Addleshaw Goddard

Experience 1

When was your Addleshaw Goddard interview?

January 2019

What was it for?

Vacation Scheme

Please describe the interview process at Addleshaw Goddard.

The day is split into 4 sections: contract review; group exercise; partner review and; partner interview.

The day began with a contract review, drawing attention to spelling, grammar, punctuation, and form mistakes.

The group exercise is business-orientated, no previous legal knowledge is required. It required discussing various issues in a group, and then presenting a group solutions to a problem.

The partner review is perhaps the most tricky part of the day. Candidates are given a scenario and a stack of documents. There is a lot of info here so don’t be afraid to gloss over what isn’t necessary. Candidates are given 45 minutes to formulate a business proposal, then present this verbally to two partners. The partners then quiz you on your reasoning and introduce new information to the scenario.

Finally, there is a ‘normal’ interview. ‘Why AG?’ and ‘why law?’ are asked, alongside one or two behavioural-type questions. There was also quite a heavy discussion on commercial issues. The format, however, was relatively unstructured which gave the interview a relatively relaxed feel.

What advice would you give to future applicants for the Addleshaw Goddard interview?

Know AG’s main practice areas and current issues affecting the firm. I’d also recommend getting to grips with the firm’s main competitors and formulate an opinion of how AG remains competitive. In the partner review section, don’t be afraid to stick to your guns. The partner’s try and make you doubt yourself to see whether you can hold your nerve (n.b. don’t bullishly stick to your original idea if it’s made obviously clear that its a bad option!)

Experience 2

When was your Addleshaw Goddard interview?

February 2018

What was it for?

Summer vacation scheme

Please describe the interview process at Addleshaw Goddard.

Interview with two partners, analysis discussion with two partners, group exercise, proof reading exercise

What advice would you give to future applicants for the Addleshaw Goddard interview?

Interview
Relatively unstructured – although the obvious ‘why us’ and ‘why law’ were asked, it felt more like a discussion in that the next question expanded on your previous answer. Lack of rigidity allows you to steer the interview in a particular direction.

Proof reading
Read over a document and correct any errors. Many of the errors were obvious: incorrect postcode, names spelt incorrectly, errors in number formatting etc. Other errors were more subjective: some sections were maybe too wordy or superfluous

Analysis discussion
Given a list of documents that referred to a problem (some documents were deliberately useless), and given half an hour to make a note of the key issues. Then had a ‘discussion’ with two partners about the problem, any causes of action, and any solutions. Note that you were only allowed to take in one side of notes, and not of the documents. Relatively informal – no need to stand up etc.