App Question: Explain a recent news story and how it impacts either a firm or the legal industry in

[Shreeya Ranchhod]

Hi all,

Applications about commercial awareness questions is something I've seen a lot more recently. They also ask for a range of words (200 for some but 500 for others) How is best to approach this question and most importantly how should it be structured? It would also be great to know how this would differ for the different word counts?

Thanks!

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Pick something you are genuinely interested in.

structure depends on so many things, so it’s difficult to be specific on this.

 

[Alice G]

These questions can really vary as well - some are very open-ended whilst others will be more guided in terms of what they want to see you do in the words allowed. Make sure to read the question carefully and try to tailor the response to the firm if possible (though do not force it, only do so if you have selected something where this is logical though it is beneficial to try and select something relevant to the firm in some way).

 

[Jaysen]

Hi all,

Applications about commercial awareness questions is something I've seen a lot more recently. They also ask for a range of words (200 for some but 500 for others) How is best to approach this question and most importantly how should it be structured? It would also be great to know how this would differ for the different word counts?

Thanks!

As has been said above:

Choose a topic you have a genuine interest in as this will show in your answer.

Make sure your answer is 100% relevant to the question being asked. In other words, if the question asks you to discuss the impact of a story on a particular firm, don't discuss the impact on law firms generally. You'd be surprised at how many candidates get this wrong.

Write clearly and simply. Candidates sometimes think that using lots of big words/technical language will impress, but it's the opposite. You want to show that you're confident enough in your knowledge that you can communicate a complex topic clearly.

Structure is completely up to you, but think about how you might 'hook' the recruiter. Consider: What interested you about the topic? What are the most important highlights? In a similar vein, don't waste time on unnecessary background information.

To adjust to shorter word counts, it's just about being more concise in your writing, focusing on the most relevant information. You've got to be ruthless about stripping away unnecessary information (which is what you want to be doing for all the other application questions anyway).