If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why? (60 words)

If I could have one superpower, it would be the ability to teleport. This ability would allow me to travel anywhere instantly and would open up endless possibilities to explore various cultures and customs. The power of teleportation would be a unique and thrilling superpower that would allow me to experience more of the world from an entirely different perspective.

Feedback: In keeping with Withers’ bizarre application form, this is an unusual question to ask at the application stage. You should take it at face value. You should simply pick out (1) a superpower that interests you and (2) explain why you want that superpower. We suspect that Withers ask this question as an icebreaker for any subsequent interviews, but it still has some (if not limited) utility on your application form. You can use this question as a chance to show that you can identify a point concisely before arguing convincing reasons for your interest in it.

The candidate does that reasonably well here. They state a superpower from the outset, before providing some convincing reasons for their interest in that power. This results in a decently-argued paragraph that is concise and easy to follow overall.

To improve, the candidate could have briefly introduced personalised evidence/examples for their interest in that superpower. The candidate asserts that they are interested in experiencing different cultures/customs, but they never truly explain why this is important to them personally. Had the candidate developed these points a little further, then their answer would have much greater persuasive value overall.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why? (60 words max)

The ability to assimilate the knowledge and skills of the people with whom I interact. My motivation stems from my desire to constantly learn and develop to reach my full potential, which this superpower would facilitate. Drawing from the expertise of others and prioritising a growth mindset would enable me to manage the continual learning experience a lawyer faces

Feedback: The candidate structures this paragraph well. They state a superpower from the outset, before outlining two key reasons why they would want said superpower. This results in a well-structured and well-argued paragraph that is generally concise and easy to follow.

We don’t believe you need to link your superpower back in with law here. This comes across as somewhat robotic and pompous. Instead, you should take the question at simple face value. You should simply identify a superpower and explain why you want to have it. Law firms use these kinds of questions to test whether you are a well-rounded person with an interesting personality, so you should make sure that your answer showcases these points in full.

If we were to invite you to interview what is the issue that you would most like to talk about? And why? This can be a non-legal issue that you would happily discuss with your friends and should be something you genuinely feel passionate about. (300 words max) *

The new wave of feminism to hit Pakistan over the past two years, in the form of the Aurat (women in Urdu) March, interests me. The idea behind the March began in 2018 when women decided to use social media to bring their networks together to have a gathering in Karachi on International Woman’s Day. The movement comes on the back of the My Stealthy Freedom movement in Iran which involved a group of Iranian women posting pictures online without headscarves to protest the mandatory head covering rule in the country.

Globalisation, particularly of the media, means that people can see the developments occurring in other countries. As such, a move towards a form of activism that is concerned with the personal self has emerged in some traditionally conservative countries. The Aurat March is the realisation of this in Pakistan. 2020s theme being “Mera jism meri marzi” (“my body, my choice”) which is fundamentally a message on autonomy over one's own body.

As a Pakistani woman, this movement appeals to me for its potential to progress the political and social framework of Pakistan. Having written about this new age feminism in my Gender and Development module, I have a deep personal interest in seeing how it may develop.

I am also intrigued by the potential domino effects that could result from the successful culmination of the movement, specifically on the economy and in improving Pakistan’s Gender Parity Index. The International Monetary Fund has highlighted that bridging the country’s gender gap could boost Pakistan’s GDP by 30 percent. In my view, such progress can only be made where businesses adopt networks that encourage the progression of women to leadership roles.

I would love to talk about this at interview as I feel strongly about the developments it could bring the country.

[Feedback: Given the hint in the prompt, the candidate did well to choose a non-legal issue. Moreover, they did well to choose an issue that allows them to give the reader a glimpse into their personal beliefs and values; this lends credibility to their answer, making it stand out as authentic and genuine.

Given the word limit, the candidate paints a reasonably clear picture of the socio-political context behind the Aurat March. Crucially, they draw upon their personal identity, as well as their studies of feminism to justify their interest in the march. Nonetheless, we would have liked to see a more detailed discussion of the candidate’s writings on the subject as part of their Gender and Development module. Remember that it is the depth of your analysis that makes your answers stand out.

The candidate’s contemplation of the wider implications arising from feminist movement in Pakistan highlights their background knowledge of the subject matter, as well as their lateral thinking skills. Their point about the connection between the feminist movement in Pakistan and the country’s economy is particularly interesting, not least because it is not something that one hears about very often. Given the word limit, it is understandable that they did not develop said point fully.

We would have improved some of the sentence structures to increase readability, but this is a relatively minor point. We would have also omitted the last sentence because it is superfluous. 

