Law Training Contract Application Specialists
Clyde & Co’s application deadline is the beginning of January in a given year, for training contracts to start two years after.
Clyde and Co was founded by a Scottish lawyer called Richard Arthur Clyde, who came from a well-known legal family, in 1933. The firm is now a global law firm, with a particular focus on insurance, energy, trade and commodities, infrastructure, and transport. It employs 2500 legal professionals and 4000 total staff in 50 offices across the globe, covering Latin America, Africa, Europe, the US, Canada, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and the UK. Its revenue in the period 2020-2021 was around $890m.
Looking at the London training contract specifically:
– You will be able to complete a seat in the Guildford office
– The London office itself is in the City, while the Guildford office looks after certain parts of the corporate, marine and real estate practices.
– London specialises in the following areas:Â
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Tips, Techniques & Insight from Training Contract Specialists & Past Successful Applicants
As part of your training contract, you will be provided with a mentor, who will be a newly qualified lawyer. This should enable you to get peer-to-peer support and guidance from someone who has completed their training contract in the same place as you. You will have mid seat and end-of-seat appraisals, which means that you will be appraised every three months. This should ensure that you can develop your skills and identify where your strengths and weaknesses lie.
You will take on four six-month seats, which you can choose from the following:
The structure of the assessment centre is likely to be something like this:
1.30pm – arrival
1.45pm – group task
3pm – interview
3.45pm – written task
4.30pm – tour of office with trainees
4.45pm – finish
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The group task is described by previous applicants as:
– A group task in which they were split into 2 groups, and then each group had to discuss a negotiation exercise. The task focused on an M&A deal with an energy company looking to acquire an oil business. Each group was split into two parties, and then each of the two parties had to decide on three non-negotiables. Then, the two parties had to come together and had to come to an agreement over three parts of the deal. The case study was relatively short. The process was assessed by two associates.
– A group task in which four applicants had to advocate for their own project whilst two members of HR sat in to watch. There was not much time given. There were also questions to answer in a booklet.
The Interview
The interview at Clyde & Co is described as being ‘rigid’ with interviewers reading questions off a sheet.
Previous questions include:
– Why Clyde?
– Why commercial law?
– When have you shown [competency]?
– What modules are you taking at university?
– Why did you apply for the vacation scheme here?
– You’re a trainee going into a new seat – how do you prepare?
– What other firms are you applying to?
– What seats are you interested in?
– What have you read that’s recently interested you and why?
 -How do you manage conflicting deadlines?
– How do you prevent yourself from falling behind at work?
– Describe a time where you had to do something you hadn’t done before?
– When have you displayed initiative?
– Why do you prefer disputes rather than transactional work?
– How do you manage stress?
– Do you enjoy working under pressure?
– Please talk about a news story that interested you recently. How would this story affect the firm, and how could the firm capitalise on it?
Halfway through the interview, applicants are given a mini case study.
This has been described as:
– A surprise case study about a container ship carrying goods that had caught fire
– A mini case study half-way through, a shipping scenario in which a ship caught fire while transporting cargo to the buyer.
