Herbert Smith Freehills

S87

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Sep 4, 2018
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Could someone give feedback to my this answer?

Why are you interested in pursuing a career at Herbert Smith Freehills and what skills, qualities and attributes would you bring to the role? (Up to 300 words)

Herbert Smith Freehills’s expertise in Financial Corporate Crime has attracted me to the firm, evidenced by its Chambers UK Band 1 ranking within the sector. I am currently working as a Paralegal at the Serious Fraud Office where I am acquiring the necessary skills that will help me to assist the firm’s team. I am proving to be organised by adopting a colour-based system to track my progress and analytical when it comes to determine the relevance of the evidence and draft the reports. These are essential skills for any lawyer and even more so for Herbert Smith Freehills, given the extent and depth of clients, they work for.

Furthermore, whilst studying the LPC, I became interested in alternative dispute resolutions including arbitration and was fortunate enough to participate in an arbitration hearing at the London Court of International Arbitration during my internship at BDM Law. Herbert Smith Freehills has been named best commercial dispute resolution firm in The Times Best Law firms 2018. I am commercially proactive, as a legal assistant; I negotiated the litigation costs down by offering the possibility of future work based on the case ensuring so services to the firm in a timely manner. I look forward to furthering my insight into the dispute resolution process as a trainee at Herbert Smith Freehills.

This year I attended “Multiculturalism in the city” where I had the opportunity to talk to some of the trainees about the internal networks such as Multiculturalism and IRIS. This made me realise that like me Herbert Smith Freehills values and respect cultural differences; I am a black lesbian woman who studied internationally and I appreciate how different perspectives can be utilised to solve problems, and I look forward to continuing to embrace this as a trainee solicitor at Herbert Smith Freehills.
 

AJ

Legendary Member
Sep 11, 2018
184
258
Feel free to ignore the following comments, but I would raise the following general points:

- Stylistically, consider shorter sentences. I feel it will make the points jump out more and easier/quicker to read. And define the firm to HSF to save yourself some word count.
- What is it about White Collar Crime/Litigation you enjoy, which makes HSF the place you want to train (first paragraph). As there are quite a few firms with Band 1 rating for this work. Firms which you could equally drop in and replace with HSF. Perhaps move the last sentence of the second paragraph to end the first paragraph.
- Third sentence (colour - based system), I don't quite understand what this means, and perhaps a lay person in HR will not either. It also feels more like why you (skills, qualities and attributes) i.e the second part of the question, but then the third paragraph goes back to why HSF. Perhaps revise the structure. Two clear paragraphs on why HSF, and then your skills. I wouldn't be afraid of having a one/two sentence paragraphs.
- Second to last sentence of the second paragraph "ensuring so services to the firm" - ?
- Last paragraph is strong, but I feel gets lost in the structure. Perhaps consider, signposting your why HSF reasons and then go into why you.

Hope this helps.
 
Last edited:

PMF_II

Star Member
Mar 1, 2018
47
109
Here’s my two cents. You have a couple of sentences that read “I look forward to ... as a trainee at Herbert Smith Freehills”. They only repeat the information you have already provided. Perhaps consider replacing them with more detailed explanations of why HSF’s reputation and diversity initiatives would benefit your legal career?

I agree with @AJ that the structure of your answer is not clear. I understand that you are trying to group your work experience by skills and explain how those skill sets align with HSF’s strengths. To achieve this, I think you need to create stronger connections and smoother transitions between your sentences. At the moment, it’s not easy to recognise the relation between different points in each paragraph when you read it for the first time.
 
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S87

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Thank you very much for your feedback is very much appreciated.

I made the necessary amendments. What do you think of this?


My interest in corporate crime makes me suited to working as a trainee solicitor at Herbert Smith Freehills given the firm‘s Chambers UK Band 1 ranking within the sector. My interest stems from the fact that the problems facing companies could be cross-jurisdictional or implicate coexisting civil, criminal and regulatory law issues. I have since developed this by working as Paralegal at the Serious Fraud Office where I am showing my organisation and analytical skills through an Excel-based system to track my progress and determine the relevance of the evidence. These are essential skills for any lawyer and even more so for Herbert Smith Freehills, given the extent and depth of clients they work for.

