Ashurst 2020/2021

[SLKEJRWOI97]

Hi all,

Thought I'd create a thread for the Ashurst application/s.

This year the questions are:

• Please address your cover letter to Nick Wong, Graduate Recruitment Partner. This is an opportunity to tell us about yourself, your skills, achievements and why you want to train as a solicitor. (1000 words)
• What qualities does a successful lawyer of the future require? (250 words)
• How is the legal landscape changing and what are the challenges facing Ashurst? (250 words)
• How is Ashurst different to other firms you have applied to? (250 words)

I'm quite stuck on: How is the legal landscape changing and what are the challenges facing Ashurst? (250 words)

I think 'legal' is throwing me off. I was hoping to take about a geopolitical issue e.g. presidential elections but the reasonings I would give are more political than legal I think. Does anyone have any experience of this question or any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Hi all,

Thought I'd create a thread for the Ashurst application/s.

This year the questions are:

• Please address your cover letter to Nick Wong, Graduate Recruitment Partner. This is an opportunity to tell us about yourself, your skills, achievements and why you want to train as a solicitor. (1000 words)
• What qualities does a successful lawyer of the future require? (250 words)
• How is the legal landscape changing and what are the challenges facing Ashurst? (250 words)
• How is Ashurst different to other firms you have applied to? (250 words)

I'm quite stuck on: How is the legal landscape changing and what are the challenges facing Ashurst? (250 words)

I think 'legal' is throwing me off. I was hoping to take about a geopolitical issue e.g. presidential elections but the reasonings I would give are more political than legal I think. Does anyone have any experience of this question or any ideas?

Thanks!

if you are going to talk about political/economical matters, you need to not focus on the detail of them, just focus on how they are impacting law firms/the legal sector/law firms’ clients (that would then impact the work law firms do for them)

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

Hi all,

Thought I'd create a thread for the Ashurst application/s.

This year the questions are:

• Please address your cover letter to Nick Wong, Graduate Recruitment Partner. This is an opportunity to tell us about yourself, your skills, achievements and why you want to train as a solicitor. (1000 words)
• What qualities does a successful lawyer of the future require? (250 words)
• How is the legal landscape changing and what are the challenges facing Ashurst? (250 words)
• How is Ashurst different to other firms you have applied to? (250 words)

I'm quite stuck on: How is the legal landscape changing and what are the challenges facing Ashurst? (250 words)

I think 'legal' is throwing me off. I was hoping to take about a geopolitical issue e.g. presidential elections but the reasonings I would give are more political than legal I think. Does anyone have any experience of this question or any ideas?

Thanks!

The only thing that I can think of is Richard Susskind's Tomorrow's Lawyers. The entire book is on how the world of law is in a remarkable state of flux so I'd recommend that you read it before answering this.

 

[Jaysen]

The only thing that I can think of is Richard Susskind's Tomorrow's Lawyers. The entire book is on how the world of law is in a remarkable state of flux so I'd recommend that you read it before answering this.

As you said, I think the book is great to show how the legal world is changing. I’d just flag that people have been using the information from Tomorrow’s Lawyers to answer these questions for many years (all the way back since when I was applying).

I think it’s a good starting point but I’d also note that there are so many ways you can approach this question beyond the focus of Susskind’s book.

 

[Jaysen]

Hi all,

Thought I'd create a thread for the Ashurst application/s.

This year the questions are:

• Please address your cover letter to Nick Wong, Graduate Recruitment Partner. This is an opportunity to tell us about yourself, your skills, achievements and why you want to train as a solicitor. (1000 words)
• What qualities does a successful lawyer of the future require? (250 words)
• How is the legal landscape changing and what are the challenges facing Ashurst? (250 words)
• How is Ashurst different to other firms you have applied to? (250 words)

I'm quite stuck on: How is the legal landscape changing and what are the challenges facing Ashurst? (250 words)

I think 'legal' is throwing me off. I was hoping to take about a geopolitical issue e.g. presidential elections but the reasonings I would give are more political than legal I think. Does anyone have any experience of this question or any ideas?

Thanks!

The ‘legal landscape’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘legal issue’, but as Jess said, the focus of your answer should be on the impact on the legal market/sector.

I’m not sure the presidential elections are a great topic to talk about, unless you feel it’s clearly going to answer the question.

As a general way of answering this question, I would try to take a step back and consider what is going on in the legal sector at the moment.

For example, here are some questions to consider:

Do people joining law firms have different motivations in our current generation? Are they likely to stay at their firm for the long term? Do law firms need to different things to attract the best talent? How do they need to adapt to the next generation of talent?

What is the competition like in the legal sector? Are there new entrants in the market? What are competitors doing to gain a competitive advantage?

How is the way we work changing? Have world events accelerated this change?

Are the way law firms are being structured changing? Is the partnership model still the best model?

Do big corporate clients have different concerns these days? Is diversity becoming more important for clients? What about ESG concerns? What about pricing?

 

[NA27]

I was wondering if it might be possible to talk about a combination of two events- the U.S China trade war + the instability in Hong Kong, and how these are collectively impacting the APAC strategies of many law firms in the region? Would it be narrow to focus on events happening in one region? My strategy is to argue that firms that have invested significantly in APAC (as opposed to North America, for example) might find this challenging.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

I was wondering if it might be possible to talk about a combination of two events- the U.S China trade war + the instability in Hong Kong, and how these are collectively impacting the APAC strategies of many law firms in the region? Would it be narrow to focus on events happening in one region? My strategy is to argue that firms that have invested significantly in APAC (as opposed to North America, for example) might find this challenging.

