- Feb 17, 2018
- 4,695
- 8,576
Herbert Smith Freehills Vacation Scheme Assessment Centre 2020
Many thanks to this candidate for generously sharing her experiences!
HSF Spring Vacation Scheme AC
Generally, it was not as stressful as so many people described it to be (which was getting me really worried). Everyone was really nice, and no one was trying to trick me out. I think you need to know why you want to work there, why you want to be a commercial lawyer, how you work in teams and how you balance multiple deadlines (Competency Interview). The rest of the exercises - scenario and case-study - are more about understanding what the lawyers there do, and how businesses operate.
Please, keep in mind this is written from a law student point of view (graduated), and they adjust what is expected from you depending on whether you are a law student or not. You still need to know commercial/business issues, but would not be expected to know so much about contract law, etc.
The day started at 9:00 and we waited until around 9:15 for someone to get us at the reception. There were 8 people interviewed on the day in total and we were informed they had place for everyone. I found it very nice to chat to others and even share tips & ideas before our interviews when we were waiting around. The structure of the interview differs for everyone, some started with Competency interview, and some with the case study. Everyone’s scenario interview is after lunch and tour of the offices with trainees.
COMPETENCY INTERVIEW (40 min)
This was fairly standard but for some reason, it was very tough as she questioned whatever I said. Other people who had different interviewers did not find it as bad. It was very structured as they had certain questions, they needed to ask you and fill in back to the report, not sure we went through all of them. Questions asked (they want examples):
- Why commercial law?
- Why HSF?
- When did you work in a team and faced challenges? How did you resolve them?
- How do you deal with multiple deadlines/priorities?
- When did you face an unforeseen event? (links to the managing of deadlines and priorities)
- What do you expect to be doing when working as a trainee?
CASE STUDY (45 min prep + 5 min wait + 10 min presentation + 25 min discussion)
I got documents with some leading questions and it was about an acquisition (heard it can be on anything, not only M&A). Make sure to first flick through the documents as the proper instructions with questions are somewhere in the middle, and I only found them later on (ops). You get 45 min to prepare and then after about 5 minutes you meet with a partner and present to them as if they were your client for 10 minutes, focusing on the questions provided in the task description. They then ask additional questions and discuss your suggestions for another 25 minutes.
Preparation
1. For this, I found Jaysen's M&A course incredibly useful, as you need to understand what risks to look out in acquisition and how to protect your client from those risks (warranty, indemnity, conditions precedent).
2. A&O Anatomy of the Deal is also good
3. Structure your presentation well, what I did was just a short introduction, reiterated clients' objectives & the issue at hand and then considered each of the risks that I identified. I mentioned always what the risk was and how we could protect against it. In the end, I shortly concluded, but it was more like a naturally flowing structure.
4. Know a bit about the firm’s practice areas & strengths – I referred sometimes to what “we at HSF could do for the client”, e.g. we have a good litigation team so they can also look into pre-empting these risks
SCENARIO INTERVIEW (40min)
You can get anything really. I had hypothetical acquisition; some people had other things. You just need to think about what the lawyers do, so again he would ask me what we would need to consider before etc. They were very friendly and it was really about testing whether you understand the work they do.
Generally, things that helped me the most:
1. Reading Commercial Awareness by Chris Stoakes (easy to read and very useful)
2. Jaysen’s M&A course (I mentioned "goodwill" as an important asset that is being acquired and they seemed impressed!)
3. Being comfortable with using warranties/indemnities/conditions precedent and knowing how the end result of each differs hence each of them is more suitable in different situations
4. Knowing what sector HSF operates in & practice areas so I could mention these
Useful things (not essential but probably subconsciously helped me?)
1. Jaysen's interview course (this is in general lot of questions and how to answer them, so not essential but useful)
2. Spotify Podcast - Commercial Awareness Podcast and FT News Briefing
3. Contract Law Basics (google A&O contract law basics)
Many thanks to this candidate for generously sharing her experiences!
HSF Spring Vacation Scheme AC
Generally, it was not as stressful as so many people described it to be (which was getting me really worried). Everyone was really nice, and no one was trying to trick me out. I think you need to know why you want to work there, why you want to be a commercial lawyer, how you work in teams and how you balance multiple deadlines (Competency Interview). The rest of the exercises - scenario and case-study - are more about understanding what the lawyers there do, and how businesses operate.
Please, keep in mind this is written from a law student point of view (graduated), and they adjust what is expected from you depending on whether you are a law student or not. You still need to know commercial/business issues, but would not be expected to know so much about contract law, etc.
The day started at 9:00 and we waited until around 9:15 for someone to get us at the reception. There were 8 people interviewed on the day in total and we were informed they had place for everyone. I found it very nice to chat to others and even share tips & ideas before our interviews when we were waiting around. The structure of the interview differs for everyone, some started with Competency interview, and some with the case study. Everyone’s scenario interview is after lunch and tour of the offices with trainees.
COMPETENCY INTERVIEW (40 min)
This was fairly standard but for some reason, it was very tough as she questioned whatever I said. Other people who had different interviewers did not find it as bad. It was very structured as they had certain questions, they needed to ask you and fill in back to the report, not sure we went through all of them. Questions asked (they want examples):
- Why commercial law?
- Why HSF?
- When did you work in a team and faced challenges? How did you resolve them?
- How do you deal with multiple deadlines/priorities?
- When did you face an unforeseen event? (links to the managing of deadlines and priorities)
- What do you expect to be doing when working as a trainee?
CASE STUDY (45 min prep + 5 min wait + 10 min presentation + 25 min discussion)
I got documents with some leading questions and it was about an acquisition (heard it can be on anything, not only M&A). Make sure to first flick through the documents as the proper instructions with questions are somewhere in the middle, and I only found them later on (ops). You get 45 min to prepare and then after about 5 minutes you meet with a partner and present to them as if they were your client for 10 minutes, focusing on the questions provided in the task description. They then ask additional questions and discuss your suggestions for another 25 minutes.
Preparation
1. For this, I found Jaysen's M&A course incredibly useful, as you need to understand what risks to look out in acquisition and how to protect your client from those risks (warranty, indemnity, conditions precedent).
2. A&O Anatomy of the Deal is also good
3. Structure your presentation well, what I did was just a short introduction, reiterated clients' objectives & the issue at hand and then considered each of the risks that I identified. I mentioned always what the risk was and how we could protect against it. In the end, I shortly concluded, but it was more like a naturally flowing structure.
4. Know a bit about the firm’s practice areas & strengths – I referred sometimes to what “we at HSF could do for the client”, e.g. we have a good litigation team so they can also look into pre-empting these risks
SCENARIO INTERVIEW (40min)
You can get anything really. I had hypothetical acquisition; some people had other things. You just need to think about what the lawyers do, so again he would ask me what we would need to consider before etc. They were very friendly and it was really about testing whether you understand the work they do.
Generally, things that helped me the most:
1. Reading Commercial Awareness by Chris Stoakes (easy to read and very useful)
2. Jaysen’s M&A course (I mentioned "goodwill" as an important asset that is being acquired and they seemed impressed!)
3. Being comfortable with using warranties/indemnities/conditions precedent and knowing how the end result of each differs hence each of them is more suitable in different situations
4. Knowing what sector HSF operates in & practice areas so I could mention these
Useful things (not essential but probably subconsciously helped me?)
1. Jaysen's interview course (this is in general lot of questions and how to answer them, so not essential but useful)
2. Spotify Podcast - Commercial Awareness Podcast and FT News Briefing
3. Contract Law Basics (google A&O contract law basics)