Furthermore, during my internship at BDM Law, I took part in an arbitration hearing at the London Court of International Arbitration where I became interested in alternative dispute resolutions. As a Legal assistant, I negotiated the litigation costs down by offering the possibility of future work based on the case and proving to be commercially proactive. Herbert Smith Freehills has been named best commercial dispute resolution firm in The Times Best Law firms 2018 and this would give me the opportunity to further my interest into the dispute resolution process as a trainee at Herbert Smith Freehills.


Finally, this year I attended “Multiculturalism in the city” where I had the opportunity to talk to some of the trainees about the internal networks such as Multiculturalism and IRIS. This made me realise that like me Herbert Smith Freehills values and respect cultural differences. I am a black lesbian woman who studied internationally and I appreciate how different perspectives can be utilised to solve problems, and I look forward to continuing to embrace this as a trainee solicitor at Herbert Smith Freehills.
 

hashneevvora

Active Member
Premium Member
Dec 26, 2018
19
5
hey, could any tell me how i can talk about pro-bono work Herbert is involved in the question

Why are you interested in pursuing a career at Herbert Smith Freehills and what skills, qualities and attributes would you bring to the role?
 

Jaysen

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    I don't personally see a problem with it. There are many ways to approach applications and I think it's helpful for others to receive feedback from a variety of people (if you guys are brave enough to share). I'd say it's especially useful for those who want to shape up their application before they're ready to submit it for a TCLA review. (The TCLA reviews can be critical, the idea being if applicants can pick up as many comments I've made as possible, they should be submitting a great application.)

    One thing I'd flag up is that my advice is just a collection of techniques I've picked up in my own journey trying to convert apps to interviews, and from what I've observed between unsuccessful v successful applicants. I can be wrong and my way is definitely not the only way to do things, so please don't treat my feedback as gospel or feel your point of view is wrong just because it's different to mine. The great thing about a forum is you can learn from so many people at different stages of the process and there's so much good advice here.
     
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    Tom L

    Well-Known Member
    Nov 23, 2018
    21
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    I am trying to answer the HSF 'Introduce us to a topic you know about and explain why it interests you' question and I am trying to interpret 'topic'.

    Do you think a commercial/business story is too much of a push for this question? My sense is that explaining why it interests me is just as important so it should have a personal element to it?
     

    Jaysen

    Founder, TCLA
    Staff member
    TCLA Moderator
    Gold Member
    Premium Member
    M&A Bootcamp
  • Feb 17, 2018
    4,692
    8,565
    I am trying to answer the HSF 'Introduce us to a topic you know about and explain why it interests you' question and I am trying to interpret 'topic'.

    Do you think a commercial/business story is too much of a push for this question? My sense is that explaining why it interests me is just as important so it should have a personal element to it?

    A commercial/business story sounds good. It can be effective to have a personal element to justify why a topic interests you, but it's not necessary.
     
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    S87

    Legendary Member
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    Premium Member
    Sep 4, 2018
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    hey, could any tell me how i can talk about pro-bono work Herbert is involved in the question

    Why are you interested in pursuing a career at Herbert Smith Freehills and what skills, qualities and attributes would you bring to the role?
    my suggestion is to link your experience like, did you do any pro-bono work? why HSF pro-bono work interests you? Do they work with a particular organisation? I hope it helps..publish your answer and then I can give you a feedback!!
     

    AS858

    Star Member
    Future Trainee
    Junior Lawyer 48
    Aug 3, 2018
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    I am trying to answer the HSF 'Introduce us to a topic you know about and explain why it interests you' question and I am trying to interpret 'topic'.

    Do you think a commercial/business story is too much of a push for this question? My sense is that explaining why it interests me is just as important so it should have a personal element to it?

    At the Open Day, graduate recruitment emphasised that you can speak about anything that interests you. I've seen topics from the future of European security to somebody's interest in volleyball. You can speak about anything but the interest part of the question is crucial.
     
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