I think when they're asking about the changing legal landscape and the challenges facing Ashrust, in the same question, they wouldn't really be looking forward to reading about incidents which are going to be in existence for a short term and which are going to affect more or less every law firm.

What I infer from the question is that, let's say Ashrust has a lot of junior associates in their firm, so if some disruptive technology comes within a decade which can automate more or less everything that the junior person does at Ashrust (for example DD, , this could mean that Ashrust would no longer need these people.

This wouldn't apply to a firm which recruits very few people in a year.

I don't know if I'm correct or not but maybe this will prompt you to think on the correct lines?

 

[Alice G]

Just to weigh in on this a bit too- I think speaking about geopolitical and economic events might be a bit too much of a stretch for this question. It does explicitly say legal landscape and I think the focus should be on the legal sector. The points given by @Jaysen above are great starting ones. If the wording was more broad then I’d say this would be fine but it’s important to take stock of the wording used to understand what it is Ashurst are wanting to see.

 

[Jaysen]

I was wondering if it might be possible to talk about a combination of two events- the U.S China trade war + the instability in Hong Kong, and how these are collectively impacting the APAC strategies of many law firms in the region? Would it be narrow to focus on events happening in one region? My strategy is to argue that firms that have invested significantly in APAC (as opposed to North America, for example) might find this challenging.

This one sounds fine to me.

 

[j2134]

Since the final question of this application is about your reasons for applying to Ashurst specifically, would it be best to not cover this much in the 1000 word cover letter? Ie. only cover 'yourself, your skills, achievements and why you want to train as a solicitor' in the letter?

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Since the final question of this application is about your reasons for applying to Ashurst specifically, would it be best to not cover this much in the 1000 word cover letter? Ie. only cover 'yourself, your skills, achievements and why you want to train as a solicitor' in the letter?

Yes - is generally avoid any repetition in a cover letter, so if other application questions cover certain topics they don’t need to be covered again.

 

[Jaysen]

Since the final question of this application is about your reasons for applying to Ashurst specifically, would it be best to not cover this much in the 1000 word cover letter? Ie. only cover 'yourself, your skills, achievements and why you want to train as a solicitor' in the letter?

Yep, I'd focus on those areas. Sometimes I see candidates also briefly cover why they are applying to Ashurst (which is not always the same thing as what makes Ashurst different to other firms), but I would keep this fairly concise if you do.

 

[Alice G]

Since the final question of this application is about your reasons for applying to Ashurst specifically, would it be best to not cover this much in the 1000 word cover letter? Ie. only cover 'yourself, your skills, achievements and why you want to train as a solicitor' in the letter?

I would try to weave why Ashurst into the cover letter by tailoring your points to them and vice versa. I also think the last question on the app is a why Ashurst question but more in the context of how it’s distinct from its competitors, but I’d still advise trying to link this back to your motivations and what matters to you.

 

[SLKEJRWOI97]

Thanks everyone for your input! Definitely have some clarity now. Essentially, I think I was trying to answer a commercial/business answer as opposed to a question on the legal market/industry.

I agree that there might be cross overs with commercial/legal but will definitely have a think about some of the points you guys have stated.

Thanks all!

 

[SLKEJRWOI97]

Yep, I'd focus on those areas. Sometimes I see candidates also briefly cover why they are applying to Ashurst (which is not always the same thing as what makes Ashurst different to other firms), but I would keep this fairly concise if you do.

I would try to weave why Ashurst into the cover letter by tailoring your points to them and vice versa. I also think the last question on the app is a why Ashurst question but more in the context of how it’s distinct from its competitors, but I’d still advise trying to link this back to your motivations and what matters to you.

Just adding to both of these answers - a few successful apps that I've seen to Ashurst don't cover "Why Ashurst" in the cover letter. That being said, everyone answers differently but one thing I've learnt in my app cycle seasons is that you should answer the question as it is. As the question doesn't ask for a "why Ashurst" component then perhaps that's not what they're looking for.

Hope that helps and good luck everyone!

 

[j2134]

Understood guys. Many thanks

 

[Jaysen]

Just adding to both of these answers - a few successful apps that I've seen to Ashurst don't cover "Why Ashurst" in the cover letter. That being said, everyone answers differently but one thing I've learnt in my app cycle seasons is that you should answer the question as it is. As the question doesn't ask for a "why Ashurst" component then perhaps that's not what they're looking for.

Hope that helps and good luck everyone!

It sounds obvious but this is a really great point. So many candidates answer the question they think is being asked, rather than answering the question as stated.

 

[SLKEJRWOI97]

It sounds obvious but this is a really great point. So many candidates answer the question they think is being asked, rather than answering the question as stated.

Definitely! I know that when I first started writing apps, I'd try and tie the firm into a competency question. The firm really just wants to hear how I performed as a team member, not for me to find some link to the firm haha.

Thanks all!

 

[IntrepidL]

Hello everyone, adding onto people's discussions about making links - when talking about how Ashurst is different from other law firms, would it be necessary to link it back to ourselves or should we solely discuss Ashurst's differentiation strategies?

 

[Alice G]

Hello everyone, adding onto people's discussions about making links - when talking about how Ashurst is different from other law firms, would it be necessary to link it back to ourselves or should we solely discuss Ashurst's differentiation strategies?

I think the main thing here is authenticity. If you make a point about Ashurst which makes it different to other firms and this is a big thing for you which underpins your motivation, then you can try and make a link here if it is natural. Don’t try to force these things but if it feels like a natural thing to be able to tie into the answer then my rule of thumb is that it never hurts to do so