If you could experience first-hand one historical event, what would it be and why?

I would experience Martin Luther King Jrs’ “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington in 1963. With crowds of over 250,000 people, I imagine being a part of the bustling atmosphere would be incredibly exciting, especially among the supporters of the movement. This event inspires me for showing how important it is to make a stand for something you truly believe in. I strongly admire Martin Luther King’s efforts to criminalise discrimination and promote non-segregation and equality. In today’s society, there still remains some ignorance to diversity and inclusion. It is inspiring that Covington actively promotes, supports and nurtures young diverse talent. I enjoyed reading how the firm’s recently promoted partners were the most diverse class, including women from ethnically diverse backgrounds, whilst the firm actively develops and adopts the Mansfield Rule. A particular line in the speech that strongly resonates with me is “I have a dream...will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”. This line reinforces the idea that society works best when there is a breadth of opinions, which is akin to clients’ requirements of law firms. Aside from the cultural and social impact, this speech is significant as it drove huge economic and political change through the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act. I want to experience the speech which gave coloured people more opportunity and more power to live their lives.

[Feedback: This is quite a unique question and is not commonly found on application forms. These kinds of questions give you, the candidate, the opportunity to discuss your interests, passions, and what makes you different. Although you may find it strange that a law firm wants to know these kinds of things about you, you should remember that they want to hire all-rounded, interesting individuals. Therefore, you should make sure that you spend as much time writing your answer to this section as any other.

With respect to structuring this answer, we would recommend the following:

1.     You should start off with a short introduction to the historical event.

 If it is a famous event, one simple sentence will suffice. However, if it is a more obscure event, you should spend a few more sentences explaining what the event was and why it was of significance. For instance, the candidate’s choice is very well-known and so does not need much exposition. However, an event like Caesar’s speech to the Senate, as documented by Sallust, is not as famous and would require some explanation as to what the event entailed.

2.     Explain why you, personally, find this event meaningful.

 The event you choose will likely be important for an obvious reason. For instance, it is clear that the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech was important for the Civil Rights movement in 1960s America (and remains influential today). However, you should home in on why the event resonates with you on a personal level.

 To justify this resonance, you should consider drawing on your past experiences, personal background, academic pursuits, or extra-curricular activities. When you are selecting an event to write about, you should consider how you can justify your personal interest in it. In this way, you will be planning your answer in reverse: first, consider your background or your personal interests, and second, consider what historical event you would like to discuss, which will promote a discussion of said background or interests.

3.     Elaborate on why viewing this historical event first-hand would be desirable for you.

 History can be relived, either through film or through literature. Hence, you must give a convincing argument as to why it is important, for you, in particular, to experience the event in person. In essence, you must explain what it is about the event that could not be documented and yet is something that you really would have liked to have experienced.

Broadly speaking, the candidate has written a strong answer. The candidate first introduces the event itself before giving a description of what occurred. The candidate then describes how the event inspires them, why it is important to them and how they would feel experiencing the event first-hand.

The candidate then goes on to discuss the topic of diversity and inclusion in relation to Covington & Burling and segues into a discussion of what the firm has done to promote diversity within the firm. Subsequently, the candidate relates some of the speech to the ‘clients’ requirements of law firms’. The candidate then ends by discussing the wider impact of the speech and the candidate’s subsequent desire to experience such a momentous event first-hand.

The candidate does well in including lots of specific information. Where appropriate, the candidate includes supporting facts and statistics. You should note how the candidate cites the place and year of the speech and quotes directly from it. Furthermore, when discussing the law firm, the candidate cites specific evidence (the Mansfield Rule) to substantiate their claim regarding the firm promoting diversity and inclusion. You must remember that specific details are what lend your answer credence. Without such information, the recruiter will have no reason to believe your claims or that you conducted proper research.

Furthermore, the candidate’s answer should be commended for its reference to the law firm. It is surprising to see the candidate link their answer to Covington & Burling. Normally, we would suggest that such a link is not necessary for your answers. With only 250 words available for your answers, you should focus on discussing the event in question and your motivations for choosing it.

Nevertheless, the candidate has demonstrated that it is possible to link your chosen event to the firm in question. If done correctly, this produces a very strong answer as the candidate is able to demonstrate further their motivations for joining the firm. However, if your chosen event is not suitable to be linked to the firm (or you do not have the available word count to do so), you should avoid any discussion of the firm and focus on the discussion of your event.

