercial solicitors need, before providing a specific and detailed example which highlights how they have demonstrated this competency. You should note how the candidate uses specific numbers, timeframes and other details which make their example highly specific. We know what the show involved, how many rehearsals took place and exactly how many people saw the candidate’s final performance. You should always quantify your examples as far as possible. This will make your examples more convincing and your overall argument more impactful. You also should not underestimate musical, sporting or other extra-curricular/hobby-related achievements. Candidates often neglect these. They can demonstrate that you are a well-rounded person with valuable transferable skills.

That said, this answer needs to tailor its central point back to a career as a commercial solicitor. The candidate needs to drill down on why teamwork is important for commercial solicitors specifically. While the candidate is correct that commercial solicitors work across jurisdictions and practice areas, the same can be said for many areas of law. As such, the candidate would need to demonstrate a higher-level awareness of what commercial law involves and how they could bring value as such. Furthermore, the candidate needs to elaborate further on the “teamwork” element of their experience. While the candidate asserts that they have “learnt the importance” of teamwork, it is never explained how the candidate worked with other musicians nor how this contributed to the successful performance. You must always explain every example in full and tie it closely back in with your point.

There’s also a grammatical error in the first sentence - “ability work well as a team” should be “ability to work well in a team”. You cannot afford to make such mistakes in competitive training contract applications. Indeed, some firms will automatically reject you for such typos/mistakes. You must carefully proofread each sentence to make sure your spelling, punctuation and grammar is perfect.

I am also adaptable and open minded, which I believe is important if you are dealing with a range of situations with a diverse cohort of colleagues and clients. Having lived in Seoul, Doha and now England, interned in Geneva, and studied in China, I believe I have been exposed to different people and cultures. This was especially useful when working at [redacted law firm], where as a contracts paralegal, I have had to regularly liaise with the Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE and Australia offices to draft and execute contracts for international consultants and clients. I have enjoyed regularly collaborating with the Asia Pacific, UAE and Australia offices, in which I was able to learn the cultural and commercial nuances between different jurisdictions and work effectively as a team between different time zones. This enabled me to prepare contracts worth up to approximately £3 million in a week.

Feedback: Firstly, this answer uses good personal evidence. Not only does the candidate specify which countries they have lived and worked in, but they have also quantified their achievements as a contract paralegal well. We know exactly which global offices they collaborated with and the £3,000,000 value they generated for the firm as a result. This is the level of detail you should go into. You must substantiate all your points with high-quality examples throughout. As such, you can easily increase the value of your examples by providing specific details and numbers wherever possible. Secondly, the candidate lays out the skill they developed and how they found it useful in working with the firm’s global offices.

That said, there is a small grammatical slip-up: “open minded” should be “open-minded”. This is  a minor error and likely to escape notice, but it’s better to get it right in the first place. 

Thank you for considering my application.

Yours faithfully,

Feedback: You don’t need this final section as you aren’t writing a cover letter. The candidate could have safely cut this out if they were pressed for space. That said, these concluding paragraphs are concise and the candidate uses the correct pleasantries - “yours faithfully” since the addressee isn’t named.

You have just stepped into an elevator with the managing partner of Charles Russell Speechlys. What three key points would you want them to know about you and why? (250 words)

The first key point I would want Simon Ridpath to know is that I am an extremely determined individual and work hard to achieve my goals. At university, I put in a lot of time and effort to achieve a first-class honours in my law degree. I ensured I was organised and managed my time to enjoy my extracurricular activities as well as achieve consistently strong grades. This is essential to achieve a balance for a career in law as time management is important to stay on top of work and other activities.

The second key point is my ability to work well in a team. Through my different sports and jobs, I have developed the interpersonal skills required to work effectively with others. I understand the importance of listening to other viewpoints, which reflects the focus on collaboration at Charles Russell Speechlys.

The final key point is my willingness to get involved in every opportunity. At university I joined numerous clubs, including the commercial awareness society involving various workshops. This expanded my knowledge on the key issues law firms face and I enjoyed taking part in the different activities. Recently at Shoosmiths LLP I have taken on responsibility for writing a monthly office newsletter. This has enhanced my awareness of the different areas of law and the types of clients involved. Therefore, I feel I could bring a lot to the firm through my hardworking and enthusiastic attitude and willingness to take on responsibility.

Feedback: The candidate does well to include the managing partner’s name in their answer because it shows that they did not treat their application to the firm superficially. Moreover, they take the right approach to the question by highlighting three personal qualities that are relevant in the context of pursuing a career as a solicitor, i.e., effective time management, ability to work well in a team, and willingness to take initiative. To achieve a similar effect, we recommend that you draw on the firm’s website or marketing materials when choosing which qualities or skills to discuss in order to ensure that your discussion is as relevant as possible.

However, simply asserting that you possess a given set of qualities or skills is not persuasive in and of itself. You should provide examples in support of your claims, as the candidate does in this case. You can draw on your extra-curricular activities, positions of responsibility and work experience (which does not necessarily have to pertain to the legal sector). To ensure that your examples are well-developed, we recommend that you follow the “CAR” structure (“context”, “action”, “result”), as far as possible. The candidate largely follows a similar structure. However, we would have liked to see a concrete example in support of the candidate’s claim that they are able to work well in teams, as opposed to a blanket statement referring to their “different sports and jobs”. As far as possible, we suggest that you paint a reasonably clear picture to the reader so as to avoid leaving them to read too much or too little into your answer. 

What are the key skills and attributes you will need to possess as a future facing lawyer? (200 words)

1. Commercial Awareness

The boundaries between nations are being blurred by globalisation with the interconnection of business, and this has ramifications for the law and jurisdictions. Commercial awareness is required to constantly be ahead of the trend of business so that your legal work is not caught out by sudden shocks.

2. Interpersonal Communication

Law is the business of people. Whether one is client focused or firm focused, people are at the heart of the matter. Communication between team members is vital to ensure work is carried out efficiently, accurately, and to keep morale high. Communication with the client is necessary to ensure their needs and wants are correctly identified and targeted.

3. Critical Thinking

Problem solving is a lawyer’s ‘bread and butter’. An analytical mindset is required to understand information quickly, sift the relevant data out, and analyse it. Creativity of thought is also required to work around complex problems that do not have an easy answer.

4. Resilience

Being a lawyer is tough and requires attention to detail and strong commitment. In these instances, focus and resilience is needed to stay motivated and unphased. This allows for the maintaining of excellence of work and bolstering internal morale.

[Feedback: We like the structure of this answer, but the response itself could be improved through examples.  You need proof points which demonstrate that you have the skill in question.

Given the tight word count, we would reduce the answer down to three key skills and attributes.  We would include one sentence explaining why the attribute is important and another sentence providing an example of how you have demonstrated or developed the quality in the past. 

The skills and attributes identified here are good.  Others which we can think of include: (1) time management / organisation; (2) teamwork; (3) dedication; and (4) good decision-making / judgement.  Choose whichever work best with your most relevant examples.]

We are all 'work in progress' and need to celebrate our strengths but also focus on our areas for growth. Please tell us about you (strengths and areas for growth)? (300) (286)

When faced with a challenge, I am able to develop creative solutions. For my undergraduate dissertation, I chose a relatively obscure topic: the ideological paradoxes underlying the 1970s German leftist movements. This was challenging due to the lack of primary source material, made more difficult by the closure of archives during the pandemic. Instead, I contacted the publishers of now-defunct journals to obtain reprints of articles and found former members of the movement to interview. My dissertation was awarded a Distinction and selected for publication by the university.

Feedback:  This is a typical strengths-based question requiring you to discuss your strengths and weaknesses. It is a variation on competency questions. You should ideally identify two strengths and two weaknesses before discussing each one in depth. We also recommend following the same PEE structure that the candidate has used here. You should (1) lead in with a point stating your strength, before (2) explaining how you developed that strength and finally (3) providing evidence of that strength in the form of a specific, quantified achievement.

The candidate’s first paragraph is strong. You should note how the candidate leads in with a strength straight away. Then, the candidate identifies a specific example from their academic studies and provides a great deal of context. Finally, the candidate does well to quantify their strength by identifying a specific, tangible grade and outcome.

One point for improvement is that the candidate should have explained their steps more thoroughly. The candidate briefly summarises the steps they took (i.e. in contacting defunct journal publishers), but it is not entirely clear what makes this step unusual or creative. Had the candidate provided some further insight into this action and the ways in which it was unusual/creative, then their example would go much further in demonstrating their ability to devise creative solutions.

Teaching has allowed me to develop strong communication skills. At [redacted tutoring agency], my students often struggled with basic grammar. I helped them learn by designing activities around different rules or problems. This method of adapting my communication style to fit my interlocutor has proved effective when providing written legal advice as the Student Director of the [redacted university legal advice service].

Feedback: The first half of this paragraph looks good. The candidate (1) identifies a specific and named strength, before (2) providing some context into the challenges they faced and (3) offering some very brief insight into how they helped the students.

This paragraph begins to suffer in the second half. The candidate opts to shoehorn in a reference to their work as a Student Director, despite this having unclear relevance to the candidate’s previous writing. This second example is underdeveloped and does nothing to demonstrate the candidate’s communication skills. It is not clear precisely how the candidate applied communicative skills as a Student Director. The candidate should have cut out references to this experienced altogether, in favour of more meaningful analysis of the steps they took as a tutor and the quantifiable positive outcome these steps achieved for the pupils.

I have sometimes been reticent in giving sufficiently critical feedback to colleagues and teammates. In order to develop this important management skill, I volunteered to take on training responsibilities at [redacted]. By teaching others, I learned to deliver constructive criticism more effectively. I have continued to take on leadership and training responsibilities as the Student Director of the [redacted university legal advice clinic].

Feedback:  The candidate now moves onto discussing their weaknesses. Candidates understandably find it tricky to describe their weaknesses. It can feel awkward to do so, as you run the risk of identifying glaring red flags to the recruiter and putting them off as a result. We agree with the candidate’s approach to this part of the question, namely that they have (1) identified their weaknesses and (2) spent most of their time explaining how they overcame it. You should therefore follow a similar PEE structure. You should (1) state the point (i.e. your weakness), (2) explain what steps you took to overcome it and (3) provide evidence that you have overcome your weakness by providing a specific, quantified achievement.

Most of this paragraph looks good. The candidate does well in stating a valid and relevant weakness, before explaining a specific and sensible step they took to overcome it. In turn, this demonstrates the candidate’s self-awareness and ability to identify (and so take positive steps towards overcoming) their weaknesses.

As with the previous paragraph, this one suffers because the candidate shoehorns in an irrelevant and unexplained reference to their Student Director work. This means that the candidate’s writing suffers in the following ways:

1. The candidate asserts that they “learned to deliver constructive criticism more effectively”, but never quite explains what they mean by this or how their skills developed.

2. The candidate does not provide any quantifiable outcomes following from their efforts to rectify this weakness. In turn, it is harder for recruiters to be convinced that the candidate has overcome their weakness.

As a rule, you should focus on just one example per paragraph before analysing them in depth. This will help you avoid the issues contained in this candidate’s writing.

I have also tended to hesitate to ask for help when trying to learn a new skill. For example, as the only novice in the university rugby team, I felt too embarrassed to ask for help on a number of rudimentary aspects of the game. Things improved rapidly after my teammates proactively offered advice. I took their guidance to heart which, in addition to putting in hours of additional training, helped me to progress from the bench to the starting line-up.

Feedback: This paragraph is an improvement on the previous because it is well-structured. It focuses on just one example, which helps focus the candidate’s writing and means they can explore the example in depth. This means we are given (1) a clear weakness, (2) a specific example demonstrating how the candidate overcame this weakness and (3) a tangible positive outcome demonstrating how the candidate overcame their weakness.

As a minor comment, the candidate’s writing about their actions is not particularly strong. The candidate explains that their confidence only improved when other teammates proactively approached the candidate to give advice. This makes it sound as though the candidate took no action to improve their confidence and ask for help. Instead, it reads as though the candidate sat on their weakness and hoped that other teammates would come along to help the candidate out. You should make sure that you describe your own actions to improve your weakness, rather than relying on third parties to rescue you from it.

Please complete the personal statement below in no more than 650 words. Within your personal statement please answer the following questions:

What do you think differentiates DWF from its competitors? (50%)

What transferable skills have you developed that you think will be relevant as a DWF trainee solicitor. In your answer please consider how you have demonstrated them and how you would apply them as a trainee solicitor. (50%)

Please note that you will be scored on your drafting ability as well as your content.

Unlike most traditional law firms, DWF's ‘complex, managed and connected’ delivery mechanism provides clients with integrated end-to-end support for all of their legal business requirements.

Recognised as one of the most dynamic legal businesses in Europe by the Financial Times, DWF has strengthened its client offering through the establishment of its managed services business and the acquisition of Mindcrest. With clients increasingly seeking legal advisors who serve to increase transparency, reduce price and increase value of services, its unique ability to deliver an end-to-end outsourced legal solution, has positioned DWF as an attractive market leader, providing value beyond that of its competitors. Overcoming time and resource-intensive processes, by developing solutions such as DWF draft to automate contract drafting, allows sector specialists to focus on complex legal issues and positions DWF to support existing and new clients in areas where it has not previously had capability.

Feedback: The candidate correctly identifies DWF’s complementary services offering as one of the firm’s unique selling points (USPs). However, it should be noted that Mindcrest is a managed services business; it would have made more sense for the candidate to frame the acquisition of Mindcrest as evidence of DWF’s stated strategy to build a global managed services business, and to cite the firm’s Connected Services team alongside Mindcrest to illustrate the fullness of its complementary services offering and “its unique ability to deliver an end-to-end outsourced solution”.

Nevertheless, client service makes for an excellent point of analysis. As service businesses, law firms’ ability to thrive depends on clients; as such, client service is a crucial aspect of any law firm’s business strategy. In light of this, the candidate does well to take the client’s point of view in explaining the value of DWF’s integrated business model.

Moreover, the candidate discusses automation, a topical issue within the legal market, and correctly identifies one of the firm’s initiatives in this regard, DWF draft. What makes their discussion particularly effective, however, is the fact that they explain how an automated solution as DWF draft can benefit legal professionals and, ultimately, clients.

As DWF has a vast presence across sectors now navigating technological advancements, and with insurance technology poised to mature in 2021, the firm's tech-product offering demonstrates its readiness to support clients and DWF's connected services signal the firm's understanding of clients’ changing industry landscape, and the business challenges they face. The firm's readied and adaptable product offering enables DWF to provide solutions quicker than competitors, for example, DWF360 already can offer solutions to support the detection, prevention and mitigation of Covid-19 risks in the workplace, positioning DWF ahead of the curve. Additionally, DWF's aim of ‘disrupting to progress', as an employer, attracts business innovators who are the driving force of the evolving legal profession ensuring that the firm continues to provide cutting-edge legal business services.

Feedback: Although they could have provided some examples of the sectors “now navigating technological advancements” for the sake of completeness, the candidate correctly identifies DWF’s innovative product offering as another one of the firm’s USPs, whilst implicitly acknowledging the firm’s particular strength in the insurance sector. Echoing the comments made in relation to the previous paragraph, the candidate does well to frame their discussion of said product offering in terms of client service. Not only do they explain how it enables the firm to enhance client service, but they also provide an example to illustrate their point, i.e., DWF 360. To achieve a similar effect, we would recommend following the “PEE” structure (“point”. “explanation”, “example”), as the candidate does in this case.

The candidate has the right idea in highlighting the fact that DWF’s status as a “disruptor” within the market is poised to attract fellow “disruptors” as employees; without the right professionals, the firm would not be able to provide its “cutting-edge” services and stand out from the crowd in clients’ eyes. However, it would have made more sense to provide examples of the unique aspects of the training programme or the professional opportunities offered by the firm to illustrate such a point, rather than simply extrapolate it from the firm’s “aim of ‘disrupting to progress’”.

DWF's delivery model demonstrates its entrepreneurial approach and reflects the way modern businesses operate and fosters valuable client relationships. As the legal sector increasingly faces competition from other areas, such as AI technology and auditing firms, providing an integrated, multidisciplinary approach for clients, without compromising quality, is something that other businesses are not well-placed to offer, giving DWF the edge on competitors and providing for a sustainable business strategy.

Feedback: This paragraph represents the thrust of the candidate’s argument in response to the first question within the application form. Although it might serve as a helpful summary for the reader, it ultimately adds little to no value to the overall answer because it repeats what has already been said. We would have used the word count to further develop the previous points. Remember that, more often than not, recruiters prefer to see “depth” over “breadth” in application forms.

My ability to think analytically and creatively has been tested daily and I can analyse a problem to reach an innovative solution. In a recent project to migrate transaction bibles to a cloud-based platform, I worked alongside a team of business-leads to develop and implement a purpose-built software. Throughout the project, I demonstrated innovation by consistently seeking opportunities to refine the software, and agility by implementing and embracing changes whilst the project was underway. As clients are looking to DWF to provide pioneering business solutions, together with DWF's encouragement to think differently, as a trainee solicitor I would strive to find new ways of providing services and would embrace the use of technology to facilitate the delivery of high-quality services, responding positively to challenges.

Feedback: When answering skill-related questions, it is generally good practice to stick to the core competencies, which include teamwork, communication, organisation and time management, resilience, attention to detail, adaptability, and critical thinking. We would only recommend departing from the core competencies if the firm to which you are applying places particular emphasis on a specific skill or set of skills on its website or in its marketing materials. To accommodate the word limit on this application form, we would suggest that you choose three competencies and develop your discussion of said competencies as much as possible.

Having chosen your competencies, you should provide examples that demonstrate the fact that you possess said competencies. To find such examples, it is generally good practice to reflect on situations that arose as part of your previous/ current work experience, your extra-curricular activities, and/or your positions of responsibility, and tested e.g., your ability to organise and manage your time effectively. We would suggest that you avoid discussing work you did/ are doing for your degree programme at university; since most candidates went to university, it is difficult to stand out from the crowd when discussing e.g., your organisation and time management skills by reference to the fact that you completed multiple essays within the same timeframe.

Your aim is to show – not simply tell – the reader the relevance of the examples you have chosen to the skill itself and to the role of trainee solicitor. To achieve this effect, we would recommend following the PEEL technique (“point, “explanation”, “example”, “link”), and ensuring that you are painting a sufficiently clear picture of the situation for the reader. Remember that the reader should not be left guessing or making too many assumptions.

Although this is a successful application, the candidate’s answer in response to the second question within the application form is not as strong as their answer in response to the first question. The candidate has not made their chosen competency immediately clear to the reader; it appears as though the candidate is oscillating between critical thinking, creative problem-solving, agility, and – bizarrely – innovation. You should note that “innovation” is not a skill; one cannot say “I demonstrated innovation”, but one might be able to say “I demonstrated an ability to innovate”. Be mindful of phrasing, especially when the prompt explicitly directs candidates to note that their answer will be scored on the basis of their drafting ability, as well as their content. You should also avoid shoehorning multiple competencies within the same example because you will not be able to adequately demonstrate that you possess any one of those competencies. As a corollary, the example provided by the candidate in this case is not presented in an effective manner because it does not serve to demonstrate to the reader that the candidate possesses any given competency. Naturally, the link to the role of trainee solicitor is also deficient.

