Law Training Contract Application Specialists
For Spring and Autumn entries, Linklaters applications run from the first week of October through to the second week of December.
Linklaters is a magic circle firm headquartered in London, founded in 1838. It has more than 2800 lawyers spread across 31 offices, in 21 countries. It generated revenue of £1.67 billion and profits per equity partner of £1.77 million in 2021-2021.
Techniques, Insight & Past Interview Scenarios With Example Answers
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Tips, Techniques & Insight from Training Contract Specialists & Past Successful Applicants
Trainees take four six month seats, in which they will have ‘real influence’ and work on live projects. There is the option of taking on an international secondment, or an in-house secondment with a client. Seats are not ranked in the traditional way, but instead trainees allocate each seat a score out of ten to show how much they want to do it. If you give a seat a 10, then you will likely get it during your training.
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The assessment day consists of two parts – a case study and an interview with a partner and managing associate, and a separate interview with ‘graduate recruitment,’ otherwise known as HR.
The HR interview is competency based and asks general questions.
Questions that have been asked in the HR interview include:
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– Why commercial law
– Why Linklaters
– What are your values?
– When have your personal values been tested
– When have you dealt with conflict in a team situation?
– When have you been in a difficult situation before?
– When have you worked in a team successfully?
– Who is a leader that you admire?
– What is the role of a trainee?
– What is the role of a trainee
– What is your greatest life achievement?
– When have you felt that your integrity was questioned?
– When have you failed?
– When could you have handled a situation better?
– When have you shown leadership?
– When have you dealt with a difference of opinions in a team?
– When have you worked under pressure?
Case Study
The case study takes one hour in total, according to trainees, and consists of 25 minutes of reading time, and then 35 minutes in which you need to write an email response to a partner. In this you need to highlight various issues and propose solutions for said issues. The email is then to be sent to the partner.
According to another trainee, there may also be a delegation task in which you decide to do a task, give it to someone else, or delete it. You are also provided with a contract, relevant legislation that covers the contract, and then asked to scrutinise the contract.
There may also be a ‘crisis task’ that involves you being given an email to deal with at very-short notice, perhaps just before your interview with the partner and managing associate.
Interview with Partner and Managing Associate
You should expect to discuss the finer points of your email here. This will involve your thought processes as you wrote your email, why you chose to include or neglect certain information, etc. Previous trainees state that you should expect detailed questioning at this point.
Typical questions that are asked as part of the interview with the partner include:
– How would a company deal with a press scandal?
– What do you think the role of a trainee actually entails?
– Please give us an example of a time that you have shown resilience
– Please give us an example of a time that you have shown flexibility
– Please give us an example of a time that you have shown teamwork
– What kind of lawyer do you see yourself as being in the future?
– Why have you chosen Linklaters?
– What would a trainee’s role be in a deal like this and why would you enjoy it?
– What are the differences between warranties, representations, and indemnities? How do they work? What other options for allocating responsibility are there?
– Should the client opt for an asset or a share acquisition? What is the difference? What specific considerations in this case would be relevant?
– What are some of the types of lawyers that might work on [specific deal]?
– What would you advise this client to do in [specific situation]?
– Do you have any questions for me?
– What are the pros and cons of equity vs debt financing? Which is more appropriate in the case at hand?
– How can the Buyer (client) shield themselves from litigation action against the Target?
