New Threads

I just got asked to play the Skyrise City Game as part of the recruitment process. Has anyone played this game before? If so, do you have any tips on it?

Thanks!

Guys I am writing down my answer to why me. Could you give me your feedback?

I am determined and tenacious: coming from a different country, I had to dedicate more hours to study. This allowed me to do well academically, obtaining the highest mark in my Grammar Dictation exam after having lived in Italy for only two years and being awarded three prizes for reading and writing. This is something I built upon when undertaking my GCSE and A-Level equivalents. Alongside my studies, I attended English classes from the age of ten. My dedication to improving my English resulted in me passing the English tests to study for a term in Ireland at the age of seventeen and later going on to secure a place at university in London.

Please use this thread to post content related to mergers and acquisitions.

You can find our M&A guide here: https://www.thecorporatelawacademy.com/why-do-you-want-to-be-a-commercial-lawyer/. There is also a more updated guide in our TCLA Premium section.

I'll use this thread for posts about law firms/updates in the legal industry. Please feel free to comment/post.

Restructuring secretarial ranks

Several firms have launched redundancy consultations over the past year and reduced their support staff.

• Hogan Lovells cut 54 support roles this June.
• Ince & Co announced 32 redundancies in London in July.
• Ashurst cut 54 secretarial roles after a redundancy consultation this May.
• Pinsent Masons cut 78 Legal PA roles last year.
• Freshfields offered voluntary redundancy to all secretarial staff last year.

Law firms are restructuring these support ranks in response to a variety of factors (according to their press releases), including:

• Responding to changing client needs
• Technology
• Efficiency drives
• Improving business performance
• Evolving in a competitive legal market

This is an example of how a changing legal market is having a real impact on the market. While trainees are not losing their jobs yet, the investment in technology is having an impact on support staff.

Hi All,

I suggest that we can post materials related to the private equity market here. A good starting point is: https://www.pwc.de/de/finanzinvestoren/private-equity-trend-report-2018.pdf

Stumbled across this piece about how the Big Four are making an impressive push into the legal market. It also provides some useful comments by some law firm leaders about how law firms differentiate themselves from the Big Four. Could be useful things to bring up in an interview if the right question arose: https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/...rXgaGjAgkqs4bBPaTu8pgInFy7bjat-DbEg1FJs3xEsIs

Hi all,

I am wondering if the email sent by PWC after the Situational Judgement Test is automatic? It stated that I have passed the test and now been invited to complete the Game Based Assessment. It was sent less than a minute after I completed the SJT.

Any help is much appreciated!

I'll use this thread to post any relevant info/updates on the US economy.

For your interviews, the topic I suggest you investigate right now is the US tech sell off. The BBC just published a great article on this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46515773

Just came across this FT article: "How I became more productive in 2018".

I know many of you are trying to balance writing applications and studying and/or working.

How are you finding it? How are you staying productive/minimising distraction?

Hey guys,

Was just wondering how you would answer this question in an interview.

Thanks!

Hey guys.

Was just wondering how you prepare for and answer scenario based questions at interviews? They appear to be harder to prep for than competency questions (where you can pre-prepare your answers), since law firms can make up/ask more or less any scenario. I have quite a lot of difficulty with this. For example:

'Let’s say a partner and a senior associate gives you work at the same time, and they’re both urgent, and you’re under a time constraint. What would you do?'

I really struggle with this and any tips would be appreciated. This is in preparation for the Ashurst TC telephone interview, but can apply to other firms as well.

Thanks!

I went to an open day at Mayer Brown today and even met some fellow TCLA members. I thought I'd quickly summarise they key points grad rec made for successful applications and insight into the AC/Interviews.

Application

Stylistically MB prefer the less subtle approach i.e talking about a competency and linking it with an experience (as opposed to inferring the competency). Note this is the case for both the work experience section and the cover letter.

Structure of cover letter

500 words so relatively short. As a result grad rec emphasised 'why MB' should be the focus and also include 'why commercial law'. The 'why you' typically seen in cover letters seems to be almost optional and they suggested you can simply do a small paragraph on why you. However there is an extra curricular question in which you can use to sell the 'why you'.

No need for an address

Telephone Interview

Strength based with 7 questions over 20 minutes. Grad rec said answers would be shorter than typical competency questions and expect usually about a minute on each answer (but varies q to q ). Purpose is to look at how you would behave moving forward , opposed to competency which focuses on what you have already done.

AC

8 AC days with 64 places and they have not invited anyone to AC yet.

They said if you apply now should hear back early Jan.