Although I am based in NRF's Newcastle office, my team is in London meaning face-to-face contact is limited and communicating well is imperative. My ability to communicate effectively would position me well to work collaboratively with teams across the DWF network. Supported by DWF's collegiate working approach, I would feel empowered to set my challenges and collaborate with lawyers from different jurisdictions on intellectually complex transactions knowing that I have access to ample support and supervision, fostering development. Further, having worked with a diverse clientele I am confident in my ability to build rapport and establish valuable working-relationships and together with my desire to understand business' drivers for success, as a trainee solicitor this would enable me to appreciate client requirements and challenges to develop tailored legal solutions.

Feedback: Echoing the comments made in relation to the previous paragraph, the candidate jumps between competencies, which ultimately hinders their ability to present a persuasive example in relation to any given competency and draw a coherent link to the role of trainee solicitor. It would have made more sense for the candidate to focus on their ability to communicate effectively and develop the example of their role at NRF in support of their claim that they possess said ability to show the reader how they go about ensuring effective communication with the team in London.

My commitment to volunteering has had a significant impact on my personal and professional growth and has provided the opportunity to co-ordinate and project manage fundraising events. I would be proud to use these skills as a trainee solicitor, to support DWF's commitment to CSR and promoting inclusion through the DWF Foundation and charitable initiatives.

Feedback: Having the opportunity to coordinate and manage events is not a skill in and of itself. However, by coordinating and managing events, the candidate may have derived organisation and time management skills or communication skills, for instance, that they could then apply as a trainee solicitor.  

In no more than 850 words, consider "Why Me, Why Freshfields and Why Commercial Law" as the basis of your Personal Statement. You may also wish to mention any positions of responsibility held at school or subsequently, any regular employment or other work experience and any achievements, interests and personal qualities which are relevant.

Whilst interning at [redacted law firm],[redacted southeast Asian country] ’s leading law firm, I was exposed to a commercial lawyer’s work in navigating a client through a broad spectrum of business activities. This motivated me to understand how lawyers provide holistic guidance. Interning at [redacted law firm in southeast Asia], a member of [law firm group], I analysed [redacted country]’s upcoming COVID-19 Bill and assisted in advising on a tenancy dispute involving multinational corporations on the ideal way to initiate a proceeding before the Bill was implemented, and how our clients’ goals for expansion into other areas in [redacted country] could continue to be met given that the party in dispute was instrumental in facilitating this growth. I developed a deep appreciation for the advisory role of commercial lawyers in demonstrating a thorough understanding of their client’s interests, the evolving nature of legal landscapes and commercial markets to ensure their client stays ahead of the curve.

Feedback:The aim of this first paragraph looks good, as it directly addresses one of the question’s core elements from the outset (namely “Why commercial law?”). First, you should note how the candidate outlines and explains their point from the outset. We are immediately told that the candidate is interested in commercial law because they provide holistic guidance to business clients. This is substantiated by an example from the candidate’s work experience, which contextualises and personalises the candidate’s motivations. In turn, this adds structure to the candidate’s paragraph and makes it easier for the recruiter to follow the candidate’s subsequent argument. In the same fashion, you should follow the PEEL/AL structure (point, evidence, explanation/analysis, link). You should state your motivational reason from the outset, before substantiating it with detailed personal examples and tailored analysis.

You should also note the quality of evidence that the candidate uses. The candidate summarises relevant commercial law work experience at the beginning. Then, the candidate zooms in on a specific example flowing from their assistance on the COVID-19 Bill. This provides specific, quantifiable evidence demonstrating that the candidate has a genuine interest in commercial law. Then, the candidate pivots their analysis around this specific example. They explain (1) what they did, (2) how their interest in the point developed from that example and (3) precisely what interested them about the example and why it did so. This persuades the recruiter that the candidate has a sustained and concrete interest in commercial law, which is reinforced by specific evidence and personalised examples. In your own writing, you must go beyond simply asserting that you have an abstract interest in commercial law. You should instead identify specific and high-quality personal evidence for your interest in commercial law, before analysing how your interest developed from that example.

The candidate’s writing is also coherent and well-structured, with the PEEL/AL system offering a clear framework. The candidate states their point immediately. Then, the candidate identifies specific evidence before analysing/explaining how their interest in the point developed from the example. Finally, the candidate includes a neat linking sentence to tie their evidence back in with the original point. At no point does the candidate lose focus – they stick to just one point per paragraph.  In your own writing, you should follow PEEL/AL closely and use just one point per paragraph. This will result in a coherent paragraph that the recruiter can follow (and so be persuaded by) more easily.

As a point for improvement, the candidate’s central point needs to be better tailored to commercial law. The candidate asserts an interest in commercial law because they “navigate clients through a broad spectrum of business activities”. The candidate explains at the end that they then “developed a deep appreciation for the advisory role of commercial lawyers”, before asserting that they want a “thorough understanding of their client’s interests”. The issue is that none of these features are truly unique to commercial law. You would be assisting clients with their business activities just as much in consulting or finance as you would in commercial law. The candidate does give passing mention to “legal landscapes” at the end, but they never explain what they mean by this nor why this specific aspect of commercial law interests them. This means that the candidate’s point needs to be tailored to commercial law. As a rule, if you can swap out “commercial law” with another career path then your writing is not tailored enough. You must centre your analysis around specific, unique elements of commercial law.

Attending an Open Day at [redacted Magic Circle firm (not Freshfields)], I was drawn to the emphasis on how facilitating and maintaining long-lasting client relationships characterised a commercial lawyer’s success. The key to my success in establishing my Personal Statement Advisory business has been building these very relationships with my own clients. I developed a 3-session plan directed towards understanding my clients background, life experiences and how they can reflect the best version of themselves on paper. My efforts have resulted in 75% of clients returning for other applications, and receiving unconditional offers from [redacted RG universities including one of Oxford/Cambridge]. Work where building and maintaining strong client relationships is a key component is what I am best suited to and where my skills lie. That this is the essence of a commercial lawyer’s career makes me confident that this is the path for me.

Feedback: As with the previous paragraph, the candidate does well in identifying their motivational point from the outset. The candidate then identifies and explains a specific personal example. Then, the candidate explains (1) precisely what they did during their business activities, (2)  what they found interesting about it and (3) how that ultimately ties back in with that their interest in the original point (namely their interest in building and maintaining client relationships). This results in a coherent, well-structured and persuasive paragraph that illustrates the candidate’s firm interest in commercial law.

However, this paragraph is slightly weaker than the previous in a couple of regards:

1. It isn’t clear what part of the question the candidate is trying to address. They begin by stating a point of interest in commercial law. However, the candidate’s writing then gears towards competencies/the “Why me?” part of the question. They seem to write about their experience using the STAR structure, before explaining (1) the specific outcome and (2) that they learned how to build client relationships from this experience. It is unclear precisely why building client relationships is interesting to the candidate. This all means that the candidate’s writing is a little confused and unfocused. In your own cover letters, you should address each part of the question separately by using distinct paragraphs for each. This will make your cover letter well-structured and easy to follow.

2. The candidate shoehorns an outcome into their answer (namely that they received a 75% success rate), before also mentioning that the clients received Oxbridge/RG university offers. It’s not clear how this explains the candidate’s motivations for commercial law. The candidate might have been better off using this example as a separate “Why me?” paragraph, where they would be expected to describe this example using STAR.

3. As with the previous paragraph, the candidate’s reasoning is not tailored enough to commercial law. You would be expected to “build client relationships” in any industry, not just the legal sector. As such, the candidate needed to explain (1) why this feature is unique to commercial law and (2) why that unique feature encouraged them to pursue a career in commercial law. The candidate’s asserted interest in “building client relationships” does not go far enough in explaining their interest in commercial law.

As a rule, you should address each element of the cover letter separately by using distinct paragraphs. Each paragraph should distinctly address (1) why commercial law, (2) why law firm and (3) why you. There should be little-to-no crossover between each paragraph. This will prevent your writing from becoming muddled and confusing.

I find commercial law the underpinning factor of trendsetting market practices. Working as a legal content writer for the accredited legal blog [redacted blog site] I wrote an article on the rumoured acquisition between PayPal and Pinterest that confounded many. Upon analysing PayPal’s transactions and commercial aspirations, it was evident that the acquisition would have allowed them to enter the emerging social commerce market. This attempted collaboration exemplifies how commercial law facilitates the creation of new opportunities. The promise of varied work every day and the chance to engage with unchartered commercial opportunities motivates me to pursue commercial law as a career.

Feedback:This paragraph has similar strengths to the previous. Once again, the candidate structures their paragraph sensibly using the PEEL/AL structure. This results in a focused, coherent paragraph that is easy for the recruiter to follow (and so be persuaded by). As with previous paragraphs, the candidate does well to centre their analysis around a specific personal example. The candidate identifies (1) a specific example of an interesting deal they researched, before (2) explaining what elements of the PayPal-Pinterest deal interested them and (3) why that deal interested them. Then, the candidate makes an effort to link that deal back in with commercial law.  You should aim for similar levels of specificity in your own writing. If you can hone in on specific and detailed examples from your extracurricular/work experience, then you will persuade the recruiter that you have a sustained interest in commercial law.

However, this paragraph suffers from a couple of weaknesses. First, the candidate needs to draw a better connection between their example and their interest in commercial law. Currently, it’s unclear how the example relates to commercial law. The candidate identifies a deal and discusses some interesting features, but they never explain (1) precisely how commercial lawyers were involved in that deal nor (2) how the deal ultimately developed their interest in commercial law. Instead, the candidate focuses on generic features of the deal. It’s not clear how the candidate’s assertion that “commercial law facilitates new opportunities” follows from their previous writing. As such, the candidate should have drawn a tighter link between the example and their interest in commercial law.

Secondly, the candidate’s reason is not tailored enough to commercial law. Nearly every career path in the City will involve “trendsetting market practices” and “varied work on unchartered commercial opportunities”. These are not unique features of commercial law. In your own writing, you need to make sure that you identify specific and unique features of commercial law. This will convince the recruiter that you have researched commercial law and discounted other career paths in favour of it.

Freshfields represents the ideal firm to engage with ground-breaking work of this sort. Speaking to Alastair Brown at ‘An Evening with Freshfield’ this year, I was amazed at his account of his involvement on the first ever asset transfer deal in Myanmar for Colgate, and how he travelled the country extensively to understand the governments requirements when executing the deal, all when he was just an associate. The prospect of being exposed to such complex and transformative work from very early in my career is why I am assured I will receive first-rate training at Freshfields.

Feedback: The candidate now moves towards addressing the “Why Freshfields” element of the question. As with the “why commercial law?” section, the candidate structures this paragraph sensibly using PEEL/AL. You should particularly note how the candidate develops their initial point. Not only do they assert an interest in Freshfields work, but they substantiate it by discussing a specific and personal experience with the firm. They identify a named event with a specific Freshfields lawyer, before (1) identifying a specific deal discussed at that event and (2) explaining what they found interesting about it. In your own writing, you should always go beyond simply name-dropping deals that the firm has done. You should explain precisely what features of the deal interest you, before analysing how those features make Freshfields unique and why said features appeal to you.

However, the candidate’s reasoning needs to be tailored to Freshfields more closely. It is currently quite generic. First, the candidate never goes beyond explaining that they are interested in Freshfields’ “ground-breaking” and “transformative” work. These are subjective opinions that could apply just as equally to any Magic Circle law firm. Most of these firms will be working on similarly complex and “ground-breaking” work. The candidate’s Colgate/Myanmar example also does not go far enough in tailoring their reasoning to Freshfields. All Magic Circle firms attract similarly complex and multi-jurisdictional work to the Colgate asset transfer deal. The majority of Magic Circle firms will also offer similar opportunities for ad-hoc travel at associate level. As such, the candidate needed to go much further in explaining how that deal makes Freshfields a unique firm.

Upon meeting Freshfields at [redacted RG university] Law Society’s ‘Know the City’, I gained a deeper understanding of the firms unrivalled trainee development and structure. One thing that intrigues me is the incorporation of Corporate, Finance and Real Estate into a singular Global Transactions team. This facilitates a much smoother workflow, creating more efficient services for clients and the opportunity for trainees to get involved with a range of work at once. Freshfields unique 8-seat training contract bolsters this training exposure. The chance to delve into a range of legal fields, explore transactional and contentious aspects of practice, and work across the many jurisdictions Freshfields deals with will allow me to make the best decision with regards to my future as a commercial lawyer.

Feedback:This paragraph is an improvement on the previous. This time, the candidate not only identifies a personal experience with Freshfields but they later develop and tailor it. The candidate identifies two unique features of Freshfields, namely its integrated Global Transactions Team and its unique 8-seat structure. This demonstrates that the candidate has carried out specific research into Freshfields and has identified unique appealing features as a result. In turn, this persuades the recruiter that the candidate has made a specific, strategic decision to apply to Freshfields as opposed to any other firm.

However, the candidate’s writing is unfocused and lacks development in numerous points. This is because the candidate has opted for breadth over depth. They have crammed two entirely separate reasons for being interested in Freshfields, namely (1) its departmental structure and (2) its training contract structure. The candidate only makes simple and underdeveloped assertions about each feature (owing to word count restrictions). For instance, the candidate identifies a benefit of the Global Transactions structure but never explains why it personally interests them. Similarly, the candidate identifies a generic benefit of the 8-seat structure without ever tying it back in with their own interests. The candidate offers no personal evidence/examples in support of their interest in each point. As a result, much of this paragraph is vague and lacking in thorough analysis.

In your own writing, you should stick to one point per paragraph. Each point should be developed in full using the PEEL/AL structure. Had the candidate separated each point into distinct paragraphs, they would have been able to develop each point fully using personalised examples.

Considering the increasing application of legal tech in creating client solutions, it is vital for me to evaluate how law firms are reacting to such change to secure their own future in the industry. ‘Freshfields Focus’ 2021 on Technology and Innovation offered great insight into the firm’s digital transformation strategy to provide greater value to clients whilst facilitating efficiency internally. The use of Kira increasing efficiency up to 40% and Freshfields Lab’s wide collaboration with tech start-ups exemplifies this process. The drive to continuously innovate and implement technology in delivering outstanding legal services is another reason why I am keen on pursuing my career at Freshfields.

Feedback: The candidate now moves onto their final reason for Freshfields, namely its legal technology approach. We are impressed by the depth of research throughout this paragraph. The candidate takes a generic point about legal tech, before substantiating it with specific and detailed research into Freshfields’ strategy. First, the candidate identifies a specific and named Freshfields event that they attended. Given that the candidate has identified other events elsewhere in the answer, this now demonstrates the candidate’s sustained and long-term personal interest in Freshfields. Then, the candidate identifies (1) a specific Freshfields technology scheme and (2) a precise and quantified statistic illustrating how technology has improved Freshfields’ processes. You should aim for similar levels of specificity and depth in your own writing. If you can develop your points with specific research, then you will tailor your writing and demonstrate a serious interest in the firm.

However, this paragraph has two points for improvement. First, the candidate needed to explain why Freshfields’ legal technology strategy interests them. The candidate asserts that they are interested in “Freshfields’ drive to continuously innovate and implement technology”. However, the candidate never goes any further in explaining this. Without any personal examples backing up the candidate’s interest in technology, it is unclear (1) why the candidate has any interest in this feature of Freshfields nor (2) how that feature developed the candidate’s personal interest in the firm. In your own writing, you need to go beyond simply asserting an interest in the firm. You must instead substantiate your interest with specific personal examples.

Secondly, the paragraph is missing some comparative analysis. The candidate states that Kira has “increased efficiency by up to 40%”, but it would have been helpful for the candidate to contextualise it and compare Freshfields’ successes against other Magic Circle firms. Simply put, most City firms have successful legal technology strategies with demonstratable positive results. This is not a unique feature of Freshfields. As such, the candidate needed to go further in explaining precisely how Freshfields’ legal technology successes make it unique.

As Chambers Careers Officer of the [redacted university] Law Society in [redacted year], I aimed to bring awareness to the barrister route and contribute to improving accessibility to and diversity in this field. To achieve this, I launched the Society’s first ever ‘Mentoring Scheme’, where I assigned 16 candidates from underrepresented backgrounds to other students who had mini pupillage/ pupillage experience. By working with my team of Junior Mooting Officers, we contacted and successfully recruited 20 barristers from top sets like Doughty Street Chambers and 3 Verulam Buildings to act as barrister mentors. The scheme was incredibly successful, with a 97% satisfaction rate reported by both mentees and mentors via feedback forms I distributed. Our efforts led to the [redacted university] Law Society being nominated for the LawCareers.Net [redacted year] ‘Best Careers Events’ award.

Feedback: The candidate now addresses the final element of the question, namely “Why me?”. This is a strong paragraph with very few weaknesses. First, you should note how the candidate gets straight into an example rather than simply listing out their skills to the recruiter. In turn, this means the recruiter can freely infer a variety of competencies from the candidate’s writing. In your own writing, you must prove that you have skills/competencies by identifying a specific example and dissecting the exact steps you took throughout. This allows the recruiter to interpret your skills from the various steps/actions that you took.

The candidate also makes good use of the STAR structure (situation, task, action, result) in two regards. First, the candidate describes their steps/actions in specific and quantified numerical detail. We are given the complete context surrounding (1) the number of people this candidate worked with and (2) the specific number of barristers this candidate recruited into the scheme. This gives the recruiter an insight into the scale of this candidate’s actions, which in turn makes it more persuasive.

Secondly, the candidate describes the results of their actions exceptionally well. You should note the level of detail and specificity used by the candidate. Not only does the candidate identify a specific statistical success rate of 97%, but they also identify a named and specific award nomination that they received as a direct consequence of the candidate’s actions. In your own writing, you should describe the result in similar levels of detail. You should give the recruiter a complete insight into your achievements. Where possible, this should include numerical and statistical details that quantify your results. In turn, this will substantiate your actions and add persuasive weight to your writing.

However, the candidate needed to provide further details on the steps/actions they took. Currently, the candidate’s steps/actions are quite vague and generic. We are given relatively little insight into the candidate’s own actions, beyond the fact that they simply “worked with their team” and “contacted/recruited barristers”. At no point does the candidate tell us (1) the specific challenges they faced, nor (2) the specific methods of teamwork they used or (3) the strategies they used to recruit barristers. Most of the marks for competency questions lie in the actions, as recruiters will read your steps/actions and infer your skills from them. As such, you need to unpack your actions in as much specific detail as possible.

Why are you interested in pursuing a career at Herbert Smith Freehills and what skills, qualities and attributes would you bring to the role?  (Up to 300 words)

HSF has always stood out to me as a firm I want to work at. I was inspired to pursue a career at HSF by ex-HSF lawyer, Ian Gatt QC, when I was routinely invited to HSF’s offices as part of the Times Advocacy Competition.

I want to work as part of HSF as part of its elite dispute resolution department. Having gained prior insight into international arbitration with Allen & Overy, I wanted to apply to HSF for its dispute resolution practice areas, as I feel that the support and training at HSF, mixed with the type of high level of work undertaken, would suit me best. 

