Fladgate
Fladgate Vacation Scheme – April 2024
What was the full recruitment process?
- Application
- Psychometric Test
- Video Interview
- Assessment Centre
- Partner Interview
- Vacation Scheme
- Training Contract offer
Which aspect does this report cover?
Vacation scheme assessment centre
Where did the assessment centre take place?
The firm’s London office
What did the assessment centre involve?
- Group exercise: group debates (~1 hour)
- Document drafting exercise: contract review and drafting a client email (~1 hour)
- Verbal and numerical reasoning test: multiple choice test (15 minutes, 50 questions)
- Partners networking lunch (~1 hour)
Group exercise
The ~35 candidates attending the assessment centre were split into 4 groups, so there were around 8-10 in each group.
We were given two statements, both containing opinions on some controversial topics. Our task was to go around the table and debate each statement one by one (there was only time to go around the table once), and to decide as a group whether we should place the statement in a ‘yes’, ‘maybe’, or ‘no’ pile. The statements covered a political issue and a commercial awareness-related matter.
The group exercise lasted around an hour and the challenge was to be able to speak up enough, without dominating the conversation.
Document drafting exercise
In short, I was tasked with reading and reviewing a contract relating to a company, and drafting an email to a fictional client.
I was given a printed copy of a few documents, including an email from a partner setting out the task, plus a shareholder’s agreement. The two primary tasks were:
- Draft a handwritten email to the client, answering her relevant queries based on the content of the shareholders agreement provided; and
- Identify as many mistakes as possible within the contract.
This did not require any legal knowledge.
Verbal and numerical reasoning test
This was a handwritten, multiple choice test which placed me under intense time pressure (there were 50 questions to be answered in 15 minutes!). Most of the questions were verbal reasoning or simple numerical reasoning. There was no calculator allowed from what I remember.
Partners networking lunch
We were given some time to eat with the rest of the cohort. We were then given the opportunity to meet and talk to some of the firm's partners in an informal setting for around an hour. Perhaps have a look on the firm's website and see which partners are in which department before you go.