Structure

- Partner competency interview
- Written exercise ; usually summarising article and proof reading
- Find fact exercise ; In a room with a associate who gives you a scenario - have to make a decision and present it back to them. The key here is to ask relevant questions to build the case and think about what the client needs (very commercial awareness based by the sounds of it).
--Group exercise ; don't think they gave any details on this

To those who are interested in digital banking and areas of FinTech, Revolut secured their first foreign and EU banking license yesterday. Interestingly, this is in Lithuania of all places. It also has plans to expand out to France and Poland at a later stage. This allows them to provide current accounts and debit cards. Due to passporting rules this also means they will have a much clearer path to serving other EU clients once the Brexit deadline hits. This is because having regulatory approval in an EU member state gives them access to the wider EU market.

From a legal perspective, it will be interesting to see how these digital banks handle their Know-Your-Customer requirements as more and more start opening up current accounts (Monzo, Starling Bank, N26 etc.). No doubt in the wake of the Danske Bank money laundering scandal, the Financial Conduct Authority and European Supervisory Authorities will want to make sure that these newcomers will not create a new avenue for dirty money to be flushed through Europe. However, I imagine there will be many regulators who also do not want to impose too onerous obligations on these digital banks at the expense of innovation. It may be a possibility that as the digital banking fever spreads, a new digital banking regulatory regime may creep its way up the EU Commission's policy agenda.

From a commercial perspective this reveals quite a lot about digital banks and their current customer acquisition strategy. They are targeting places where they know they already have a customer base and are not vying for the EU financial heavyweight countries - quite the opposite to your traditional banks which are more likely to go for the richer countries where they know there will be higher customer deposits and more borrowers. No doubt a lot of incumbent banks will be eyeing the ease of digital banks movements across jurisdictions with jealousy.

Revolut also stated that they were considering moving into stock trading in the future. If you look at examples of this happening in China, FinTech's have been making movements into the financial markets space. For example, Tencent established a chat platform earlier this year to allow traders to place orders for Chinese bonds. If Revolut does make a move into this space it represents a real shift in the EU FinTech space where its Chinese counterparts have been dominating since the states slow liberalisation of their financial system. It could also present an opportunity for smaller FinTechs/ digital banks who can obtain these EU regulatory licenses a lot easier, to play an important role in facilitating UK-EU financial market interactions without a contingency plan post-Brexit.

For reference: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...t-gets-european-banking-license-via-lithuania (you get so many free articles so should be free for the most)

I would love to hear all thoughts on this

"Based on your research, what do you understand to be the most significant challenge facing the firm at this current time? What has made you choose this challenge?"

Would it be appropriate to select a specific industry and discuss the challenges occurring there? Or should I focus on challenges that would affect the firm wide? From research about Bird & Bird they like targeted answers and industry knowledge.

Useful links related to legal technology, innovation and AI will be posted here.

If you have a lot of time on your hands, Slaughter and May has published a major report on innovation:

https://www.slaughterandmay.com/what-we-do/publications-and-seminars/innovation-explored/

You will need to provide your email to access the report.

You can read a summary here: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2018/12/13/slaughter-and-may-publishes-innovation-guide/

Hi guys, in the process of writing up some fairly standard application questions then I stumbled upon these two:

1. Please tell us something that not many people know about you. (250 words)

2. Please tell us about a recent commercial deal that has captured your interest. If you could represent a side, which would it be and why? (300 words)

I was going to go with some personal circumstances which showed resilience for the first one, but for the second one I'm not sure how to go about it. Does anyone have any ideas?

I am currently in the process of drafting an application for Walker Morris and am a bit stuck on how to structure the answer to one of their questions:

'Tell us about a current affairs topic that you find of interest and why?'

Would it be a good idea to talk about GDPR/Data Protection. And how could I possibly structure my answer.

Would really appreciate some help!

I'll use this thread for for links/stories relevant to the Middle East. Please feel free to post in this thread also.

For those that can access to FT:

Saudi prince’s flagship plan beset by doubts after Khashoggi death - https://www.ft.com/content/c24ab1d4-f8a7-11e8-8b7c-6fa24bd5409c

For those without access, I'll summarise this when I have a moment.

I'll use this thread for for updates to this ongoing story. Please feel free to post in this thread also.

China to cut US tariffs to 15%: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46531803

Hi everyone,

I have a telephone interview coming up which is strengths based. I've only just got my head around competency interviews and the STAR format so I'm at a loss with this one. Has anyone had a strengths based assessment and is able to share some tips? Specifically with how to format an answer?

Equally, does anyone have any tips for a telephone interview?

Thanks!