To improve this answer, we would recommend that the candidate restructure their response. Although the content of the candidate’s answer is strong, there is no clear structure. First, the candidate has written their entire response in one paragraph. This is problematic as it makes the answer hard to read and means that there are no paragraph breaks to indicate when the candidate has moved on to another point or area of discussion.

Second, the candidate shifts between points erratically, meaning the answer does not flow well. For instance, the candidate begins by discussing why they would find the event inspiring and about something they are passionate about. They then move on to discussing other topics before coming back to the first point. It would have been better to split up the answer according to our recommended structure and avoid returning to points that have already been covered. You should consider your answer as something that is read linearly by the recruiter. The recruiter wants to be led through your response step-by-step and not have to re-read your answer or double-back to check what you have already written.]

Please tell us something that not many people know about you

Science, specifically physics, has always been of great interest to me. Moreover, the possibility of grappling with challenging theoretical ideas that have no definitive answer is something that I find really exciting.

Reading of physicists like Planck, Fermi, Bohr and Curie, amongst so many others, constantly inspired me to try to look at ideas from new perspectives with an analytical mind.

It is for this reason that in my final year of secondary school I decided to enter the prestigious Irish BT Young Scientist of the Year competition, which requires students to propose a self-directed science project to be selected to compete at a national final.

Over three months I worked on my proposal entitled ' The Expansion of Space with reference to the Infancy Stages of Collapsing Nebulae and Supernovae. After having been selected by both my school and the BT Committee, I began work on the forty-two-page detailed submission to present to the judges.

I would often be stuck for hours trying to overcome a theoretical obstacle in order to further the hypotheses. These challenges are what made the process so invigorating and exciting.

Additionally, I successfully sought the advice of the renowned physicist Alexei Filippenko of the Berkeley Institute, who greatly aided me in breaking down certain challenges.

I subsequently presented and defended my thesis over three days to different panels of judges and was ultimately awarded the bronze medal in the Senior Physics category.

Feedback: This answer is effective because the candidate presents their chosen example in a compendious manner, following the “CAR” structure (“context”, “action”, “result”). Following such a structure helps you ensure that you paint a sufficiently clear picture of your chosen example to the reader and that you do not leave the reader guessing or making too many assumptions. The candidate also does well to highlight the magnitude of the challenges they encountered and that of the achievement they ultimately obtained: e.g., “a forty-two-page submission”, “I would often be struck for hours”, “I […] defended my thesis over three days”, “I […] was ultimately awarded the bronze medal in the Senior Physics category”, etc. Highlighting such details helps bolster the strength of your application and increase the likelihood of it standing out.

Notwithstanding the fact that this is a successful application, there is room for improvement. To ensure that their answer is as relevant as possible relative to the prompt, the candidate could have dedicated a couple of lines to explaining why not many people know that they entered the physics competition and won a bronze medal as part of it. Furthermore, to ensure that the answer is as easy to follow as possible and cohesive, the candidate could have coupled the lines that deal with the same subject matter into paragraphs. Finally, the candidate’s chosen example per se is hit-or-miss. On the one hand, it is rather impressive and unique (not least because law students are not commonly inclined towards science). On the other hand, it is quite dated; recruiters tend to advise candidates to include personal examples that are relatively recent (between two to three years old). In general, we would recommend that you focus on personal examples dating from your time at university, rather than school.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why? (60 words) *

My superpower would be X-ray vision so that I could see through barriers, allowing me to gain information that would otherwise be hidden.

In addition to a unique perspective on the world, X-ray vision allows me to identify details and analyse situations thoroughly and efficiently before making any decisions.

Feedback: As with the other applicants, the candidate writes very concisely in this answer. They immediately state a superpower from the outset, before outlining two reasons why they want this superpower. The candidate’s writing is easy to follow overall, with the two reasons providing some relevant detail as to why the candidate wants this power. This results in a concise, well-structured paragraph that is generally written clearly (and so is easier for the recruiter to follow).

Surprisingly, this paragraph is too brief. The candidate has only used 49/60 words in this section. This means that the candidate provides insufficient detail about why this power is personally important to them. The candidate asserts a generic interest in “analysing situations thoroughly” and “identifying details” from them, but they never explain why these features have any personal relevance to the candidate. Notably, the candidate only uses 49/60 words. This wastes 11 valuable words, with which the candidate could have otherwise substantiated their points.

Please give details of one area of your course which you found particularly interesting and explain why? (50 words)

Currently, I'm enjoying discussing whether an interest overrides a registered disposition in land law. I find this area of land law particularly interesting due the numerous elements which could be slightly tweaked and how this would ultimately affect whether the 3rd party interest would override a registered disposition.