Having spoken to some HSF trainees, I know that the HSF training and support is unparalleled, giving trainees the opportunity to have client contact and participate in actual legal practice, rather than restricting them solely to administration tasks.

[Feedback:  This is a difficult question to answer because it’s two questions in one: (1) why HSF and (2) why you.  The seemingly generous 300 word limit is actually quite tight.

We like that the candidate identifies a personal connection with the firm.  The example here is the gold standard, but it’s equally worthwhile to refer to any meaningful conversations that you have had with trainees, solicitors or partners at the firm.  It’s even worth mentioning virtual interactions with the firms (e.g. an online talk by a partner at the firm) but the burden of proof about why this made the firm resonate with you is higher here.

What distinguishes HSF’s dispute resolution team from A&O’s?  That’s not answered here, but the candidate might be asked to describe the difference at interview given that his answer invites the question.]

The skills, qualities, and attributes, I would bring to the role are: An unshakeable work ethic – every firm will require its employees to work hard, but I pride myself on going above an beyond the tasks I am set. I love to work and multitask, yet I always maintain the highest degree of excellence. This is typified by my rapid promotions, to leadership roles, in University organisations.

A passion for law – although many students will have an interest in law, I believe that I have a huge love for the law, especially from the perspective of a ‘non-law’ student. I am dedicated to learning more about law, both academically and practically, and my work experience and activities showcase this.

Collaboration with all – I love to work with others. Although I am self-motivated and can work alone when needed, I do love to collaborate with a team to share in new ideas, and share success.

[Feedback: We like the structure that the applicant adopts here.  It’s clear and easy to follow. 

There is a typo “...above an beyond..” which is an unfortunate but passable error in this application.  Lawyers are typically perfectionists, but the candidate has got away with this typo because the rest of his application is so strong.

Although hamstrung by the word count, the candidate should provide specific examples of how he can demonstrate the skill in question.  You could use Harvard referencing here to save words.  For example, “I am dedicated to learning more about law, both academically and practically, and my work experience and activities showcase this” (name of firm where candidate carried out relevant work experience, year).]

What skills, qualities and attributes would you bring to the role? (Up to 300 words).

Feedback:  We recommend that you discuss at least one of the following skills: communication, teamwork, time management/ organisation, resilience, and problem-solving. We also recommend that you take the following quiz on HSF’s website in order to familiarise yourself with the skills, qualities and attributes that the firm looks for in candidates and plan your answer accordingly; inter alia, HSF places distinct emphasis on proactivity, adaptability, attention to detail, balancing a variety of concurrent tasks, taking on challenges, and seeking to learn as much as possible throughout the duration of the training contract. To maximise the potential of your answer in terms of content and structure, we recommend that you discuss three of the aforementioned skills, qualities and/or attributes in total and split your answer into three corresponding paragraphs of roughly equal length, as the candidate does in this case.

As an Alpine ski racer, my resilience was instilled from a young age. Committing to my sport meant training for five days per week year-round and sacrificing conventional schooling and social life. I navigated these challenges by building strong relationships with teammates and coaches, and by setting short-term goals such as modifying a single aspect of my technique at a time. Two of my greatest achievements were my admission to the Canadian National Sports School for athletes with Olympic potential, as well as being recruited into the Great British Junior Ski Squad.

Feedback:  The candidate claims that they have developed their resilience through their experience as an Alpine ski racer. They explain the thought process behind their claim clearly and logically, allowing the reader to follow it with relative ease. They also underline the significance of their claim by revealing the impressive achievements they obtained as an Alpine ski racer. Importantly, the candidate correctly understands the meaning of “resilience” as the ability to withstand and overcome adversity, as evidenced by the emphasis they place on the challenges they encountered as a dedicated Alpine ski racer and how they eventually overcame these challenges. To ensure that your answer is as persuasive as possible, we recommend that you thoroughly check your understanding of the skills, attributes and/or qualities that you include therein.

My appreciation for collaboration has been established through my advocacy experience, as Founder of my Sixth Form’s Debating Club and participant in two BPP moot competitions in 2020. By working within a team to compile skeletons and make oral submissions, I have refined my persuasive communication skills. My ability to build rapport with diverse groups is accentuated by my work supporting litigants-in-person as a McKenzie friend. In addition, my duties as adviser with the Enterprise Legal Advice Clinic routinely exercises my ability to work with colleagues to meet the needs of commercial clients.

Feedback: Although they do not make it explicit, the candidate aptly suggests that “teamwork” is a multifaceted concept, that it entails an array of skills, qualities and attributes, including the ability to communicate well with others, the ability to build rapport with different people, and the ability to work with others in pursuit of the same objective. To improve this answer, the candidate could have made the foregoing explicit by rephrasing the topic sentence of this paragraph. Echoing the comments made supra, the candidate does well to link their claims of being a team player to relevant personal insights, though they could have explained the link between the two in more detail.

I am a creative problem-solver, as Co-Founder and Vice President of the BPP [redacted city] Law Society. Within this role, I have structured an executive committee, drafted a successful budget proposal to obtain financial autonomy, and devised a recruitment strategy which gave rise to an increase in membership from 2 to 32 in a single semester. Similarly, as Social Media Coordinator for the [redacted charity] charity from 2019-2020, I managed a long-term digital campaign alongside my final year exams and dissertation. This campaign was successful in launching a scheme which reached over 630,000 young people affected by crime in 2019.

Feedback: The candidate claims that they have developed their ability to solve problems creatively through their experience of holding various positions of responsibility. Although they discuss a relevant skill and present their relevant experience in an engaging manner, they do not draw a sufficiently clear link between the two, as they fail to identify the problems they encountered as “Co-Founder and Vice President of the BPP [redacted city] Law Society” and “Social Media Coordinator for the [redacted charity] charity” and the creative solutions they found in order to overcome these problems. As a result, their personal insight does not substantiate their claim as well as it could. 

What skills, qualities and attributes would you bring to the role? (Up to 300 words, inclusive of character limit)

Having worked in hospitality since 15, I have excellent interpersonal skills required by the client-facing role of a solicitor. I align myself with Herbert Smith Freehills’ (HSF) strategy of putting clients at the heart of everything I do. I have always aimed to be an integral part of customers’ experiences, making my hospitality memorable by catering to every need to ensure customers return, ultimately establishing long-lasting relationships.

Feedback: Throughout this paragraph, the candidate identifies a diverse range of experiences and explains some of the key takeaways from each one. However, our concern with this answer is that the candidate spreads themselves too thinly. In identifying four attributes/examples, the candidate compromises on depth and quality of analysis in parts. You should aim to identify 2-3 attributes, before explaining in depth (1) how you developed these skills through your experiences and (2) precisely how they link back to the role of a commercial lawyer. You should state your point (i.e. what attribute you have), before using the CAR structure (context, action, result) to explain how this skill developed. Finally, you should link your analysis back in with this career path.

The candidate introduces a decent and logical example. It makes sense that the candidate would develop good interpersonal skills from their work in hospitality. However, this paragraph leaves the following points unexplained:

1. The candidate does not truly answer the question. The question wants to know precisely how your skills fit in with being a commercial lawyer. Though the candidate asserts that HSF “puts clients at the heart of everything they do”, this is not tailored to the commercial law career path. Every profession on Earth puts clients at the heart of what they do – this is not a unique element of commercial law! As such, the candidate has not truly answered the question. They would need to explain how their interpersonal skills apply to commercial law.

2. The candidate’s example is not specific enough. They write generally about how their “hospitality experience” developed their personal skills. However, it is not quite clear (1) what the candidate did during this role and (2) precisely what interpersonal skills they developed as a result.

This feels like a throwaway paragraph that has been shoehorned in. Had the candidate focused on depth over breadth, they might’ve been able to explain some of these points.

When I took part in the [redacted apprenticeship], I successfully persuaded 34 businesses to donate various products and services to constitute a raffle on our one day of fundraising. I did this by telling them a compelling story about my role in the competition, the charity, and the impact their money would have on orphans in Kenya. Raising £820 from the raffle, 46% of our day’s total derived from my negotiation skills, setting me up to successfully negotiate my client’s best interests in deals.

Feedback:This paragraph is a considerable improvement on the previous. You should note how the candidate uses specific factual, statistical and numerical detail to explain precisely what they did and the result that cropped up because of their actions. You should aim for similar levels of detail with your own examples. If you can paint your examples with precise details, then your writing will be far more comprehensible and persuasive in the eyes of the recruiter.

However, this paragraph suffers because it lacks complete explanations in places. The candidate asserts that they “successfully persuaded” businesses and that “46% of the day’s total derived from my negotiaton skills”. However, the candidate never explains precisely what persuasive tactics and negotiation strategies they used. This leaves the paragraph feeling incomplete, whilst also leaving some doubts as to whether the outcome was actually a consequence of the candidate’s actions. It is not enough simply to assert that you have some skills. You need to show the recruiter what your skills are by detailing the steps you took.

The candidate does try to link their negotiation skills back to commercial law, but this is quite weak and brief. The candidate would need to explain precisely how they would apply their negotiation skills in a commercial law context.

Balancing waitressing and working as a Playworker in the summer of 2021, with the completion of my first art commission, demonstrates my ability to organise my time effectively. I learned this to be a fundamental skill of a trainee solicitor whilst working at [redacted company] due to the need to multi-task, prioritise based on urgency, and plan any work delegated by Partners and Associates to meet their respective deadlines. This will translate perfectly into working at HSF.

Feedback: The candidate does slightly better in trying to link their experiences to commercial law, but this is otherwise a weak paragraph. As with previous paragraph, the candidate “tells” us that they have organisation skills rather than “showing” how they managed their time. It is not self-explanatory that the candidate is organised because they balanced waitressing with being a playworker and their first art commission. The candidate would need to explain precisely how they stayed organised and the methods they used to keep to their varying commitments.

Furthermore, the candidate’s writing about trainees is quite generic. It is true that you need to multi-task and manage expectations, but this is applicable to nearly every career path. As such, the candidate’s writing does not go far enough in explaining how they are suited to commercial law specifically.

To improve, the candidate should have illustrated precisely what steps they took to manage their varying commitments in 2021. Had the candidate provided some insights into their methods for keeping time, then it would go much further in demonstrating the candidate’s organisational skills. You should always back up your assertions with specific facts and details so that your writing makes good logical sense.

Working on a Middle Eastern financing structure at [redacted company] taught me the importance of being open-minded, which not only applies to market developments, but also to showing sensitivity to international clients and their jurisdictions’ cultural differences. According to Islam, Muslims cannot benefit from lending or receiving money, so interest is forbidden; therefore, financing structures must be Shari’ah-compliant. Given the firm’s global reach, this commercial awareness and cultural sensitivity is imperative.

Feedback: As with the previous paragraph, the candidate introduces a promising personal example. The candidate goes into some detail explaining how Islamic finance must be Shari’ah-compliant, before asserting that this requires “open-mindedness” and cultural sensitivity. As a matter of common sense, this example seems to work on paper.

However, the candidate still leaves points underdeveloped. Firstly, the candidate asserts that they were “open-minded” but never explains precisely what they mean by this. It is unclear how the candidate was “open-minded” nor how the candidate ultimately used this skill for the benefit of clients. This is a weakness present throughout the candidate’s answer. If you are going to assert that you have some skill, then you must explain it in full and detail the specific steps you took which evidence that skill.

Once again, the candidate’s link to HSF is also quite weak. The candidate asserts that “cultural sensitivity” and “commercial awareness” is imperative as the firm has a “global reach”, but they never quite tie these two points together. It is not clear precisely how the candidate would apply cultural sensitivity in the context of commercial law. For avoidance of doubt, you must always explain specifically how you would apply your identified skills in the context of the day-to-day work of commercial lawyers.

From your background, what three skills have you gained that would be most beneficial to the role of a trainee solicitor. Why do you feel these skills are relevant? (3000 characters)

I have learned time management skills. I balance three part-time jobs with my extracurricular activities, while also gaining high marks in my degree. This year I have been working from home and have learned to keep strict personal deadlines in order to manage external responsibilities. I have learned to prioritise and I manage potentially stressful situations by planning my time and focusing on the most important tasks first, setting manageable deadlines to stay focused.

[Feedback: This is a ‘why me?’ question. Here, we would recommend discussing three personal characteristics/competencies. You should employ a PEE/AL (point, evidence, explanation/analysis, link) structure, that might look, in abstraction, something like this:

1.     Point: Your skill.

2.     Evidence: A personal experience that demonstrates your skill.

3.     Explain: Explain how that experience demonstrates your skill.

4.     Link: Explain how your skill is relevant to the role of a trainee solicitor.

In this paragraph, the candidate has stated their skill and given some evidence and explanation regarding that skill. For the most part, this is a well-argued paragraph. You should observe how the candidate uses simple sentences to communicate their points clearly and concisely.

The main point of improvement for this paragraph pertains to detail. Whilst it is great that the candidate cites their personal experiences to justify their claims, the candidate could have included some more detail. For example, the candidate could have named what their three jobs were, or further explained what some of their external responsibilities are.

Including this detail may seem superfluous; however, it is crucial in writing a strong application. Recruiters know nothing about you, and this kind of detail ensures that they find your answer persuasive and relevant. Without specific detail, the recruiter may find your answers unengaging or, at worst, think you have made things up.]

This will prepare me well for the role of a trainee solicitor as the ability to work to deadlines is crucial and has real consequences for the team and the client. Time management is an important skill for prioritising urgent tasks and helping to make a good impression on clients while also managing their expectations. My ability to balance and conduct work effectively within sensible timescales will support the team, reduce stress and help with the success of the overall task.

[Feedback: This paragraph essentially serves as the previous paragraph’s ‘link’. The answer details why their skill is relevant to the role of a trainee solicitor. This is a decent paragraph. Each sentence is simple and effective, whilst the wider paragraph is well-structured. There is not much to comment on regarding this paragraph – it is simple and reasonably effective.

If the answer had to be improved, we would suggest that the candidate discuss how they would achieve these things in the role. For example, the candidate cites that they have the ‘ability to balance and conduct work effectively’ as a result of their evidenced time management skills. Whilst this is all well and good, the candidate could have gone one step further and actually given an example of how they would achieve that (for example, by using a Gantt chart).

These little bits of detail give your answer flair and make it stand out from other ‘decent’ answers. When you go over your work, even if it seems fine, ask yourself if there is anything you could improve – these improvements, though they may be small, will contribute to your application’s success.]

I have also gained research skills. For my degree, I access a wide range of databases and identify relevant materials to read, summarise and analyse. I have developed the ability to translate and interpret this quickly and accurately in my own writing. I completed an independent research project over the summer, based on my own research questions. This was published in the form of a blog post on the blog for my department at University, demonstrating my ability to communicate research to a wide ranging audience. In my role as Content Writer for [redacted online publication], I developed this skill further, researching and writing weekly commercial awareness articles which covered a wide range of business and legal news stories. The ability to present information to non-specialist audiences is important in the role of a trainee solicitor. My non-legal research skills will therefore be an asset to me when conducting effective legal research to help support the team in dealing with different issues.

[Feedback: The candidate has correctly identified another key skill that commercial solicitors have. The paragraph is relatively well-structured and is easy to follow.

However, much like the previous paragraph, the candidate is lacking detail and development. First, the candidate has written, ‘I have also gained research skills’; however, they do not say from where. Second, the candidate mentions their degree, but does not say what course they do or what precisely they have to research. Every course at university will require some degree of research; hence, the candidate needs to develop their answers beyond statements that virtually anyone could make.

Third, the candidate declines to include any additional examples which show what they did. The candidate constantly describes things in abstraction. In doing so, they tell the reader what they did. However, this is not the right way to approach this kind of answer. You must show the recruiter what you did through the use of specific examples. For instance, the candidate writes that they researched and wrote weekly commercial awareness articles. The candidate has told us this. However, perhaps we do not believe them. After all, why should we? They have provided no evidence to substantiate their statement. Yet, if the candidate said that they wrote such articles ‘such as, [insert title of article here]’, we are more inclined to believe them and be assured of their skills. Consequently, when you write your answers, make sure you are showing not telling your examples.

Finally, the candidate’s answer does not show enough knowledge of what a trainee solicitor does. Whilst it is all well and good to say that a trainee solicitor requires good research/information presentation skills, the candidate must demonstrate that they know how those skills will be applied. When you write your answers, you must explicitly mention how your skills will be used in the role, namely, what specific tasks will require the skills in question (for example, your attention to detail will be required when working through due diligence checklists).]

Finally, I have gained interpersonal skills. I am able to connect with both clients and colleagues and convey information in a clear and concise way. Through volunteering for Student Switch Off, a campaign to encourage students to save energy, I encountered a diverse range of people and developed my communication and people skills through building relationships with and advising them. I also worked part-time as a Tearoom Assistant, where I encountered and adapted to a wide range of situations and customer needs. Through both of these client-facing positions I have developed my written, oral and listening skills and have learned how to gain and maintain trust. It is important that clients feel comfortable and confident in the ability of the firm to advise them, and as representatives of the firm, trainee solicitors must therefore be able to build a rapport with them. As a trainee solicitor, my interpersonal skills would help me to work closely with clients and to form long term relationships with them.

[Feedback: This paragraph is one of the strongest in the candidate’s answer. The candidate follows a clear PEE/AL structure and incorporates their personal experiences in the answer to evidence their claims. What is especially notable is the candidate’s link back to the question at hand in the latter half of their answer as other candidates often forget to link, explicitly, their argument back to the question.

The main point of improvement with regards to this section concerns detail and clarity. First, the candidate could have included a little more detail in their answer which would have helped to clarify some points. For example, the candidate writes that they built relationships with and advised a diverse range of people. However, once again, the candidate is telling the reader not showing them what they did. The candidate could have improved their answer by giving an example of the kinds of people they worked with and the way in which they advised/built relationships with them. This also applies to their work as a Tearoom Assistant – the candidate should have provided an example of what situations they encountered (and it would have been helpful to know at what establishment the candidate was an assistant). In this case, you should observe how detail is important not only for an answer’s credence but for its clarity.

Finally, the candidate could have given some more detail on how they would employ their interpersonal skills in the role. Much like the last paragraph, the candidate’s answer would have been improved if the candidate could demonstrate their knowledge about the day-to-day tasks of a trainee solicitor. Law firms often use questions like these to determine whether or not a candidate actually knows what a trainee solicitor is. Hence, it is important for you to be able to discuss your skills and know how they will apply in practice.]

Why do you feel you are suited to K&L Gates LLP?

 First of all, I believe a K&L Gates lawyer has to add value to the work he/she is doing by being creative in order to find the legal solution that would give the firm a competitive advantage. I believe I have been able to develop this creativity by trying to develop my analytical and critical thinking skills, both through my debating experience as well as through my degree at the LSE.

Feedback: This paragraph is overall decent. The candidate identifies a key skill they would need at K&L Gates, and then tries to link this skill back to their own experiences in debating/their degree.

For improvement, the first sentence should be more closely tailored to K&L Gates. The candidate states that K&L Gates’ lawyers have to be creative in finding legal solutions, but this applies to any lawyer in any discipline. Instead, the candidate should think about specific features of K&L Gates’ training/working culture and explain why their critical thinking skills would add value as a result.  As a rule of thumb, if the point that you are making could equally apply to any law firm, it’s not specific enough.

