Thank you - really grateful for your detailed response. Is having a specific interest in particular areas really important in the application phase? I have lots of pro bono experience and I enjoyed helping individual clients and understanding their personal issues, so this has clarified that private client law is my particular interest. Would they expect to know specific areas of private client law and why they interest me?Both is fine. I'd suggest trying to firm up what exactly you're keen on within those areas - commercial law is a very, very broad field and if CRS has any particular practice groups you're interested in then go to that level of detail.
I'm not sure how they run their private client practice but again that can involve a lot of things - assuming their focus is HNW individuals, do they handle private investment ex. into family offices, trusts, wills & estates, big-ticket divorces, Dickensian inheritance disputes, individual commercial/business disputes, real estate, secured borrowing? Identify your interests, get into what about this interests you, and why.
I only have limited law firm experience and I only had expose to wills and estates, and by exposure, I mean, I helped draft a will by filling in a template for a fake client (not that exciting). Whilst for example, big-ticket divorces interests me, how would you explain this interest without having experience in this area?
But I also enjoyed my business experience, and working with businesses, and M&A type work. They are such different areas (private and commercial) so worried the law firm will think I just have no clue, and will never find an area I want to qualify into if i'm interested in such polar practice areas....