[Feedback: The word limit here is extremely challenging, which makes anything you write quite superficial.  If you can, pick something interesting.  It doesn’t have to be commercial in nature.  Split your answer into one sentence explaining what the topic is and another on why it’s interesting.  There’s no real magic to this answer and it probably won’t dictate whether or not your application is successful.]

Describe an important event in your life. Why have you chosen this particular event?

I worked as a student mentor to four A-level students as part of the University of Warwick’s ‘Widening Participation Scheme’. This was a highlight of my University experience because I assisted one student in accessing higher education despite personal barriers.

[Feedback: This is an excellent ‘situation’-paragraph. The candidate does well to succinctly state the position they were in, what their role was, and why they have chosen this specific event.

This student was from a low-income background with a single mother and she had a number of younger siblings to look after. She had ruled out higher education for this reason despite her good academic results at GCSE.

[Feedback: Again, this is a good development on the previous paragraph. The candidate does well to explain why this student in particular needed assistance which will also help them to demonstrate the magnitude of their impact later in their answer. The only point of improvement would have been for the candidate to write ‘GCSE level’ or rephrase the sentence to be ‘[…] despite her good GCSE results’.

I built a rapport with her as her student mentor; particularly given we had a similar interest in music and sport. Once we had built a relationship, the student spoke openly about her desire to go to University. We brainstormed ideas together, following which I conducted my own research on financial support for higher education in the UK and arranged a meeting with my University Financial Support team. I worked with various stakeholders to assist in applications for bursaries. The outcome was that the student was awarded the University of Warwick’s Halford Scholarship which subsidised her fees by £7,500 per year.

[Feedback: This is a great paragraph which clearly explains what actions the candidate took to help their mentee. The answer is especially impressive because of candidate’s logical structure – the candidate systematically works through the example: starting with building a rapport with the student, then working with her to identify her goals, before conducting their own research, and finally producing a result. Additionally, the answer is strong because it highlights several competencies that law firms look for: working well with others, empathy, independent work, communication, and negotiation.

The main substantive point of improvement would be regarding the ‘various stakeholders’ the candidate mentioned. The candidate’s answer would have benefited if the candidate mentioned who specifically those stakeholders were. You should remember to make your answers as specific as possible because it better demonstrates the impact of what you did and gives credence to your claims.

A final point of improvement: the candidate should not have capitalised ‘University’, and ‘my University Financial Support team’ should have been written as ‘my university’s Financial Support team’. You should remember to proofread your answers for spelling and grammar errors – in this case, ‘university’ is not used as a proper noun, so it should not be capitalised.]

I have chosen this particular event because I am passionate about education and equality of opportunity. This was significant because by going the extra mile I assisted the student in achieving her goal. I continue to keep in contact with this student who updates me on her achievements at University and ambitions for the future. Working in this capacity makes me particularly interested in Memery Crystal’s work with Allbright mentoring.

[Feedback: This paragraph is much needed to directly answer the question. The candidate nicely highlights the residual impact of their work, and links it back to the law firm in question, which is excellent.

However, it is unclear how the first sentence of the paragraph links to the second sentence. Though the candidate attempts to evidence another competency (‘going the extra mile’), this sentence does not properly explain why this event was ‘significant’. Though this answer is very strong overall, the candidate should have been slightly more mindful of sentences such as this one, as such sentences can unnecessarily drag an excellent answer down to a good answer.

Finally, the same mistake regarding the capitalisation of ‘University’ is made. Once again, you should remember to proofread your answer after finishing your concluding paragraph to check for such errors and then proofread your answers once more just before you submit. These mistakes, whilst they are minor and take only a few minutes to fix, can cost you a successful application.]

Please name a person who inspires you and explain why?

JK Rowling is my inspiration. Despite combatting rejection, I admire her resilience and tenacity in becoming a world-renowned author. I am in awe of how she used her negative experiences to fuel her imagination. Growing up, I dealt with a debilitating health condition, and one of the few things that got me through this was the magical world of Harry Potter.

Feedback: As with the “superpower” question, you simply need to identify a person that inspires you before explaining concisely why that person inspires you. The candidate does that reasonably well here. They identify a person of interest from the outset, before going on to explain why JK Rowling personally inspires them. The candidate also does well in introducing a personalised element to the answer. This makes it sufficiently clear that the candidate is personally inspired and motivated by JK Rowling. In your own writing, you should explain why that person inspires you before substantiating that argument with specific experiences and examples.

Given the limited word count, the candidate would not be expected to do much else with this answer.