Furthermore, the second point is a non sequitur. The candidate tries to shoehorn in two separate skills (analytical thinking + creativity) and does not expand on either. Instead, the candidate should focus on how their debating experience improved their ability to produce creative solutions.

Second of all, interpersonal skills are crucial for developing long-term relationships of trust with clients and with K&L Gates colleagues. My legal work experience, my position as the Vice-President and co-founder of the European Horizons Society as well as being the head of the debating team all prove that I have managed to develop such interpersonal skills both when working as part of a team as well as when managing a project or a team from a leadership position.

Feedback: These are brilliant experiences, and the candidate does well to link them back to the first point about interpersonal skills. The candidate also demonstrates that they understand what “interpersonal skills” mean, by highlighting that they have applied such skills both within teams and by working as a leader. Furthermore, the candidate concisely explains why such skills are crucial at K&L Gates specifically.

Also, note that the candidate seems to look beyond qualification. Here, the candidate discusses how they would build relationships with clients. This is crucial not just as a trainee solicitor, but also as an associate and a partner.

However, one issue is that the candidate treats their points as self-explanatory. The candidate does not offer any examples highlighting how their experiences improved their skills. While it might seem redundant to explain why leading a debating team would improve your people skills, it is always best to write as explicitly as possible. This would help recruiters understand how the candidate applied their interpersonal skills to add value to their debate team, their work experience and so on.

Given the word limits, the candidate could focus on just one experience and develop it further.

Finally, my previous legal work experience has shown me what professionalism, creativity and teamwork are in a legal context, and has allowed me to strive for these qualities already. This is even more relevant in the case of K&L Gates that expects trainees to take the initiative from the start.

Feedback: The candidate leads with a fair point (namely that they have developed skills in a legal context). It is also well-tailored K&L Gates.  The candidate has identified a specific feature of K&L Gates’ training (namely that trainees take on more responsibility from the get-go) and then explains why they are suited to that training specifically. This addresses the question directly – ie why the candidate is suitable for K&L Gates in particular.

Again, this paragraph would benefit from the same improvements as previous. The candidate makes a decent point, namely that they have experience in applying their skills to a legal context, but the candidate treats this as self-explanatory. Instead, the candidate should elaborate on how they applied their skills to add value to that firm. The candidate could at least give a mention to a specific example from their work experience.

What do you consider to be the key attributes of a lawyer in business?  What kind of qualities and expertise do you think they should have?  Can you give us an example of where you have demonstrated these qualities? 

Technical expertise and business awareness

Feedback: There is no harm in using subheadings if you wish. In this case, the candidate’s subheadings aid comprehension and make their writing clear overall.

However, subheadings aren’t necessary and can unduly cut into your word count. You can usually split your writing with the usual ordinal adverbs (“First”, “Secondly,” “Thirdly”, etc.) to achieve the same effect. If the question has a restrictive word count, then you should cut these subheadings in favour of more valuable analysis elsewhere.

Having undertaken a range of legal placements, I have come to observe that business lawyers possess technical expertise in numerous areas of law. These include corporate, contract, employment, tax, competition and intellectual property law. They will need to keep up with various laws/regulations affecting the client’s key sectors and tailor legal advice accordingly. Additionally, they will also have a strong market awareness in anticipating how their firm can be best positioned to capture work from future trends.

Feedback: The objective of this first paragraph looks good, as it gets straight to the point in answering the question. The candidate decently identifies an attribute needed by commercial lawyers, before drilling down further on their point. Then, the candidate provides reasonably good explanations of their original point overall. Not only does the candidate simply assert that business lawyers need wide-ranging competence, but they elaborate specifically on what they mean by this point. This results in a decently-argued paragraph that generally addresses the question.

However, the quality of this candidate’s analysis needs to improve in various places. First, much of this candidate’s writing is generic and states the obvious. It is a simple, plain truth that commercial lawyers would need technical expertise in their specific practice area – this is the barest minimum that any client would expect from a commercial lawyer. The candidate then picks out more obvious features of being a commercial lawyer, such as that they would need good “market awareness” and would need to keep up with regulations. These are simple, obvious parts of the job – they are the minimum standards that clients would apply to any commercial lawyer. As such, the candidate needed to think much more deeply about what clients look for in good commercial lawyers. This would demonstrate that the candidate has carried out thorough research into the profession and has a good grasp of what commercial lawyers do.

Secondly, the candidate’s writing is not specific enough to commercial law. You would expect most practice areas to encompass several disciplines of law – this is not completely unique to commercial law. Furthermore, lawyers in any practice area would need to keep pace with laws and regulations – this is not a distinct attribute of commercial law. In your own writing, you should think carefully about what commercial lawyers do and how that stands out from other areas of law. That will demonstrate to the recruiter that you have invested serious time and energy into deciding whether commercial law is for you.

At [redacted law firm], I delivered a partnership pitch on how its existing client, [redacted client] could best enter Asia’s digital banking sector. Through analysing internal bid records, [redacted client]’s annual report and external consultant reports, I highlighted several emerging market trends, the strategic benefits of capitalising on these trends before discussing how different practices could assist. I also highlighted sector-specific risks on potential GDPR implications and barriers in foreign investment laws. This presentation was given high praise for demonstrating strong sector and commercial awareness by the managing partner in attendance.

Feedback: The candidate structures this paragraph reasonably well. They use a STAR structure (situation, task, action, result) in explaining how their specific experience demonstrates the attributes previously identified. First, the candidate explains precisely what they had to do (situation/task). Then, the candidate spends some time unpacking the specific actions and steps they took in preparing the pitch. Finally, the candidate neatly rounds off their paragraph by describing an outcome (namely that they received “praise” from a managing partner for their work).  This results in a well-structured paragraph that generally demonstrates the candidate’s identified attribute (namely that they have business awareness/technical expertise). #

However, this paragraph is missing specific detail in various places. First, the candidate should have elaborated on the challenges they faced and the steps they took in greater detail. For instance, the candidate makes generalised points that they “analysed internal bid records” and identified “market trends” flowing from them. These points currently read as somewhat generic. Instead, the candidate should have drilled down on the specific methods they used to analyse the reports/records and the specific trends they identified from it. This would allow the candidate to demonstrate that they have analytical/critical thinking skills, rather than simply asserting that they do so. Secondly, the candidate should have provided a more specific/detailed outcome. Currently, the candidate simply asserts that they received “high praise” from a partner for their work. This gives no insight into what this praise involved, nor whether it had any tangible outcomes (for either the candidate or their client). Instead, the candidate should have drilled down on their achievements in far greater detail. In your own writing, you should quantify your achievements with specific numbers/details as far as you can.

Change agile

Given that business lawyers often advise clients in response to economic, political or commercial shifts in various jurisdictions and time zones, I believe a business lawyer’s ability to be change agile is key to continue serving clients' needs in a dynamic and global context. This means having strong organisation/time management skills and the ability to adapt to fast-moving circumstances.

Feedback: One strength of this paragraph is that its central point is more specific to commercial law. This time, the candidate identifies a unique attribute of commercial law (namely that you have to keep track of economic/commercial changes across the world). Unlike the previous section, this point is much less applicable to other practice areas. While most areas of law will require you to keep track of political/economic trends, they will not demand this from you as much as commercial law firms will do so. As such, this paragraph goes further in demonstrating the candidate’s appreciation for commercial law.

However, the key drawback is that the rest of the paragraph is vague. First, the candidate asserts that business lawyers need to be “change agile” without ever explaining what they mean by this. The candidate similarly never explains precisely how commercial lawyers “serve clients’ needs” by keeping pace of economic/political trends. The candidate does not develop these points fully, nor do they ever explain how each point specifically relates to commercial law. This results in quite a vague, speculative paragraph that does not fully answer the question.

Secondly, the candidate’s writing becomes somewhat confusing towards the end. They seem to introduce an entirely separate points about how (1) lawyers need strong organisation/time management skills and (2) an ability to adapt to new circumstances, without ever developing either of these points in full. In your own writing, you should stick to just one point per paragraph. This will allow you to develop your point fully, using specific detail and precise evidence.

This ability is best demonstrated during my time at [redacted company], where my role was split between two line managers in different divisions. Work between these divisions is not coordinated which meant I often exercised judgement on task allocation. To manage, I created an Excel file tracking all my deliverables including columns for deadlines, “steps” to complete a task and updates to feedback/comments on how I should amend my work. I then prioritised tasks in accordance with these columns which allowed me to deliver within expected timelines, despite the various changes required before a piece of work I produced is published. 

Feedback: As with the previous section, the candidate structures this paragraph sensibly using the STAR structure. The candidate also improves on the previous section by getting into slightly more specific detail about their steps. They go beyond simply asserting that they kept organised or managed their time well. Instead, they specifically identify that they created Excel spreadsheets and organised their time accordingly. By offering specific insight into what they did to stay organised and precisely how they prioritised tasks, the candidate evidences their skills to the recruiter (rather than simply telling the recruiter what these skills are).

However, this paragraph lacks a clear logical link to the attribute identified. The candidate spent most of the previous paragraph writing about how lawyers adapt to changing global economic circumstances, with only passing mention given to organisation/time management at the end of that paragraph. Here, the candidate spends the entire paragraph detailing their organisational skills. The question specifically asks you (1) to identify an attribute and (2) to explain whether you have that attribute. As such, there needs to be a strong link between your chosen attribute and the personal example you use in support of this. Had the candidate focused their previous paragraph on organisation/time management skills, then this section would answer the question much more clearly.

Communication

Finally, I believe good business lawyers are able to communicate complex commercial concepts – and provide actionable legal advice – in a concise manner. My ability to communicate effectively has been demonstrated in a professional and volunteer capacity. At [redacted company], I was tasked to summarise legal and factual points in client-facing and committee-facing documents. This required a keen understanding of commercial relevancy as I was expected to summarise a 15–20-page pack of documents into four dot points. As Head of Legal at No Impunity, I was similarly tasked with verbally explaining relevant regulations to colleagues with IT backgrounds. Not only did this require issue-spotting, but it also required “translating” legal concepts into actionable steps my colleagues understood.

Feedback: Here, the candidate demonstrates their communication skills somewhat well. You should note how the candidate gets into specific, quantified numerical detail in describing their situation/task (namely that they had to summarise a pack of 15-20 documents). This adds persuasive weight because it helps the recruiter visualise the full context of the candidate’s achievements. In your own writing, you should quantify your situation/action/results in as much precise detail as possible.

However, this section is weaker than the other two overall. First, the candidate does not provide any detail on why lawyers specifically need to communicate concisely. This point not only applies to other legal practice areas, but it applies to any professional services sector. You would need to break down complex ideas into actionable advice in any industry. The candidate never explains specifically why commercial lawyers need this skill. In turn, this means the candidate’s writing is not specific enough. Secondly, the candidate’s writing about their personal example suffers similar weaknesses to the first section. The candidate never explains precisely how they spotted issues, nor do they explain the methods they used to pick out relevant information from that pack. Similarly, the candidate never quantifies their actions with an outcome. This results in a somewhat vague paragraph that does not fully demonstrate the candidate’s skills.

We suspect these issues happened because the candidate used up the word count. As such, they spread themselves far too thinly by introducing a third attribute. In your own writing, you should always prioritise depth over breadth. If constrained by a tight word count, you should identify no more than two attributes before explaining them in full.

What transferable skills can you bring to the role of Trainee Solicitor? (250 words)

 The key transferrable skills I will bring to the role are teamwork, adaptability and the ability to take initiative.

As part of my role on the [redacted] society, I organised a panel event in collaboration with another university society. This society wanted to discuss generic topics as opposed to tailoring questions to each speaker. I negotiated with this society and was receptive to the arguments in support of their approach. Ultimately I was able to persuade them to use a combination of both our approaches. Being able to respect different opinions and collaborate effectively as I have will be crucial when working within the smaller teams at the firm.

A week before a different event, one of our sponsors expressed interest in being involved in the event. I had to re-organise the event schedule around the availability of the attending representatives, and extend the duration of the venue booking to accommodate the additional firm presentation. My ability to adapt to sudden changes will aid me in accommodating the changing demands of clients.

Through my role as vocational officer for another society, I took the initiative to organise a new one-day conference for over 100 students. Taking on such an ambitious project demonstrates my drive and determination to embrace new challenges. This experience has prepared me for the high level of responsibility given to trainees at Latham & Watkins.

[Feedback: This answer starts strongly by setting out the relevant skills which the rest of the section will consider in more detail.  Starting with the answer first helps the reviewer to follow the candidate’s points.

The candidate focuses on extra-curricular activities to demonstrate that they have valuable transferable skills.  This is the correct approach, but the candidate should make more effort to quantify their achievements.  How many students attended the event?  How much money did the event raise (if applicable)?  You must put achievements in context: it’s meaningless to say you were awarded a scholarship; you must say “X scholarship awarded to the top 4 students out of a class of 1,000 students”.  This is particularly helpful if you are an overseas candidate and the interviewer is not familiar with your achievements.

While you can use the same extracurricular activity to demonstrate different skills, it’s better to provide a separate example if possible.  This evidences that you have a range of relevant experience, rather than just a single example.

The final paragraph is a bit non-specific.  Which society did the candidate represent?

Like the candidate, you should link your example back to the role.  Having identified the relevant skill, provided an example of how you have developed or demonstrated the skill in the past, you must link the skill back to the role and explain why it is relevant to a career as a solicitor. 

Other ideas of relevant skills to demonstrate in your application include:

●      Time management / organisation

●      Commitment to becoming a lawyer

●      Commercial outlook

●      Teamwork

●      Dedication

●      Ability to thrive outside your comfort zone

●      Problem-solving skills / analytical

●      Decision-making

●      Good judgement

What transferable skills can you bring to the role of Trainee Solicitor? (250 words)

My strong organisational skills will be valuable to the role of Trainee Solicitor. As a pupil at [redacted], I worked under pressure and handled tight deadlines. Despite frequently exceeding 80-hour workweeks, I completed my work to a high standard. All my supervisors reported that I either met or exceeded their expectations in my feedback report. As a result of my performance, I was offered retention post-pupillage. My ability to manage a heavy workload will be particularly beneficial as a trainee at L&W due to its lean team structure.

[Feedback: This question invites you to select 2-3 competencies and discuss them. Crucially, you need to choose an appropriate competency and make a case for why it is relevant to being a trainee solicitor. Candidates often forget to do the second element; however, it is vital to ensure a persuasive response that directly addresses the question.

The candidate does well in following a PEEL structure and formulating a good response. You should note how the candidate starts with a clear point: they state that they have a particular competency that is relevant to the role. They then give an example showing that they have such a competency: their pupillage. Significantly, the candidate then explains their example, giving more detail and illustrating how their pupillage evidences their organisational skills. Finally, the candidate links their response back to the question at hand – they explain how their organisational skills (which precipitate the ability to manage a heavy workload) will be beneficial for the trainee solicitor role. This answer is especially impressive as the candidate argues why their skills are beneficial for the role, specifically at Latham & Watkins.

Overall, there are not many points for improvement. The candidate uses a clear structure and employs specific evidence to substantiate their claims. Their chosen illustrative example is appropriately explained. Finally, their link back to the question is excellent and is a great example of how you should look to approach writing your answers.]

I am meticulous in my work and approach tasks with high attention to detail. I honed this skill whilst volunteering for the [redacted], a charity that assists excluded school children. In my first case, I advised a schoolgirl who had been permanently excluded for discharging pepper spray. After analysing the bundle and relevant law, I identified an inconsistency in the schools evidential timeline and persuaded the panel to reverse the schools decision. These skills will immensely benefit me as a Trainee Solicitor, especially in managing legal documents for corporate transactions, conducting legal research, and drafting.

[Feedback:  The candidate does well in following a clear PEEL structure. You should notice that you can divide the answer sentence by sentence according to the PEEL structure. The first sentence is the point, the second is the evidence, the third and fourth are the explanation/analysis, whilst the fifth is the link. Once again, the candidate’s link point is strong, highlighting how their chosen competency would aid them as a trainee solicitor.

To improve this answer, the candidate could have related their explanation to their point better. The point pertains to attention to detail. However, the analysis does not explicitly draw out why the candidate’s attention to detail was significant. The candidate writes that they ‘identified an inconsistency’. If a recruiter was being cynical, they could think that such an inconsistency was obvious and easy to find. Hence, you should make sure that your explanation is explicit – you must clearly demonstrate that your competency was necessary for the scenario you have described.

Finally, the candidate could have improved their answer by avoiding typographical errors. The candidate misses an apostrophe when writing ‘the schools evidential timeline’. You can easily prevent typographical errors using Microsoft Word’s spellchecker or Grammarly. You should also proofread your work or give your answers to a trusted family member or friend to proofread. In an increasingly competitive application process, recruiters are becoming less lenient with such mistakes. You should not allow recruiters to reject your application based on a typographical error.

You may also note that even if the error does not cause your application to be rejected immediately, it will harm your application as a whole. In this instance, the error is made in a paragraph where the candidate claims to be ‘meticulous’. A particularly cynical recruiter may see the error and subsequently dismiss the whole section.]

My leadership skills will ensure that I take ownership of my work as a Trainee Solicitor, whilst taking responsibility for my development by proactively seeking work and feedback. As the first president of the [redacted], I formed a committee and led my team in winning the [redacted] Debate Tournament after a three-day competition.

[Feedback:  The candidate does well to highlight another relevant competency and explain how it is relevant to being a trainee solicitor. The candidate does provide some evidence of their competency. You should note how the candidate includes specific detail (‘three-day competition’) to lend credence to their response. However, the answer lacks the appropriate explanation and analysis. It is clear that the candidate ran out of words when writing this section and so was unable to implement a PEEL structure.

Whilst the candidate has done well in constructing this section, given the word count restrictions, we would recommend against writing these kinds of responses. If you find that you do not have the requisite space to include an extra competency, it may be better to use the spare word count to develop your existing paragraphs further. As a general rule, you should aim for depth over breadth.]

Work Experience Summary: What skills/ knowledge have you gained from your previous work experience that will help you become a successful lawyer?

Having worked as a retail assistant at [department store], I constantly provided high-quality customer service and regularly handled complicated situations and have therefore developed strong client-facing abilities whereby I am able to use innovative solutions to solve client problems, whilst keeping costs to a minimum for the business.

Furthermore, through my placement year at Reed Smith, I have been exposed to the high quality of work and calibre of clients, as well as complex, multi-jurisdictional work undertaken by international law firms. Having worked on multiple transactions and disputes, I have had the opportunity to enhance my analytical skills, ability to work under pressure and to produce high quality work which has been used for client facing opportunities.

Being able to balance my studies, alongside my part-time jobs with work experiences and volunteering opportunities, is testament to my effective time management skills and motivation to keep occupied and continue to seek new opportunities which is vital as a lawyer and demonstrates my long term interest in the profession. In addition, having worked as a team in many instances, I understand the importance of teamwork and therefore believe that I can bring this to Lewis Silkin and promote further cohesion and collaboration.

