Devonshires Training Contract - June 2024

What was the full recruitment process?         

1. Application

2. Psychometric test: Watson Glasser

3. Assessment centre

4. Final interview

Which aspect does this report cover?

Assessment centre and final interview

Where did the assessment centre take place?            

The firm's London office

What did the assessment centre involve?      

1. Group exercise: discussion around how to allocate a budget to upgrade an office (40 minutes, with 1-2 associates)

2. Written exercises (1 hour)

3. Competency and motivation interview: competency, motivation and commercial awareness questions (45 minutes with 1 partner and 1 senior associate)

Group exercise

For the first task, ten of us were split into two groups, and were presented with a scenario where a law firm that was looking to upgrade its office space and had a budget, and we were told what the items and services for the new office would cost. We were also presented with the firm’s aims for the future and given a brief overview of the firm’s clientele and their needs. Examples of the things we could spend the budget on ranged from a smoothie machine to twenty new office desks.

We were then given roughly twenty minutes in our teams to discuss how we would choose to use the budget. Each team was assessed by one associate, who was joined by a third associate who was the timekeeper. The associates took notes throughout our discussion. 

Once the twenty minutes had passed, each team was asked to explain what they had decided what would be necessary for the firm’s new offices and why. Each team was allocated ten minutes to do so. 

For the final ten minutes, the teams were allowed to ask the other side why they had chosen to allocate their budgets in the way that they did.

Written exercises

The second part of the assessment centre involved two written exercises, each lasting thirty minutes and completed on a laptop.

The first was filing in form MR01 (the form used to register particulars of a mortgage or charge), based on limited information provided about a fictional client. Once the MR01 form was filed, I was asked to confirm if there were irregularities in the information (this was unanimously the hardest part of the assessment centre according to all attendees)

The second part of written exercise was drafting a letter to a new client seeking legal representation after a break down in a commercial relationship. I was expected to summarise the contents of the client’s first meeting with my supervisor. Next, I had to write to my fictional supervisor setting out what further information I would have required. 

Competency and motivation interview         

I was introduced to the two interviewers, who told me they had not seen my application form and did not know anything about me. They then explained they ask every candidate the same questions and would take turns making notes. The questions included:

• Tell me about yourself.
• Tell me about what you studied at university.
• Tell me about your interests.
• Why Devonshires?
• What interests you about social housing and commercial law?
• What are important traits for trainees to have?
• Tell us about a story in the news that might affect our clients.
• Do you have any questions for us? (note that this is not marked) 

The firm emailed me sixteen days after the assessment inviting me to a final interview.

Final interview

The final interview lasted close to an hour, with three partners. The interview was more informal and less structured, and the partners took turns asking me questions and taking notes.

Questions included:

• Which practice area do you see yourself qualifying in?
• Where else have you applied?
• How do you feel about living in the location of the firm’s office?
• What was your favourite subject at university?
• What led you to want to pursue a career as a solicitor?
• General questions about my application including grades and work experience.

What was the outcome?

I received a call 17 days after the final interview making me an offer for a training contract.  

Do you have any specific advice on how to prepare?

• For the group exercise, try to contribute and be receptive to other ideas. If possible, encourage all members of your group to contribute and acknowledge their contributions. 
• For the written exercises, ensure you leave enough time to proofread your answers. 
• For the assessment centre interview, prepare a commercial awareness story related to one of the firms sectors and spend some time researching the firm’s practice areas. 
• For the final interview, re read your application and prepare some questions for the partners.