A very interesting article was released today by Stephen McBride in Forbes about the probable fall of Netflix in the very near future. This is something which I think may be of interest to people for commercial awareness questions in applications and in interviews.

The link to the full article is here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephe...-worst-nightmare-is-coming-true/#3efbc9146efc

I hope this is useful for people!

Dan

If you’ve been reading RiskHedge, you know I’ve been warning to keep money out of stock market darling Netflix (NFLX).

This was not a popular thing to say when I first wrote it in July.

Back then, Netflix was the hottest stock on Wall Street. It had surged 107% in six months, hitting record highs.

But it turns out July was the right time to sell Netflix. Since then it has crashed 37%:



Netflix’s Best Days Are Over
You can review my reasoning for why Netflix is doomed here and here. It comes down to the lifecycle of disruptive businesses.

Netflix pioneered “streaming” video where you watch shows through the Internet rather than on cable TV.

For years, it was the only streaming service in town. Early investors rode this first-mover advantage to 10,000% gains from 2008 to July of this year.

Today I see three other companies in the same position Netflix was back in 2008. I wrote a free special report about those stocks with in-depth research and my suggested buy prices.

But for Netflix, the era of almost zero competition is over.

It’s now coming up against powerful rivals like Disney (DIS)—which I recommended you buy in July.

Disney will launch its own streaming service called “Disney+” next year. It’s going to pull all its shows and movies off Netflix and put them on Disney+ instead.

This is a huge problem for Netflix because Disney has the world’s best content by a long shot. It owns household brands like Marvel… Pixar Animations… Star Wars… ESPN… ABC… X-Men… not to mention all the traditional characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.

When it launches next year, Disney+ will be a no-brainer purchase for most families. I’ll certainly be subscribing for my daughter.

Meanwhile, Netflix will lose a lot of its best content… and potentially millions of subscribers who switch to Disney+.

Amazon Is Gaining a Foothold in Streaming, Too

In February, Amazon (AMZN) announced it would spend $5 billion developing original shows and movies this year. In response, Netflix upped its spending by 50%.

Netflix had planned to spend $8 billion on shows and series this year… now it’ll spend roughly $12 billion. It now invests more in content than any other American TV network.

Keep in mind, Amazon is the third-largest publicly traded company on earth. It has much deeper pockets than Netflix or even Disney.

To have any hope of keeping up with its rivals, Netflix must keep ramping up its spending on content.

Problem is, it can’t.

Netflix makes only a small profit, so it’s had to borrow gobs of money to fund its show creation. Its debt has exploded 71% in the past year to $8.3 billion.

That’s not sustainable.

Now, Netflix has three bad choices: continue borrowing billions and bury itself deeper in debt… dramatically raise its subscription prices… or cut back on making new content.

I Recommend Disney

Netflix traded at $400 when I first sounded the warning…

It has dropped to around $275 today. And as I mentioned last time, my research shows it’s worth $190–$200 a share, max.

So, Netflix is still a “no-touch.”

Disney, on the other hand, has gained 11.5% since July and hit multi-year highs earlier in November. That’s more impressive given that most stocks have struggled in the last few months.

Disney is still a great buy at today’s price of $116. My research shows it’s heading for $170—roughly 45% higher than today.

Stephen McBridge is a professional fund manager and the chief analyst at RiskHedge.

Hi All,

I am pleased to announce that, starting from next week, I will be publishing recorded classes on the topics I ran last term:

• Mergers and Acquisitions & Case Study Interviews
• Finance and the Capital Markets
• The US Trade War with China
• Law Firms as a Business
• How to talk about Brexit in a Law Firm Interview
• Private Equity
• The Financial Crisis and regulatory responses
• The GDPR and Cybersecurity

In each case, they will be focused on how to tackle the topic at a law firm interview.

If you attended one of these classes live, please note, you will be eligible for a free recording of that class. TCLA Premium members will also be eligible for a discount on these classes.

I will release more details in due course. In the meantime, I'd like to get a sense of which topics you are interested in, so I'd be grateful if you could vote in the poll above. This will influence the schedule in which I record these classes.

Thanks,

Jaysen

I've taken a quick look through the forums, and was unable to find anything on Penningtons Manches. I have an Assessment Centre with them in January, and Im curious if anyone has any interactions with the firm or even any insight about them.

Finding this question from Taylor Wessing's application tough:

As a global top 20 law firm, we act for the biggest names in cutting edge industries. No matter your background, you'll find that our trainees – like our lawyers – are united by their focus, their commitment and their spark. What is the biggest challenge you will need to overcome upon entering the profession? (250 words max)*

Just wondering how people would approach this question and without almost shooting yourself in the foot.