Feedback:The candidate argues that they possess a host of skills that are either relevant to or necessary for the role of a trainee solicitor. To ensure that your answer is as persuasive as possible, we recommend that you focus on the latter category of skills (e.g., teamwork, communication, adaptability, problem-solving, time management/organisation, etc.) and on commercial awareness or business acumen (since the prompt references both skills and knowledge). The candidate does particularly well to cite their previous work experience in support of their argument because it increases the credibility and strength thereof. At the same time, they do well to explain what their work experience entailed and why it is relevant relative to the prompt. To make their answer more persuasive, the candidate could have avoided using ambiguous language, e.g., “complicated situations” or “many instances”, by giving examples.

Please provide details of 1-3 achievements or activities that demonstrate the qualities we look for in a Macfarlanes trainee. You may include both academic and non-academic achievements. (300 words)

Firstly, I achieved fourth place in my Contract law exam and fifth place in Tort law in first-year. This demonstrates my industrious work ethic and academic excellence. A tenacious attention to detail, in relation to a factual matrix, is a prerequisite for excelling in Contract law. These qualities translate to a commercial law environment, in that quickly solving complex issues requires the capacity to research and unravel the relevant intricacies into concise and accurate advice for a client.

Secondly, interning at [redacted] Housing Solutions developed both my teamwork and leadership skills. Here, I lead the interviewing of the founder of a successful self-build project in Leeds. Also, I directed my team, after discussion, as to the sections of the business case plan which they would personally undertake. Subsequently, and after sharing ideas within the team, I solely drafted the strategy document on collaboration for PHS. Furthermore, this experience demonstrates my desire to give back to my local community and, by extension, support Macfarlanes’ CSR projects.

Thirdly, being elected Treasurer of the Law Society evidences my intrapersonal skills. Working within the executive committee necessarily requires great communication skills, while also understanding the circumstances of others; where others are becoming overworked it is my responsibility to lighten their load and either take it on myself or distribute it to other enthusiastic committee members. Moreover, my adaptability has developed through this role, as redundancies and furlough has been prevalent throughout the Student Union this year. Therefore, using the SU credit card or processing sponsorship agreements has been extremely difficult. I managed to overcome these pressing problems through using my own account to make Deliveroo voucher purchases - for our e-dinners with law firms - and subsequently expensing the expenditure.

[Feedback: This answer is weaker than the first one.  The key issue is that the candidate has not thought through the attributes that a Macfarlanes trainee should have before diving into the answer.  Instead, the candidate has thought of an example and then identified the skills that it demonstrates (e.g., attention to detail, teamwork, leadership, communication skills and adaptability). 

We recommend first thinking about the types of skills that a successful trainee requires.  Some examples include (1) time management / organisation, (2) commercial outlook, (3) teamwork, (4) resilience, (5) resourcefulness, (6) problem solving skills / analytical; (7) good judgment; and (8) strong communication skills, both in written and spoken English. 

Use the Point, Evidence, Explanation rubric to (1) identify the useful quality, (2) provide a single developed example that demonstrates how you have developed the quality and (3) explain why it will make you a successful trainee.

You should signpost your answer upfront by including a single sentence stating the three qualities which you are going to cover (e.g., "A successful lawyer at Macfarlanes must be analytical, commercially astute and possess excellent communication skills").  You can then set out three short paragraphs using the PEE structure.

Given that the next question covers resilience, it’s better to focus on other attributes in this answer.]

Based on what you know about Memery Crystal; please give 3 reasons why you have chosen us and 3 reasons why we should choose you?

Clear sector focus

I am drawn to Memery Crystal’s commercial practice because I have a profound interest in businesses and the markets they operate in. I was excited to learn of Memery Crystal’s AIM focus because of the opportunity to learn about clients in different industries and jurisdictions.

I listened to Nick Alfillé discuss at the Open Day on the 19th November how the firm assists the client throughout their life-cycle and read with interest about Pelatro’s first acquisition following its admission to AIM in 2017 as evidence of this. I would add value to Memery Crystal because I would have a genuine interest in the firm’s clients.

[Feedback: The candidate has split their answer into three clear sections which helps them maintain a logical structure and prevents them from missing any crucial information out.

This section picks out a unique aspect of the firm, namely the firm’s focus on AIM. Some excellent evidence is provided by the candidate, notably mentioning by name the individual the candidate listened to on an open day and discussing a specific deal.

However, the candidate’s answer could do with improvement when it comes to depth. Most of this section is quite generic and does not go into the details of the firm’s sector focus nor the candidate’s interest in the mentioned sector. Given the limited word count, the candidate should have gone straight into the details of the firm’s sector focus, and then drawn out specifically why they are attracted to it. Remember, you must substantiate your claims by providing specific, personal evidence – it is not enough to just assert that you have a ‘genuine interest in the firm’s clients’, you must evidence that interest.]

Trainee experience

The Open Day reinforced my understanding of Memery Crystal as a firm where the trainee is afforded responsibility from the outset. In particular I am drawn to the one-to-one trainee experience and friendly and supportive approach.

I would add value to Memery Crystal because as a funds paralegal at [redacted law firm] I have been afforded responsibility by way of working as the sole paralegal on co-investments and drafting facility agreements. I have experience working as a team and individually to meet client expectations and contribute meaningfully to the firm.

[Feedback: This is a stronger section – the candidate’s use of their previous work experience does well to evidence their claim of enjoying high levels of responsibility. However, much like the previous section, the candidate would have been better off spending a little more time unpacking what exactly is unique about Memery Crystal’s one-to-one trainee experience. For example, the candidate’s answer would have benefited from the addition of some specific examples or testimonies that evidenced the existence or effectiveness of such an experience.

Furthermore, though the discussion of the candidate’s work as a paralegal is fitting, the candidate could have been a little more specific when describing the kinds of work they completed. Again, you should be as specific as possible because facts and statistics add credence to your answer and better show off your abilities.

Finally, the last sentence of this section is a little ill-fitting with the paragraph it is in. The candidate has used this section to discuss how they work well alone with high levels of responsibility. Naturally, teamwork is essential to working in a law firm, and the candidate felt as though they needed to mention their ability to work in a team. However, the candidate has “tagged” this teamwork-sentence on and it does not serve the answer well. If needed, you should link your sentences together with introductory words – this will help you properly demonstrate your logical thought process to the reader. For example, the candidate could have written: ‘In addition to working well in one-on-one settings, I also have extensive experience working in teams. [insert evidence here]’.]

Innovation

Memery Crystal is an innovative firm as evidenced by its status as market leaders in medical cannabis and appointment as the exclusive legal partner to the Centre for Medical Cannabis. I am drawn to Memery Crystal because it stays ahead of the curve and is willing to embrace new industries.

I would add value to Memery Crystal because I recognise that innovation is important from a firm perspective and individually. For example, I regularly read around innovation strategies and have taken a keen interest in data sets and how they can assist law firms in the future.

[Feedback: In light of the demanding question and the restrictive word limit this is a good section. The candidate has used specific evidence to substantiate their claim that the firm is innovative and has linked that claim back to themselves and why they would fit the firm on those grounds.

The only point of improvement would be regarding the last paragraph: though the candidate gives some evidence for why innovation is important to them, it would have been better if the candidate provided some more personal and specific examples rather than generically stating ‘read around innovation strategies’. This is not a bad example, however, to write this, the candidate would have needed to specify what strategies they read about and why they are interested in those specific strategies. Indeed, the same comment goes for the statement ‘how they can assist law firms in the future’ – instead of stating that, the candidate could have actually specified how such strategies and data sets can help law firms.

Describe why a career in commercial law appeals to you. What skills do you think are needed to be a successful commercial lawyer? (300 words max) *

Commercial law appeals to me because of how integral lawyers are in the complexities of business. Law firms enable businesses that drive the markets to operate. They are responsible for managing simple matters, such as writing up employment contracts, and more complex ones, such as facilitating corporate transactions. My interest stems from shadowing the General Counsel at the financial services company [redacted company] in 2018. I enjoyed accumulating an in-depth knowledge of the company’s activities and the market and industry in which it functions. Assisting with drafting a new GDPR-compliant privacy policy highlighted how heavily the company relies on the legal department for its effective operation.

Feedback: This looks to be a strong first paragraph. The candidate uses the PEEL/AL structure (point, evidence, explanation, link) particularly well. First, the candidate states a tailored point demonstrating that they have thought carefully about this career path. The candidate then develops the point by talking about the roles of lawyers in drafting contracts and facilitating deals. This tailors the candidate’s reasoning towards commercial law, whilst also eliminating any doubts about their interest in this specific path (as opposed to any other in the City). Then, the candidate deploys a specific and relevant personal example from their time shadowing a commercial lawyer. Finally, the candidate explains precisely what interested them about this experience and how that ties in with their wider interest in commercial law. This results in a coherent, well-argued paragraph that is easy for the recruiter to follow and be persuaded by.

You should note how the candidate centres their analysis on specific, personalised and high-quality personal evidence. They deploy an example from their work experience, before explaining precisely what interested them about it. Then, the candidate concludes by linking their experience drafting a GDPR policy back in with their wider interest in commercial law. Your analysis should follow the same path. You must back up any motivational points with specific, personalised evidence that demonstrates your sustained interest in commercial law.

One point for improvement is that the candidate’s analysis should be tighter in places. For instance, the candidate claims that they enjoyed “accumulating in-depth knowledge of the company’s activities” and the “market” accompanying it. These features are not specific to commercial law. You would need to accumulate said knowledge in nearly any business career path, not least the career paths on offer in the City (such as consulting). As such, this aspect of the candidate’s reasoning is not specific enough to commercial law. In your own writing, you should make sure your logic is specific and tailored to commercial law. If your argument can be just as easily applied to another career path, then it isn’t precise enough.

Crucial skills include communication, negotiation, and creative thinking. For example, with less time to dedicate to Citizens Advice this year, I made my supervisor aware of my revised circumstances. Subsequently, I liaised with her to devise a more flexible framework that would allow me to continue offering my services. I now respond to client emails unsupervised whenever I have free time – an unconventional system for my office. Balancing this volunteering commitment with the PGDL and part-time waitressing also requires good organisation.

Feedback: The candidate now moves on towards explaining the skills they need to succeed in commercial law. Unusually, the candidate spends 2/3 of the answer on this skills section (whereas we would typically recommend a 50/50 split). This results in a slightly uneven answer that focuses too heavily on the skills, whilst not getting into enough detail about the candidate’s motivations for commercial law. Ideally, the candidate would identify two reasons for their interest in commercial law followed by two key skills they think are relevant.

If we give the candidate the benefit of the doubt, this looks to be a good first paragraph. The candidate identifies some key skills from the outset. Then, the candidate deploys a specific and personalised example from their experience at Citizens Advice. The candidate provides some insight into how they communicated with their supervisor and devised a flexible solution to continue their work. You should also note how the candidate focuses on showing their skills, rather than merely listing them out. The recruiter can freely interpret the candidate’s negotiation and communication skills from the steps described.

However, this paragraph is somewhat unfocused. At the end, the candidate shoehorns in references to the PGDL and waitressing before briefly asserting that this “required good organisation”. The candidate never explains precisely how they managed their time, nor do they ever give insight into how they organised their schedule to keep track of these various commitments. This is not self-explanatory. As such, the final sentence contributes little to the candidate’s answer. The candidate should either have (1) cut this out or (2) devoted a separate paragraph to this point so they could analyse it in more detail. We advise that you stick to no more than 1 point per paragraph, so you can avoid issues like this.

Moreover, advising clients experiencing difficult circumstances at Citizens Advice, I must be able to connect on a more human level with the client. This has allowed me to develop my emotional intelligence, which is valuable in a people-focused profession. Participating in team sports has further strengthened my interpersonal skills.

Feedback: This has the potential to be a good paragraph, but it is weaker because it lacks detail. The candidate deploys a good example, but they do not go much further in explaining it. For instance, the candidate asserts that they “advised clients experiencing difficult circumstances” and that this helped them “connect with the client on a human level”. However, the candidate does not offer any specific evidence or detailed examples in support of this point. The candidate also does not identify any specific steps they took to help clients dealing with difficult circumstances. Similarly, the candidate tells the recruiter that they “developed emotional intelligence” but never explains what they mean by this or how this developed from the role. These points are not self-explanatory. In your own writing, it is not enough simply to assert that you have a given skill.  You need to provide specific evidence and explain it with detailed steps and outcomes that you took. In turn, this will prove to the recruiter that you have the skills you claim.

Furthermore, this paragraph is missing a central link back to the question. The question specifically asks you to explain the skills that you think a commercial lawyer needs. Currently, it is unclear from the candidate’s writing why they think that a commercial lawyer specifically would need good interpersonal skills. While it might be more obvious why a family or criminal lawyer would need to be able to help clients in difficult personal circumstances, it’s less clear how this point applies to commercial lawyers. As such, the candidate needed to spend more time addressing the question by explaining why they think commercial lawyers need these skills.

In light of the tight word count, the candidate might have been better off either (1) cutting this out or (2) cutting down another paragraph so that they could add more detail here.

Finally, a career in law is a constant learning experience. Possessing a growth mindset is thus fundamental. I demonstrated this when I elected to undertake Intellectual Property Law. I struggled initially, scoring 56 in the formative assessment. However, I worked hard to strengthen my performance, attending office hours and completing an external legal writing skills course to obtain an overall grade of 64.

Feedback: This paragraph has a slightly better structure than the previous. The candidate begins by stating a relevant point, before providing some additional context on it. Then, the candidate introduces a specific example from their studies to demonstrate that they have this skill. Then, the candidate outlines the precise steps they took to improve their grades and achieve the desired outcome. Finally, the candidate provides a specific and quantified outcome following from their actions. This results in a coherent paragraph that is straightforward to follow overall.

However, this paragraph suffers from a couple of weaknesses:

1.     The candidate’s central point is quite vague. The candidate never quite explains how law is a “constant learning experience”, nor do they ever explain what they mean by a “growth mindset”. As such, this makes it harder for the candidate to construct a strong argument on the basis of this point. The candidate needed to go further in explaining what they mean by each of these statements, as they are currently rather vague.

2.     The candidate’s point is not well-tailored to the question. Arguably, all professions are “constant learning experiences” requiring a “growth mindset” of some kind. This is not a unique feature of commercial law. The question specifically asks why commercial lawyers need this skill, so the candidate needed to develop their point by tailoring it to the question.

3.     The candidate does not provide much detail on the specific steps they took to improve their grades. Currently, the steps described do not seem to go beyond the basic standards one would expect from a law student. You would expect any competent law student to “work hard” and attend the required office hours. The only step demonstrating slight extra commitment is the candidate’s attendance at a legal course. As such, the candidate needed to go into much more specific detail explaining how they overcame the setback and worked more effectively to achieve a better outcome.

Shoosmiths is a firm of individuals, with a culture that will actively allow you to grow your skills and challenge yourself. Focusing on one previous experience (in personal, work or study), what skills have you developed that will support your career as a solicitor? (300 words)

During my time in the post-production department in the advertising agency ([redacted company]), part of my responsibilities surrounded scheduling and allocating talent (such as editors, sound engineers and animators) to TV and social media productions of different sizes. I studied Film & TV Production and I was familiar with each of those specialisms and I could estimate timelines and budgets based on the creative vision of the productions. At one point my department was restructured and I was tasked with integrating graphic designers to our workflow and manage their bookings on design projects. This was a big challenge for me as I not only did not have any knowledge in this area, but they also worked differently to what our workflow was set up to be. I organised many meetings with [redacted company]’s accountants, design producers, software engineers and the designers to plan their new workflow; ways in which we could alter our software to accommodate their projects and schedule and finally create new rate cards and budget templates. To achieve this, I had to talk to each of the types of staff, understand their requirements and limits as to what they can do and communicate this between them efficiently and clearly to create a comprehensive and seamless workflow. Eventually, we managed to create such workflow which ran alongside the post-production’s one. I am happy to say that my department is still using this method to this day. This challenge allowed me to expand my collaborative and communication skills and improve my problem-solving skills which I believe are crucial in a role of a solicitor, especially a commercial solicitor at Shoosmiths. Those skills would come useful whilst working on complex, challenging deals with a variety of departments from different offices across the Shoosmiths’s network.

Feedback: Though Shoosmiths have worded this question in a complicated way, it is a essentially a competency question. You have a blank cheque to write about any experience of your choice before outlining the skills you took away from it. We recommend that you identify a high-quality and specific experience from your studies, extra-curricular activities or professional life that allows you to draw out a variety of relevant skills. By focusing on one example, you give yourself sufficient space to analyse what you did and how you developed relevant skills as a result. Then, you should follow the STAR structure (situation, task, action, result). You should (1) describe the situation concisely, (2) outline the tasks/challenges you faced, (3) analyse the steps you took in highly-specific detail and finally (4) summarise the results of your action in as much detail as you can (whilst referring back to the initial task). This will allow you to “show” your skills to the recruiter, rather than merely listing out/”telling” the recruiter about your skills.

The candidate follows this structure quite closely, which makes their writing easier to follow (and so be persuaded by). The candidate does well to contextualise the situation and explain the specific challenges they faced.  In particular, we like how the candidate explained what made the situation so challenging (i.e. they had never dealt with this situation before). This adds gravity to the candidate’s overall argument, as the recruiter is given insight into the scale of the challenges the candidate faced and ultimately overcame through their actions.

That said, the candidate does tend to go into unnecessary detail at times. For instance, the candidate spends 30 words outlining their Film & TV Production studies despite the recruiter likely already being aware of this from the rest of their answer. As a rule, you should dedicate no more than 25% of your answer to the situation/context so that you have space to analyse your actions in depth.

We would also note some further points for improvement:

1. The candidate needs to drill down on their “actions”/steps in far greater detail. We are told that the candidate “organised many meetings” and “talked to staff”, but the candidate does not offer much insight into how they addressed the challenges previously identified. The candidate previously identified their lack of knowledge as a challenge, so we would have expected greater insight into how they learned new concepts and produced a good outcome regardless. You should make sure that your “action” section addresses your “tasks”/challenges in full, so that your writing is more coherent overall.

2. The candidate tends to compensate for the lack of detail by listing out unnecessary details. For instance, the candidate lists out “accountants, design producers, software engineers and the designers” when they could have quite easily said “colleagues” or “co-workers” and achieved the same effect. In the cynical recruiter’s eyes, it appears as though the candidate is padding out their writing and filling the word space. You should make sure that every word of your writing contributes to your argument and illustrates your key skills to the recruiter.

3. Though the candidate does well to mention that their method is still used by the department, we are not given much insight into the outcome beyond this. You should quantify your outcomes with specific numbers/details wherever possible.

We also recommend that you split your writing into paragraphs. This candidate has written their answer as one block of text, which makes it dense and harder follow. Where possible, you should vary your sentence structure and introduce paragraph breaks to aid comprehension.

In your view which personal qualities make a successful lawyer?

The ability to synergise with others is vital for lawyers. Lawyers constantly work in teams within their own firm’s departments as well as with their clients – this applies both domestically and internationally. This also requires a lawyer to be able to know when they need to take the lead or follow accordingly. To ensure swift deliverability, teamwork is key to produce high-quality results in an efficient manner both from the client and firm perspective. This is particularly important for working at Sidley, where there is a smaller intake of trainees but with higher levels of responsibility, the firm requires all to collaborate effectively at all times. Being pro-active is another trait that is key. This can be in the form of finding novel solutions to niche problems or having an insight into a client’s needs and being ready to advise accordingly - an interest in the commercial world will allow for this as an example. A proactive lawyer will thus be better prepared to retain and attract clients as they will always be a step ahead of the competition. Being a driven character is important – especially during the late hours spent on finalising deals. This will ensure that a client’s demands, no matter how peculiar, are met with consistently high standards. Precision separates the good lawyers from the rest. Attention to detail is essential and can ensure client retention due to the exceptional work produced. This also ensures that stringent deadlines are met, and costly mistakes are avoided.

[Feedback: The structure in this paragraph is excellent, with ideas being consistently signposted, explored and then concluded neatly. It covers teamwork, being pro-active, drive and precision - all attributes that successful City lawyers require. The sentences on teamwork are especially convincing and well written. The pro-active discussion is also quite strong and we think the candidate is right to mention these. The reference to the small intake at Sidley is a subtle way of showing off good research as well. Commercial law is hard work, and so drive is undoubtedly important. Alongside such motivation requires technical excellence in order to thrive in the profession, and no one will ever fault a candidate for mentioning attention to detail as a key skill for lawyers - we are all still working on this one!

The first two traits (teamwork and being pro-active) are fully explained, while the second two (drive and precision) are addressed in less detail. It would be more effective to drop one of the final two in order to round out the answer more comprehensively. Candidates should understand that less is more; it is better to provide fewer examples but explore them with greater analysis. “Being a driven character” doesn’t sound quite right and could be replaced with a simpler “Being driven”. “Peculiar” is the wrong word here and “testing” or, alternatively, “banal”, would be more appropriate. “Swift deliverability” is repeated from the second paragraph as well.

In your view which personal qualities make a successful lawyer? (250 Words Max)

A commercial mindset is crucial for success in a City law firm. Commercial lawyers must understand their client’s business but also, as I saw during my placement at [US law firm], recognise what wider socio-economic trends will adversely affect them. On the flip side, a lawyer should also recognise that their law firm is a business. Appreciating the consequences of ‘debtors’ days’ or ‘lock up’ and how their own individual contribution impacts their department’s growth is crucial to prioritising work and adding value.

Feedback: This is a strong answer overall. The candidate highlights several distinct qualities before analysing each one separately and in turn. This demonstrates that the candidate has a strong, multi-faceted understanding of the work that commercial lawyers do, as well as the skills needed to succeed in this career. You should also note how the candidate structures the first three paragraphs with effective use of PEEL/AL. They state (1) the point straight away, then (2) they offer personalised evidence/examples and (3) they explain/analyse how that evidence supports their point, before (4) linking their analysis back to the central point. This means that the first three paragraphs are generally comprehensive and thorough.

The candidate does reasonably well in deploying personalised evidence here. In drawing upon their direct experience at a US law firm, the candidate can write much more convincingly. This is because the candidate has first-hand experience of the qualities a commercial lawyer needs to succeed day-to-day. In your own writing, you should back up your own points with personalised examples which demonstrate that you know what you are talking about.

You should also note how the candidate orders their points logically. The candidate leads in with the most important quality for commercial lawyers straight away, namely that they need a commercial mindset. This is particularly unique to commercial law. Whilst commercial lawyers must also have good attention to detail, communicative skills and so on, these skills are equally applicable to any area of legal practice. As such, the candidate has done well to prioritise commercial awareness/mindset before turning over to the other qualities.

That said, the candidate spreads themselves too thinly in this paragraph. They try to cover both (1) how commercial lawyers understand their client’s business/trends and (2) how law firms operate as a business, without substantially analysing each point. The result is that the candidate must compromise on quality of analysis to meet the word count. For instance, the candidate ends this paragraph by mentioning jargon/complex terms without explaining their meaning and relevance. This makes the candidate’s writing harder to follow and so be persuaded by. In your own writing, you should cover no more than one point per paragraph. This will give you the space to provide high-quality evidence and analysis on each point.

Next, a lawyer must also understand that attention to detail is a mindset rather than a skill. That is, a faculty that must be fully engaged during any legal work. During my time at [Magic Circle law firm], I learned that commercial lawyers, as my associate explained, ‘fundamentally sell words’ and are in a constant pursuit of mitigating their clients’ legal risk. Consequently, they must have zero tolerance for final draft mistakes.

Feedback: This paragraph has the same strength as the previous, namely that it rests on a good personal example. This makes the candidate’s writing more persuasive because the candidate has first-hand experience. The candidate also leads with an interesting, unique point about attention to detail (namely that it is a mindset rather than a skill). This demonstrates that the candidate has thought carefully about the meaning of this attribute and its applicability day-to-day. Many candidates fall into the trap of asserting that lawyers need attention to detail without truly explaining what this involves. As such, you should consider each of your points carefully and demonstrate that you understand the proper meaning of each.

That said, the candidate's analysis is somewhat thin at the end of this paragraph. The candidate asserts that lawyers mitigate legal risks and so cannot tolerate draft mistakes, but they do not link these assertions back to the wider point about attention to detail. The candidate does not explain how lawyers apply the attention to detail “mindset” to avoid said mistakes. To avoid this issue, you should always include a “link” that ties your explanations/evidence back in with your point.

Good communication distinguishes leaders from intellectuals. Lawyers, by simplifying complex information, need to lead their clients to the right conclusion. My negotiation modules at university taught me that persuasion is often more about how you listen than how you talk. Similarly, lawyers need to actively listen to their client’s needs, whilst communicating in a succinct, top-down manner: beginning with recommendations and logically grouping supporting arguments.

Feedback: As with the previous two paragraphs, the candidate does well to justify their points with personalised evidence/examples. This makes the candidate’s writing far more persuasive than it otherwise would have been. The quality of analysis is also decent in general. The candidate demonstrates that they understand why lawyers particularly need communication skills when handling clients.

That said, this paragraph suffers from two flaws. First, the candidate’s initial point is worded strangely. Not only is the question asking about the skills commercial lawyers need (not “leaders”), but it also does not make much sense. Intellectuals need to be just as good at communicating as “leaders” do. Secondly, a minor issue is that the candidate tries to cram multiple qualities into one paragraph. While the candidate primarily discusses communication skills, they also name-drop other attributes (e.g. “simplifying complex information”) without offering any meaningful analysis on these. This makes the candidate’s writing unfocused in parts. You need to be disciplined in your own writing. You should make sure that you only cover 1 point per paragraph, so that you can analyse each point in sufficient depth.

Commercial lawyers must also be willing to be, not only intellectually, but emotionally challenged. Confrontational clients whose business is at risk, strict deadlines and long hours requires deep-rooted resilience.

Feedback: Given the tight word count, the candidate should have cut this paragraph out instead of more substantive analysis elsewhere. The candidate asserts that lawyers need to be emotionally intelligent/strong, but they do not have space to analyse this point in any meaningful detail. As such, the candidate could have saved 29 words by removing this paragraph altogether.

If in doubt, you should always prioritise depth over breadth by identifying no more than 3 qualities that lawyers need. You will not realistically cover every single quality in the space of a 250-word answer. As such, you need to prioritise the attributes that you believe are most important.

Select two skills from the list and provide examples of how you have developed these skills in your previous experiences and how these skills will help you in a career in law. (150 each)

Collaboration

Working independently

Taking responsibility

Showing initiative

Undertaking analysis and research

Problem solving

Self-improvement

Attention to detail

Creativity

Communication

Adaptability

Attention to detail:

During my vacation scheme, I was tasked with taking notes during a client call in order to provide an accurate witness statement. The client was a witness to a fraud crime and so was giving her account of what happened. I ensured that each minor detail was recorded accurately. I then had to read through around 100 pages of evidence and compile an accurate summary. Upon review, my supervisor praised me for the quality of work that I submitted and used it for her final witness statement report. Paying close attention to detail will ensure my success in a career in law. It is important as a trainee’s key task is to find new developments in the law, as well as proofreading and negotiating tightly worded clauses in contracts. This is crucial when serving clients and meeting their expectations.

Feedback:This is a tricky question to answer because you have to stick to an extremely tight word count. This means you need to be incredibly concise. You have to pick out two competencies, before providing a succinct STAR-structured (situation, task, action, result) paragraph explaining how you developed that skill. You would then need to outline why that skill would help you in a legal career, ideally within the “result” section.

In that regard, the candidate approaches this question quite well. They get straight to the point in identifying (1) the precise situation and surrounding context, (2) the specific task they had to complete in response to it, (3) the outcome and (4) the relevance of this skill to their legal career. This results in a coherent, well-structured competency paragraph that is easy to follow.

The candidate also gets into good detail in places. You should note how the candidate quantifies some of their writing with specific, numerical detail (e.g. “I read through around 100 pages of evidence”). This detail adds gravity and persuasive value to the candidate’s writing. This is because it puts the full scale of the candidate’s task into context. In your own writing, you should substantiate each element of your answer with specific and quantified detail. This will persuade the recruiter that you have the relevant skills to a high level.

That said, this paragraph is missing meaningful detail on the candidate’s steps/actions. The candidate asserts that they had to “read through around 100 pages of evidence and compile an accurate summary”, before leaping straight into the outcome (namely that they received praise from their supervisor). The candidate never explains precisely how they approached this challenge. We are given no insight into the methods used by the candidate to read/summarise 100 pages, nor do they explain how they approached such a monumental task in a relatively short space of time. Since the candidate does not unpack their methods/steps, the recruiter cannot infer the candidate’s skills in turn. In your own writing, you should focus on the steps/actions primarily. If you can unpack these in detail, then the recruiter can infer your various competencies from the actions you carried out.

Communication:

Through volunteering at the Citizens Advice Bureau, I have developed my communication skills. I learnt the importance of tailoring my approach and adapting my tone when liaising with clients. For example, in one case, an elderly client called, who was not advanced with technology so could not be emailed information. Therefore, I had to outline the advice in an easily digestible and allow her time to make a note of her next steps. It was also important that I decide on which information is the most relevant to the client as it was often impractical to explain everything found in my research. As part of my role, I was required to also email the advice given to each client. However, in this case, I decided to print out the advice and post it to the client in order to communicate the advice in the best way.

Feedback: This paragraph somewhat improves on the previous. This time, the candidate gets into slightly more detail into their steps (namely that they had to outline the advice in a digestible, concise manner). By giving this insight, the candidate gives the recruiter space to infer the candidate’s competencies from the steps they took. Later in the answer, the candidate mentions another method they used (namely that they printed out and posted the advice). Not only does the candidate demonstrate some communication skills, but their actions also demonstrate other relevant skills to commercial law (such as being able to explain complex legal concepts to business-minded clients). In your own writing, you should go beyond simply asserting that you have X skills or Y competencies. You must prove that you have these skills by unpacking the precise actions you carried out.

The most obvious flaw is that the candidate does not fully answer the question. The question does not just ask you to demonstrate your skills. You must also explain how you would apply them in a legal career. The candidate never addresses this part of the question in this paragraph. To an extent, the recruiter might be able to infer these points from your answer. However, you must generally make sure that you are answering the question explicitly and in full. If you use the explicit wording of the question throughout, then you will convince the recruiter that you have fully understood what is being asked.

Another point is that the candidate’s level of detail is inconsistent throughout the paragraph. First, the candidate asserts that they “decided on which information is most relevant to the client”. The candidate never explains precisely how they did this, nor do they offer insight into the methods they used to summarise/break down this complicated research. In a similar vein, the candidate provides little insight into the specific outcome of their actions. They never explain precisely how their steps/actions ultimately helped this client, nor do they offer insight into any quantifiable positive outcomes that cropped up as a result. In your own writing, you must detail each step/outcome with specific and quantified detail. This will convince the recruiter that you have a variety of high-level and relevant skills.

What skills do you think are needed to be a successful solicitor at Stephenson Harwood? (Max 250 words)

Based on the firm's 2026 strategy, key skills for success encompass strong interpersonal abilities, innovative thinking, and a deep understanding of commercial  dynamics.

Feedback: There is no harm in having a brief introduction like this, provided that it addresses the question directly and provides a concise summary of your key arguments/talking points. The candidate achieves both objectives here. First, the candidate addresses the wording of the question explicitly and from the outset. This demonstrates the candidate’s understanding of the question. Then, the candidate summarises three relevant qualities that they think commercial lawyers need. This provides structure to the candidate’s answer and gives the recruiter a clear summary of the candidate’s central points.

As a minor comment, the candidate did not need to mention the firm’s “2026 strategy” here. It currently comes across as forced and shoehorned in. This is because the candidate simply name-drops the 2026 strategy. They never explain what the strategy is nor how it relates to the three skills they mention later on in the paragraph. Given the tight word count, the candidate could have cut this point out altogether.

We would also add that introductions are not essential. If you are struggling for space, you should cut them out altogether in favour of more meaningful analysis elsewhere.

Firstly, enduring client relationships are a fundamental component of its vision. This  commitment is exemplified by its unique yacht practice. Partners Ezio Dal Maso and  Neil Noble consistently rank among Spear's best yacht lawyers, showcasing the  significance of client connections. An illustrative example is their role in a long-time  client's acquisition of a Tankoa motor yacht. Notably, SH’s sustained collaborations  with Tankoa on two other matters underline its lawyers' people skills, marked by  effective communication and a profound grasp of individual client needs.

Feedback:  The candidate does well here in two regards. First, the candidate adopts a sensible PEEL/AL structure (point, evidence, explanation/analysis, link). The candidate begins by stating their central point from the outset. Then, the candidate provides detailed and specific evidence in support of their point. The candidate then analyses/explains the significance of their research, before concluding with a link back to the central point. This results in a coherent and well-structured paragraph that is easy to follow.

Secondly, the candidate demonstrates that they have carried out some decent research into Stephenson Harwood. The candidate goes beyond simply repeating facts from SH’s graduate recruitment brochure. Instead, the candidate supports their arguments by citing specific named lawyers, rankings and cases/deals worked on by SH. In turn, the candidate demonstrates that they have invested serious time and resources into researching SH before tailoring their answers accordingly. You should aim for a similar quality of research in your own writing. Wherever possible, you should back up any points you make with specific, detailed and precise research into the firm.

The key weakness of this paragraph lies in the quality of analysis/explanations. Though the candidate cites impressive facts about SH, they do not go much further in analysing/explaining these facts. The candidate makes fairly simple and obvious claims throughout the answer. For instance, the candidate identifies two named SH yacht lawyers and simply comments that these rankings/lawyers “showcase the significance of client connections”. The candidate never explains (1) what client connections they are referring to nor (2) exactly what they mean by this “significance”. In the same way, the candidate asserts that SH’s “collaborations” with Tankoa “underlines its lawyers’ people skills”, but the candidate goes no further in explaining what they mean by this. The candidate should have analysed and explained each point in full, so that it is clear why the candidate has picked these facts out as evidence.

Secondly, SH upholds its independence in a merger-driven legal landscape. To  excel here, lawyers must possess entrepreneurial skills that foster firm growth in the  face of dynamic market changes and competition. Their active use of tools like  Luminance and Solomonic, and contributions to the development of an in-house  pricing tool demonstrates the commitment to innovation and staying at the forefront  of the evolving legal landscape for enhanced client services.

Feedback: This paragraph has similar strengths and weaknesses to the previous. On one hand, the candidate demonstrates a decent level of research once again. The candidate not only names SH’s innovation platforms, but they also explain these platforms briefly. Not only does this demonstrate that the candidate has invested serious time into researching SH’s innovation strategy, but they also show good understanding of the role/importance of innovation to law firms generally. You should aim for similar levels of specificity in your own writing. This means you should back up all points with specific, detailed factual evidence from your research into the firm.

On the other hand, the candidate’s analysis is patchy and incomplete in places. First, the candidate leaves a few points unexplained. For instance, the candidate asserts that SH needs to “uphold its independence in a merger-driven legal landscape”. The candidate never explains what they mean by “merger-driven”, nor do they explain what it would mean for SH to “uphold its independence”. In the same way, the candidate’s analysis of Luminance/Solomonic is quite basic and surface-level. The candidate simply asserts that these platforms demonstrate “commitment to innovation” and “staying at the forefront of the evolving legal landscape”. These are currently banal and surface-level points. The candidate should instead have explained precisely what these platforms achieve for SH from a business standpoint. Then, the candidate should have linked their analysis back in with the central point (namely the importance of entrepreneurial skills).

Finally, echoing the 2026 strategy, SH strongly prioritises core sector expansion,  underscoring the critical importance of commercial acumen. This necessitates a  profound understanding of clients' industries and the broader business landscape. In  addition to technical expertise, SH lawyers must also possess strong team-working  skills to facilitate industry-centric growth. This involves the creation of collaborative,  cross-practice teams, designed not just to market services but to consistently deliver  substantial value to clients.

Feedback: The quality of analysis is slightly better in this paragraph. First, the candidate leads in with a concise point that generally addresses the question. Then, the candidate substantiates the point with decent explanation throughout. The candidate explains what they mean by “commercial acumen” and how it might relate to SH’s lawyers. Then, the candidate introduces a new point about team-working and explains what they think this means for SH’s lawyers. In turn, this results in a reasonably well-explained paragraph that explains its points in full.

That said, the candidate’s writing suffers because they spread themselves too thinly. The candidate crams two separate points into one paragraph. They begin by writing about SH’s “core sector expansion” and the resulting importance of commercial awareness. Then, the candidate suddenly pivots towards teamwork/collaborative skills. This leaves the candidate with little space to talk about each point in meaningful depth. For instance, the candidate asserts that this skill “echoes the 2026 strategy” and that this strategy involves “core sector expansion”. The candidate never explains precisely what the 2026 strategy involves, nor how that links in with the two following points about commercial acumen and teamwork. For this reason, we typically recommend that candidates prioritise depth over breadth. You should stick to just 1 point per paragraph. This will mean you have enough space to analyse your point and back it up with high-quality, specific research.

What makes a good commercial lawyer? (250 Words)

 - What skills do you need?
 - What do you need these skills?
 - How have you developed these skills?
 - How do you believe you can demonstrate the skills required?

There are three skills that make a good commercial lawyer. They are:

1. Analytical ability. A lawyer must be able to identify key issues and apply sound commercial judgment to every problem. As an 'idea person', I have been known for coming up with creative and solution-driven ideas which will benefit Stephenson Harwood. For example, at '[redacted law firm]', I worked on a deal concerning a large pharmaceutical company. The company was about to go insolvent because of its severe cash-flow problems which rendered it unable to pay existing debt. The company, therefore, needed to restructure its debts. My mentor took my suggestion of using a mezzanine finance scheme and proposed it to the client.

2. Flexibility. A good commercial lawyer is one that can adapt to new challenges and are flexible in problem-solving. When I was 19, I started my own company. Having had no initial capital, I had to come up with creative ways to raise the fund. I collaborated with a [redacted nationality] artist to create poetic pieces which sold for profit. Through this, I raised S$2000, which I injected into my company's expense account. The problem-solving skills that I've learned through this will benefit the firm positively.

3. Commercial awareness. Lawyers must be able to give specific legal advice; to do this, they must have strong commercial knowledge. By being the sole author and owner of my commercial blog, I have developed a strong commercial acumen which allows me to follow commercial and market trends easily.

[Feedback: The candidate’s headings work very well here and provide an effective structure for her answer. 

In the first paragraph, the candidate cites analytical ability but then goes on to provide an example of her creativity.  It’s an impressive example for an undergraduate student but it doesn’t necessarily demonstrate analytical ability.

In the second paragraph, the candidate cites flexibility but then goes on to provide an example which focuses on problem solving.  The candidate should use “problem solving” as the heading here - it’s less vague than flexibility and more important for lawyers in any case. 

Skills that we consider important for future lawyers include:  time management / organisation, commitment to becoming a lawyer, commercial outlook, teamwork,

dedication, ability to thrive outside your comfort zone, problem-solving skills / analytical ability, decision-making / good judgement.

You should aim to make it as easy as possible for the reader to understand your application.  Small improvements like converting foreign currencies into GBP can help with this.  Similarly, if you refer to your past work at a law firm, you should clarify whether it is paid work or work experience, rather than relying on the reviewer to cross-refer back to the work experience section of your application.]

Please use this section to summarise three key skills you have learned from your work experience to date and how these skills will be beneficial at Taylor Wessing. (250 words max) *

Whilst working as a Legal Advisor at the [redacted company], I learnt how to diagnose legal problems and provide advice quickly and accurately. One client worked as a freelance seamstress. She had not been paid on-time by a customer for a wedding dress. Having assessed the situation, I advised the client on her contractual obligations and the best way to obtain payment. I enjoy problem-solving and thinking critically about detail-oriented issues. These skills would allow me to find the best outcomes for clients at Taylor Wessing.

Feedback: The candidate structures this answer well. They follow the CAR structure (context – action – result) throughout, which results in a coherent paragraph that directly addresses the question. First, the candidate identifies a relevant legal skill quickly. Then, the candidate provides enough context for the recruiter to understand (1) precisely what they did as a Legal Advisor and (2) the specific challenge they faced. Then, the candidate concisely summarises the actions they took and the resulting skills that make them a good candidate for Taylor Wessing. This results in a well-structured paragraph that is easy to follow overall.

The key weakness in this paragraph is that it lacks substance. This issue comes to light when the candidate starts describing their actions/steps. The candidate simply describes themselves as having “assessed the situation” and “advised” the client accordingly, without explaining what they mean by these points. This becomes problematic when the candidate asserts that they “enjoy problem-solving” and “thinking critically”. These assertions do not follow from the candidate’s previous writing, since they never explain precisely how they solved problems or applied critical reasoning skills. We sympathise with the tight word count, but this does not mean you should cut out essential details. The majority of the marks in competency answers lie with your actions/steps, so you should describe these precisely and in good detail (even if you have to cut other parts of your answer).

As a Legal Advisor, I also learnt how to form strong relationships with clients. I often advised on matters that were of great individual importance, and I invested time into building trust and confidence with a client. A people-facing role appeals to me because I find establishing client relationships very rewarding. I would enjoy being entrusted with these high levels of personal responsibility at a firm such as Taylor Wessing, which has a reputation for client excellence.

Feedback: The candidate does well to address the question from the outset. You should note how the candidate gets straight to the point in identifying a relevant skill. They waste no time in identifying their ability to form strong client relationships, before later substantiating their point with some detailed explanations and analysis. By addressing the question directly from the outside, the candidate convinces the recruiter that they have fully understood the question. In turn, this makes the candidate’s writing easier to be persuaded by.

However, this paragraph is generally quite weak. First, the candidate provides insufficient detail/analysis into the specific steps they took to build client relationships. The candidate asserts that they “invested time into building trust” with clients, but never explains precisely what methods they used to build a rapport with clients. We are told that the candidate worked on matters with strong individual ramifications, but the candidate never explains how they approached these situations and built up confidence in the client throughout. In turn, this means that the recruiter is given little insight into the candidate’s skills. In your own writing, you must go beyond simply asserting that you have a skill or attribute. You must explain precisely how that skill developed, by analysing the specific actions you took in response to that situation.

The latter half of this paragraph is also quite generic. The candidate asserts that Taylor Wessing’s lawyers need this skill because they have a “reputation for client excellence”. This is a plain truth, but it is completely generic – it contributes little to the candidate’s answer. Nearly every successful firm in the City will have a “reputation for client excellence” of some kind. This is not a unique feature of Taylor Wessing. Instead, the candidate would have needed to explain precisely how their client relationship skills would help them succeed at Taylor Wessing specifically. Though we are mindful of the tight word count, you still need to write tailored and considered points throughout.

During a placement at [redacted law firms], I learnt the importance of understanding how the law facilitates commerce. Having assisted with a disclosure task in relation to a gas price dispute, I was instructed to present a summary of the client’s position. In order to fully evaluate the situation, I needed a complete understanding of how geo-political events had impacted the market sector. Cultivating a comprehensive understanding of the commercial context behind the legal advice is essential to attracting and retaining the best clients at Taylor Wessing.

Feedback: This is a slight improvement on the previous paragraphs. The candidate hones in on a specific matter they worked on, before providing a summary of (1) what they had to do and (2) that they approached this by combining their commercial knowledge with their legal skills. This gives the recruiter confidence that the candidate can work with (and ultimately add value to) commercial clients in their capacity as a commercial lawyer.

This paragraph nonetheless suffers from similar weaknesses to the previous. Namely, the candidate does not describe their actions with enough specificity. They assert that they “understood” (and therefore applied) various “geo-political events”, but the candidate never explains these events and their relevancy to the dispute. This leaves the recruiter with insufficient insight into the candidate’s commercial and legal interest, as it is unclear precisely how the candidate produce a positive outcome with their supposed geo-political knowledge.

The candidate’s writing in the latter half is also quite redundant. The candidate simply states that Taylor Wessing’s lawyers need to understand their client’s commercial circumstances, but this is true of every law firm in the country. This statement achieves nothing for the answer, save for stating an obvious and basic fact about the roles of lawyers. Had the candidate cut this point out, they would have saved themselves valuable words which they could have allocated elsewhere.

Working with innovative and fast paced clients means our lawyers must display more than just legal expertise. What other key attributes would you bring to the firm and why are these important? (250 words max) *

I enjoy identifying opportunities and making things happen. Whilst working at [redacted café] in London, I implemented a food waste saving practice. A large amount of food was wasted daily because the products had a short shelf-life. During my degree, I examined the detrimental socio-economic impact of food waste. As a result, I had a strong desire to improve the business’s approach. After talking to my manager, I registered the business with ‘Too-Good-to-Go’. This company uses an app to sell surplus food at a discounted price. This had a two-fold benefit. First, some of the costs of food production were recovered. Second, the focus on sustainability established a competitive advantage. An entrepreneurial spirit is important because clients are looking for advisors who can recognise commercial opportunities.

Feedback: This question is similar to the previous ones, in that you need to pick out 2-3 relevant personal attributes and explain how you developed these. You should ideally structure each paragraph with CAR (context-action-result) so that the recruiter receives a full picture of your skills/attributes.

In that regard, the candidate approaches this first paragraph well. First, you should note how the candidate addresses the question directly from the outset. They immediately identify an attribute with a quick and punchy sentence, before providing a concise summary of an example in support of this. We are immediately offered insight into (1) the candidate’s skills, (2) a situation faced by the candidate where they demonstrated that skill and (3) the specific challenge in that situation which caused them to develop that skill. The candidate then concludes the idea with a concise insight into why they believe this skill is important. This results in a coherent, well-structured paragraph that is easy for the recruiter to follow (and so be persuaded by). The candidate also does well in picking out a specific step they took in achieving the objective (namely by picking out an app for the company to use). This provides objective evidence for the candidate’s identified objective, namely that they can take the initiative and pick out valuable business opportunities.

That said, the candidate should have been more precise in explaining what they mean by an “entrepreneurial spirit” and why they believe this is important. The candidate makes a generic assertion that clients want advisors who can recognise commercial opportunities, but it is not clear how this specifically addresses the second part of the question. Clients generally do not ask commercial lawyers to pick out commercial opportunities for them. Instead, commercial lawyers help structure deals and protect clients against legal risks. The question specifically asks about the attributes you would bring to Taylor Wessing. As such, you need to focus your analysis on how your attributes would make you a good commercial lawyer (and specifically at Taylor Wessing).

I also have excellent communication skills. At school, I attained a public speaking qualification from the [redacted prestigious London drama school] following a training programme which culminated with a presentation to a panel in London. Whilst studying at university, I volunteered to deliver presentations whenever opportunities arose. During my Philosophy and Social Theory unit, I delivered a ‘PechaKucha’ presentation – a high-pace storytelling format, necessitating creative styles of thought. I received excellent feedback and was awarded a first-class mark. As a member of the Debating Society, I also participated in structured debates on a variety of legal and political issues. Communication skills are particularly important for lawyers who must be able to present complex ideas, explaining them in sufficient depth whilst maintaining clarity.

Feedback: This paragraph improves on the previous paragraph in two regards. First, the candidate does well to pick out two objective and quantified achievements flowing from their identified attribute (namely that they have good communication skills). They specifically describe both the excellent feedback they received and the first-class award following from the presentation. In turn, this adds great persuasive value to the candidate’s writing. It provides strong, objective evidence that the candidate possesses these skills to a very high level.

The concluding sentence also addresses the question far more precisely. The candidate goes beyond simply asserting that clients want advisors who can communicate clearly. Instead, the candidate explains why lawyers specifically need to communicate clearly and present complex ideas in an accessible manner (without compromising on quality/depth). In turn, the candidate demonstrates a much better grasp of the question.

As with the rest of the application, the candidate should have unpacked their steps/actions during the presentation in far greater detail. The candidate asserts that their presentation involved unique challenges, such as a fast-paced storytelling format. The candidate never truly unpacks how they approached this challenge, nor do they explain what methods of public speaking they used to overcome this challenge and achieve a good result. In your own writing, you must go beyond simply asserting that you have some skill/quality. You must demonstrate that you have it, namely by analysing all the actions/steps you took in response to that situation.

What makes you particularly suited to a career at Trowers & Hamlins compared to other applicants?

My ability to communicate with any audience and my interests in international work makes me well-suited for a career at Trowers & Hamlins. The firm’s longstanding presence in the Middle East demonstrates its ability to connect with a diverse network. As a Camp Counsellor for YMCA, I led recreational activities for children aged 5-12 years old. As a caller for the University of [redacted] Alumni Relations, I negotiated long-term monetary contributions with alumni and parents. I worked closely with clients that had Alzheimers or Dementia as a Recreational Assistant for North York Seniors Centre. These experiences of interacting in a wide-range of environments has prepared me for the opportunity to adapt to the variety of commercial settings the firm engages in. 

Having five international offices and being a member of Interlaw demonstrates the firm's commitment to cross-border work. As a legal writer and researcher at Mann Symons LLP, I discovered I enjoy engaging in work that has a multi-jurisdictional dimension. For example, I analysed a presentation on cross border issues in IT and narrowed down issues in localisation, intellectual property, taxes, and jurisdictional boundaries. Conducting legal research and analysis to determine important factors that multi-national companies should consider before finalising IT contracts was intellectually challenging yet exciting work. A career at Trowers & Hamlins would afford me opportunities to collaborate with its international network and allow me to pursue my interest in international legal work. I believe my experiences would be instructive within a career at Trowers & Hamlins.

[Feedback: This answer is effective because it addresses the question in a straightforward manner and it has an easy-to-follow structure. Moreover, it loosely mirrors the language used within the firm’s recruitment materials in terms of its so-called “eligibility and selection criteria”, which include excellent communication skills and the ability to adapt them to a given audience, and it references the firm’s valued Interlaw membership; in so doing, it highlights the candidate’s research into the firm, as well as their commitment to making a tailored application to the firm.

In order to demonstrate their particular suitability for a career at Trowers & Hamlins, the candidate invokes their participation in a variety of relevant extra-curricular activities, which does not only lead credibility to their answer but it also suggests that they are a well-rounded person. Notably, the candidate contextualises said activities, drawing a link between the skills they derived from them and the prospect of pursuing a career at Trowers & Hamlins. If you wish to achieve a similar effect, we would recommend following the “PEEL” structure (“point”, “evidence”, “explanation”, “link”). To ensure that their answer is as relevant as possible relative to the question, the candidate could have emphasised the uniqueness of their profile compared to other candidates; this is, however, a relatively minor point because it is inferable.]

Please outline why you have chosen a career in commercial law. Include what attributes you believe make a successful commercial lawyer and how you will, or have, gained these behaviours (include work experience, employment and any other activities / interests you feel are relevant).

I am committed to a career in commercial law as I want to work closely with clients to help them reach their business objectives. I am fascinated by the way in which businesses are driven and how different factors influence business strategy. It excites me that working in commercial law requires a proactive approach such as anticipating a client's potential problems before they arise. I find it thrilling that there is a constant drive to gain a competitive advantage in the volatile business environment. Therefore, in my experience as a [part-time worker at a supermarket], I have always taken an active interest in following the business’ objectives and strategy. A recent example is how our business has radically changed our strategy to anticipate the growing popularity of discount supermarkets such as Lidl and Aldi, and how we plan to adapt to a changing market where customers are buying less but shopping more often.

[Feedback: This prompt has many parts and should be treated like multiple sub-questions. We recommend structuring your answer to answer the following questions:

1. Why do you want to pursue a career in commercial law?

2. What makes for a good commercial lawyer?

3. How have you developed these (as mentioned in the above point) competencies?

For each of these sub-questions, we would recommend that you adopt a point, evidence, explanation, link (‘PEEL’) structure for your paragraphs. This will ensure that you directly answer the question and include sufficient supporting evidence and explanation.

In this first paragraph, the candidate addresses their motivation for a career in commercial law. This paragraph’s strength lies in its relation back to the candidate via an inclusion of a personal example. You should observe how the candidate references their previous work experience to evidence their claims about enjoying anticipating problems and remaining competitive. Crucially, the candidate attempts to involve some specific detail in their evidence, for instance by mentioning ‘Lidl and Aldi’.

Furthermore, the candidate has done well in highlighting several traits that are demanded of a commercial lawyer, namely, working closely with clients and anticipating a client’s problems. You should remember that a ‘why law?’ style of question is assessing not just your motivation for the career, but also your understanding of what the career entails.

To improve this answer, the candidate needed to be more specific in their examples and involve stronger argumentation. You should be wary of using words like ‘fascinated’ and ‘thrilling’ in your answers. If you have to tell the recruiter that something is fascinating or thrilling, it is unlikely that you have presented a strong enough argument or evidence to make this claim. You must show the recruiter that you find something interesting, rather than merely telling them. For instance, instead of telling the recruiter that they are ‘fascinated by the way in which businesses are driven and how different factors influence business strategy’, the candidate could have shown this by explaining what books they read or courses or work they undertook to learn more about the strategies of businesses.

Furthermore, the candidate’s argument could be strengthened as they do not go into sufficient detail concerning their points about the career. The candidate writes that ‘[i]t excites [them] that working in commercial law requires a proactive approach such as anticipating a client's potential problems before they arise. [They] find it thrilling that there is a constant drive to gain a competitive advantage in the volatile business environment.’ However, the recruiter is left asking ‘so what?’. You must remember that your paragraphs need to link back to the question at hand. The candidate needed to have gone into additional detail about what the career entailed and explained how their enjoyment of some of the career’s facets makes them want to pursue a career in commercial law. This is why we recommend sticking to a PEEL structure. If you deviate from this structure, you risk your argument being underdeveloped or improperly linking your points, examples, and argument together.]

In addition to this, I am also currently an active member of the Junior Lawyers Division, the Law society at my university and the North of England Medico-Legal society. I have attended several lectures and networking events and plan on attending more networking events that these organisations hold in the future. I hope that involvement with these organisations will support my transition from my degree into a training contract, where I can continue to network.

[Feedback: This paragraph is more of an aside; the candidate discusses their membership of various societies and their attendance at various events. Although these activities and positions of responsibility are worth mentioning, the candidate should have avoided introducing them in this way. First, the candidate does not introduce a strong argument in relation to the mentioned evidence. The candidate simply claims that they ‘hope [their] involvement with these organisations will support my transition from my degree into a training contract’. This does not communicate anything substantive, and, as a result, does not put the candidate’s positions of responsibility to their best use.

Second, the candidate does not include enough detail concerning what being a member of such societies entails, nor specific examples of what they have in said societies. Whilst it may be appropriate to discuss activities in abstraction (if there are many different kinds), you should give at least one or two specific examples. If you do not, your answer will be too vague and the recruiter may not find your response persuasive.

Hence, our overall recommendation is to avoid shorter non-PEEL structured paragraphs, such as this one. You must focus on interweaving your positions of responsibility and activities with your arguments; adopting the PEEL structure will assist you with this.]

Teamwork is a fundamental skill for a commercial solicitor, as a solicitor will often be working with a team. In order to put the client's objectives first, a commercial solicitor must be able to collaborate effectively and efficiently to achieve the best possible outcome for the client. It is important that a commercial solicitor can cooperate and compromise to prioritise the needs of a client. I can demonstrate strong teamwork skills, for example during the Street Law project I worked closely with other students to work to a strict deadline. We collated our different strengths and ensured regular communication to maximise our efficiency as a team. Although we were all at different stages of our degree and had many competing priorities, we managed to find a system of work that fit in with each schedule. I would be excited to make a positive contribution to Bond Dickinson and eventually become a valued team member, working to the high standard that Bond Dickinson maintains.

[Feedback: In this section, the candidate turns their attention to the competency of teamwork. In your response to this prompt, you are asked to demonstrate your knowledge of the competencies expected of a commercial solicitor. Hence, the candidate has done well in including a discussion of ‘teamwork’ (also known as ‘collaboration’).

The candidate’s answer should be commended for its structure. You should observe how the candidate spends the part of the paragraph introducing and explaining the competency. The candidate then goes into an example that evidences how they have said competency. Finally, the candidate attempts to conclude their answer with a link back to the wider prompt concerning being a successful lawyer.

You must follow a similar, if not identical, structure in your answers to ensure you fully answer the question. However, you could employ the alternative structure of situation, task, action response/result (‘STAR’) or context, action, response/result (‘CAR’). This structure is typically used to discuss competencies; however, you will need to modify it to include some discussion of why you think the competency is important for you to be a successful lawyer (we would recommend leading with a few short sentences on this, before going into the STAR/CAR response).

To strengthen this answer, the candidate could have provided a better explanation of what teamwork looks like in practice and why it is important. Although the candidate touches on the right ideas, some of their answer is vague and repetitive. For instance, the candidate writes that ‘teamwork’ is needed because a solicitor often works in a ‘team’. This is almost tautological and could be cut or worded better. The candidate would have been far better off even if they had simply replaced ‘teamwork’ with context. To avoid these kinds of repetitions, you should read your answer out loud when you are proofreading your response.

Furthermore, the candidate needed to employ greater specificity. For example, the candidate writes that ‘a commercial solicitor must be able to collaborate effectively and efficiently to achieve the best possible outcome for the client’. Whilst this may be true, the candidate fails to explain how the skill of collaboration allows for this result. You must try to avoid broad sweeping statements. Instead, you need to guide the recruiter through your argument, providing supplementary evidence and explanation. If you do not do so, you risk writing sentences that, whilst they seem good, do not communicate anything substantive. For instance, the candidate writes that ‘[i]t is important that a commercial solicitor can cooperate and compromise to prioritise the needs of a client’. Again, this may be true; however, it is not linked to the candidate’s argument and seems out of place in the paragraph. You should be looking to craft an argument that flows throughout the answer, rather than punctuating your response with a variety of simple claims.

Additionally, with respect to needing greater specificity, the candidate needed to include some additional detail in the example they gave. The candidate writes that they were working with a team on a project that had a strict deadline. However, they do not go into any detail as to how they devised a system of work, or what the result of their actions was. You should always employ specific facts and statistics in your answers. For instance, you must state how many members were in the team, how long the timeframe was, and so on. If you omit this kind of detail, you risk your answers coming off as too vague and the recruiter being unpersuaded.]

Interpersonal skills are imperative for commercial solicitors. They need to demonstrate effective communication with clients to create positive relationships and build trust. Clients will need to be confident that the firm is working to the clients objectives, which solicitors must communicate at all times. This skill also combines with working effectively as a team; a commercial solicitor will need to use their interpersonal skills in communicating with colleagues to provide the best quality work. My interpersonal and communication skills have been developed in my work at [a supermarket] where I always aim to provide a special service that enhances the customer shopping experience. This includes building relationships with customers by providing a warm welcome and offering tailored product advice and recommendations. I will always try to resolve any issues or complaints from a customer with the utmost sympathy and respect to ensure that strong relationships with our customers are maintained.

[Feedback: In this paragraph, the candidate addresses the competency of interpersonal communication. Once again, the candidate, broadly speaking, adopts a good structure. Notably, in this paragraph, the candidate does well to link the competency of communication to their previous mention of teamwork. Most competencies are linked to each other in some fashion. For instance, motivation and perseverance typically involve each other. Hence, when you draft your answers, you should think about the relationship between the competencies you have selected and whether you can structure your paragraphs such that they flow from one to another.

The candidate has also done well not just to include a discussion of the competency, but also to involve a personal example to evidence that they have the competency. You must remember that for each competency you mention, you will need to demonstrate that you have it. The recruiter does not want to read about competencies in abstraction; the prompt is testing you on whether you know what competencies are important, why they are important, and whether you have them.

This answer could be improved by including some more detail concerning the candidate’s example. The candidate writes that they ‘always aim to provide a special service that enhances the customer shopping experience’. They go on to explain that this includes ‘includes building relationships with customers by providing a warm welcome and offering tailored product advice and recommendations’. Whilst this is good, the candidate needed to have been more specific and given one or two examples of what this looked like in practice.

For example, the candidate should have explained how they tailor product advice and recommendations and given an example of a time when they did so. Similarly, the candidate writes that they ‘always try to resolve any issues or complaints from a customer with the utmost sympathy and respect to ensure that strong relationships with our customers are maintained’. Again, the candidate needed to have explained how they have achieved this in the past (and given an elucidatory example). When you draft your answers, you should put yourself in the place of the recruiter and remember that the recruiter does not know you personally. Hence, examples and detail are imperative to ensure that the recruiter understands what you did, why you did it, and the magnitude of your actions. If the recruiter feels that there is some detail lacking in your response, you should not assume that they will give you the benefit of the doubt.

Finally, the candidate needed to proofread their answer before submission to avoid making a typographical error. In the third sentence, the candidate misses an apostrophe when writing ‘[c]lients will need to be confident that the firm is working to the clients objectives’. Whilst this may seem like a minor error, recruiters are now being less forgiving. With more candidates applying to law firms than ever, even the most minor of mistakes can lead to your application being rejected. Therefore, before you submit your work, you should use a spellchecker (such as Microsoft Word or Grammarly) to spot typographical errors. You can also give your application to a family member or trusted friend to read over and spot any errors that you may have missed.]

Commercial awareness is an essential skill for a commercial solicitor as they need a genuine understanding and interest in how businesses function. This will include understanding how national and international events may affect their clients business, and anticipating how other businesses’ actions and motives could also have an effect. Therefore, if a solicitor has commercial awareness they can be proactive in their work and advice by anticipating the possible influences on a clients business. I am constantly maintaining my commercial awareness skills by keeping up to date with the general, business and legal news, and by taking an interest in [my supermarket] as a business and how it plans to operate and adapt its strategy in the near future.

[Feedback: This section focuses on the skill of commercial awareness. The candidate is correct to include this in their answer. Although it is not a typical competency, commercial awareness or acumen is certainly a trait that is needed to be a successful commercial solicitor.

The candidate does well in understanding the importance of commercial awareness. A commercial solicitor is not just a legal advisor. Now, commercial solicitors are expected to be able to understand a business and provide advice on a variety of areas, not just the law. You should remember that a commercial solicitor must be solution-orientated. Therefore, you will be expected not just to highlight the problems with a transaction or dispute to a client, but also to come up with the solution (which will inevitably be subject to commercial realities).

The candidate also tries to describe how they are maintaining their commercial awareness and putting it into practice. It is this latter action that is notable. The best way for you to develop a skill is to use it. This is something that the recruiter will be looking for when you draft your answers. Hence, you should think about how you have used or could use your commercial awareness in an activity or project.

In relation to the above paragraph, the candidate needed to have gone into more detail concerning how they are developing their commercial awareness. Unfortunately, as the pool of applicants swells, more and more candidates will be ‘constantly maintaining [their] commercial awareness skills by keeping up to date with the general, business and legal news’. Hence, by stating this, the candidate does not stand out from the crowd. When you write your answers, be specific; instead of writing that you keep up to date with the ‘general, business and legal news’, you should state how you do so. For example, you could mention that you listen to the Financial Times podcast every morning, or watch ‘The Open’ on Bloomberg TV every afternoon. The more specific you are, the better the recruiter will understand the importance of your actions.

However, to take the answer even further, you must go into detail as to how you have developed your commercial awareness and fostered particular interests. For example, you may have learnt about Apple’s credit card; to learn more about payment systems and their evolution, you may have then read ‘The Pay Off’ by Leibbrant and De Terán. This may have then prompted you to start your own project where you create a table that compares payment systems’ advantages and disadvantages. Naturally, this can go on in perpetuity; however, you should note how these examples show how you are expected to write about your interests and sufficiently evidence your commercial awareness. You need to remember that commercial awareness is not just about maintaining such awareness by staying abreast of the news; it is about deepening your knowledge about particular commercial concepts too.

Finally, the candidate makes several typographical errors in their answer, specifically, omitting apostrophes when using the possessive case. As previously mentioned, these mistakes can be very costly and cause your application to be rejected. Therefore, it is essential you proofread your work before submission.]

Commercial solicitors will be required to help draft letters and legal documents. Therefore, attention to detail is a fundamental skill for solicitors. Clients will expect flawless documents as minor grammar or spelling mistakes could damage a clients impression of a firm. I have developed attention to detail during my degree, ensuring that my work is kept to a high standard.

[Feedback: This paragraph details some of the candidate’s knowledge of what being a commercial solicitor entails, specifically drafting correspondence and documents. The candidate also relates this to the competency of attention to detail. In principle, the candidate has done well to include this information as it demonstrates to the recruiter that the candidate is aware of some of the work that is expected of a trainee.

The candidate could have improved their paragraph by expanding their discussion of how they have developed their skill of attention to detail and giving some specific, supporting examples. You should avoid writing short paragraphs that attempt to cram in information in your answers. If there is a word limit, the recruiter will be aware of it and, consequently, not expect you to cover every single topic in your response. Depth is always more preferable than breadth, as, without sufficient detail or development, the recruiter will be unable to appreciate whether you actually have said skill or you are just tangentially aware that the skill is needed in the role.

Furthermore, the candidate, again, needed to have proofread their work to avoid making a typographical error. The candidate has missed an apostrophe when writing ‘damage a clients impression of a firm’. Unfortunately, this error is especially egregious as it is in a paragraph where the candidate is discussing their attention to detail and keeping their ‘work […] to a high standard’. Once again, we would recommend proofreading your work before submission, using a spellchecker, and giving your application to a family member or trusted friend to proofread before you submit it.]

Commercial solicitors must always act with honesty and integrity to uphold the high moral code to which all solicitors must abide by. Clients need to be confident that their legal adviser abides by the law and acts in their clients best interests whilst maintaining high ethical standards. I uphold the principles of honesty and integrity at all times. I maintain this in all aspects of my life, I aim to be as open and honest with everyone as possible.

[Feedback: In this section, the candidate highlights that a commercial solicitor must be honest and have integrity and that they have these traits. Whilst the candidate is correct in making this statement, the answer is too short and underdeveloped. The candidate needed to have gone into greater depth about how they have developed these traits and given an example where their honesty or integrity was especially important. We would recommend sticking to a clear structure (such as PEEL, STAR, or CAR) to ensure you write fully developed paragraphs. As it stands, the recruiter will acknowledge that the candidate knows that honesty and integrity are important in the role; however, they may feel unconvinced that the candidate has said skills, as there is no specific, supporting evidence to show them that this is the case.

Additionally, the candidate has made a typographical error in omitting an apostrophe when writing ‘acts in their clients best interests’. Each mistake will drastically increase the chance of your application being rejected, notwithstanding its potentially strong content. You must remember that no allowance is made for international students. All law firms will expect you to have strong written communication skills which will be noted by the recruiter when they read your application.]

Given my increasing development of the requisite skills, my strong work ethic and commitment to commercial law, I believe that I would be a good fit with Bond Dickinson as a trainee solicitor.

[Feedback: Although this is a nice concluding sentence, you should note that it is not required for this kind of answer. We would typically recommend avoiding these kinds of conclusions, simply because it eats into the available word count. The 33 words used for this sentence could be redistributed throughout the answer and used to include additional details and pieces of supporting evidence. We suggest that this use is more likely to improve your answer than the inclusion of a concluding sentence.]

Do you have any other qualities or experiences that you think we should take into account when considering your application, including any extenuating or mitigating circumstances? (250 words max)

Last September, I successfully climbed Mount. Kilimanjaro. In order to overcome the various challenges during the trek, such as long hours of trekking and turbulent weather, mental endurance was crucial.  Additionally, as some team members began to struggle with severe altitude sickness, I initiated the distribution of the weight from their bags throughout the team. This ensured their continuation on the trek by easing their climb as well as the achievement of our common goal of completing the trek together.

At university, I was appointed as the Press Team Lead for [redacted] Model United Nations Society. I led a group of 15 members in content creation to promote the society and its annual conference, and strategically allocated roles according to members' individual skillset. However, upon realising some members struggled to integrate and participate during group meetings, I frequently organised social events centred around communication and relationship building. This maximised the overall efficiency of the team, resulting in a sold-out conference.

Lastly, parallel to Addleshaw Goddard’s commitment to supporting the local community, I am also passionate about volunteering. I previously volunteered at a youth-centre that supports young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and helped vulnerable migrant women and children get access to legal justice in Hong Kong. I developed the ability to confidently deal with sensitive issues whilst providing excellent service. Through Addleshaw Goddard's Unlocking Young Potential strategy, I am confident I will have opportunities to work on matters I deeply care about, such as ensuring equality of opportunities to young people.

[Feedback:  There’s two ways to answer this question - you can focus on mitigating circumstances or incorporate any extra examples of qualities or achievements that you have not weaved into your application so far. 

If you have mitigating circumstances which have impacted your grades, you should write about them here.  You can see our blog post here on how to talk about mitigating circumstances in your application.

If you are focusing on your achievements in this answer, lead with the most impressive example first.  In this answer, we think the candidate should reorder by leading with paragraph two, then paragraph three and finally paragraph one.  Let’s face it, climbing Kilimanjaro isn’t particularly impressive and doesn’t make you more likely to succeed as a lawyer.  It’s better than nothing, but we would recommend trying to find a better example.

Each paragraph would benefit from tighter application of the Point, Evidence, Explanation structure which we referred to earlier.  You should start by bullet pointing your answers to a question like this, breaking it out into separate sub-paragraphs for each point.  Once you have an effective structure in place, you can easily turn it into full sentences which will read much better overall.]

Describe what you think it takes to be a successful commercial lawyer and what are some of the challenges you might face as a trainee solicitor. (300 words)

The ability to communicate is an essential skill for any commercial lawyer. Whether it is with clients or colleagues, lawyers are frequently exchanging complex information and ideas. For a trainee, even receiving instruction from a supervisor requires clear communication; this lowers the risk of misunderstanding the task at hand and allows trainees to set realistic expectations. As a volunteer at Citizens Advice [redacted region of London], I would regularly hold difficult conversations with clients. One example is where I assisted a client who had difficulties speaking English. Despite language barriers, by using a calm and professional tone, I was able to guide the client through a Discretionary Housing Payment application over the phone. This resulted in a grant of over £3,000. I believe that I can apply my communication skills at Ashurst to communicate clearly with clients and colleagues.

Feedback: This paragraph’s strength lies in its clarity and structure. The candidate begins by stating an essential skill relevant to commercial lawyers. Then, they develop that point by explaining precisely why lawyers need communication skills (as well as trainees). Then, the candidate identifies a specific and personalised example before explaining precisely how they developed the relevant communication skills from their experience at Citizens Advice. Finally, the candidate draws a neat link between their own skills and the requirements for a successful career at Ashurst.

Nonetheless, this paragraph could have been strengthened in two regards:

1. The candidate should have drilled down even further on the communication skills they used at Citizens’ Advice. They assert that they used a “calm and professional tone”, but they do not go much further in explaining how they overcame language barriers and delivered a strong outcome. In your own writing, you should drill down on the steps you took in specific and quantified detail. This will persuade the recruiter that you have the skills needed to succeed at Ashurst.

2. The candidate should have tweaked their initial point so that it is more relevant to commercial lawyers. While it’s true that commercial lawyers need to communicate complex information in a simple and clear manner, this is true of any sector in the legal profession. As such, the candidate should have gone slightly further in explaining why commercial lawyers need to have these skills.

Adaptability is another crucial skill for a trainee to possess. Lawyers face a constantly changing field of work. Sudden deadlines can arrive seemingly from nowhere, and there are also wider technological and legislative developments. As such, it is crucial for lawyers to maintain flexibility in their work. Whilst working through my caseload as a debt recovery paralegal, my client requested that court proceedings be issued on over 50 cases with a strict deadline. As this task was specifically requested by the client, I reprioritised my work to focus on these cases. I also re-evaluated my previous duties, to ensure that any existing deadlines or court dates would not be missed. I was able to quickly adapt to the new 'CPC' online issuing system adopted by the firm to meet our client's request within 48 hours. I believe that I can apply my flexibility to be a successful trainee at Ashurst, adapting to shifting priorities that arise from newly issued urgent tasks.

Feedback: As with the previous paragraph, the candidate does well to identify a specific and relevant point to the legal profession. They state a general skill that lawyers need, before honing on why lawyers need said skills. This provides a good logical platform on which the candidate can develop their arguments.

Then, the candidate uses the STAR structure to a high level. We particularly like the level of detail the candidate gets into. They begin by honing in on a challenging situation they faced, which is quantified by numerical detail and facts. Then, the candidate improves on the previous paragraph by identifying relevant steps they took to develop the skill in question. Unlike the previous paragraph, the candidate maintains focus on adaptability and identifies specific steps they took to adapt to the situation at hand. Finally, the candidate identifies a quantified and specific positive outcome that occurred because they applied good adaptability. This results in a coherent, well-structured paragraph that clearly evidences the candidate’s suitability to Ashurst.

Like with the previous paragraph, the candidate could have been more precise in explaining why commercial lawyers need to be adaptable. Lawyers in every practice area will need to keep track of “technological and legislative developments”, as well as facing “sudden deadlines”. As such, the candidate should have been more precise in explaining why commercial lawyers need this skill. 

As a trainee, you’ll rotate teams and work with people at different levels, with different working styles and personalities. Which of your strengths will you draw upon to help you handle these changes? (300 words)

Throughout my work history I worked with people of different ages, seniority, personalities and working methods. From working in a pub to a large advertising agency, I worked with a large variety of people. Looking back at my experiences, I believe that some of my strengths which aided me at the time were my friendly approach, hard-working nature and adaptability. My friendly nature allows me to bond with colleagues quicker and allow for both of us to feel more comfortable from the start. My hard-working nature on the other hand shows my colleagues that I am a dedicated member of the team and I aim to do well. Lastly, I pride myself in my adaptability as every time I joined an existing team, I managed to learn their well-shaped working methods quickly in order to assure the continuity of work. I believe that those traits will also assist me as a trainee at Shoosmiths. Training in a firm such as Shoosmiths would require me to change seats every 6 months and each of those seats will be in different areas of law. Each of them is dictated by different regulatory and commercial requirements, such as the fast-paced business nature of the commercial sector or the rigorous and procedure-focused dispute resolution and litigation sector. Whilst I am aware that each of the seats have their own unique challenges, I believe that the strengths will allow me to overcome the initial obstacles such as familiarising myself with new teams, adapting to their workflows and proving them that I am eager to learn and perform well in any assigned tasks. Overcoming those obstacles would be easier as a trainee at Shoosmiths through the firm’s culture which focuses on the approachability and openness towards one another in order to achieve common goals.

Feedback: Yet again, this is a straightforward competency question with deceptively complex wording. It can essentially be distilled into “Tell us about a time where you had to work with someone who had a different personality/style of work to you.”. As such, you should answer this question with a detailed STAR example that draws out your key strengths. This will convince the recruiter that you have the emotional intelligence needed to handle clashing personalities in Shoosmiths’ workplace.

The candidate does reasonably well in identifying a couple of basic examples before explaining how these skills would be relevant in a commercial law environment.

That said, we believe that this is a weak answer overall. It requires some major points for improvement:

1. The candidate spends their answer “telling” rather than “showing” their competencies. They assert that they are “friendly” and “hard-working” without demonstrating any meaningful insight into why these qualities came about nor how their experiences demonstrate this. This means that the candidate does not convince the reader (1) that they have these qualities in the first place nor (2) that said qualities make them suitable at handling different working styles and personalities.
2. The candidate does not offer any meaningful detail into their experiences, instead giving only passing mention of the fact that they worked in a pub and an advertising agency. It is not self-explanatory that the candidate has the aforementioned qualities just because they worked in these places. As such, these experiences do not currently help the candidate answer the question raised. Instead, we would have expected the candidate to offer a specific and detailed STAR example from one of these experiences. Then, we would expect the candidate to make good use of the example so that the recruiter is convinced of their ability to work with different people.
3. The candidate’s writing about Shoosmiths is generally quite descriptive and does not truly answer the question asked. The question does not ask you to describe the circumstances in which solicitors encounter different styles/personalities. Instead, it asks you to explain what your strengths are and how your examples/experiences demonstrate your ability to manage different people. As such, much of the candidate’s writing does not truly address the question being asked.

There are clear points in this application which the candidate can improve.  It is likely that the candidate’s grades and work experience helped carry through their application. You should note both the points of merit and the points of constructive criticism so that you can improve your own written answers.