I submitted my standard one-page CV with my application. I try to find a nice balance between showing experience, strengths and some of my personality and motivations. It has the following:
Education - college modules and grades, a summary of my university achievements (highest grades, year averages) and some extracurriculars.
Work experience - my last two positions of responsibility with an outline of my duties and prizes/awards won.
Background - summarizes my previous career and why I decided to change careers.
Hobbies - I run and do philanthropy in my spare time.
Key skills - half a dozen skills which I believe are my strength and are relevant to being a trainee.
Does anyone know if DLA Piper accepts applications from final-year law students? They seem to have conflicting information on their website and application portal? 
It says this on the portal:
If you do not meet the application criteria below, your application will be unsuccessful:
It says this on the portal: If you do not meet the application criteria below, your application will be unsuccessful:
- Tier 4 student visa
- Penultimate year of a 3-year law undergraduate degree
- Final year of a non-law undergraduate degree
Are you an international student? Because that criteria only applies to international candidates.Does anyone know if DLA Piper accepts applications from final-year law students? They seem to have conflicting information on their website and application portal?
If you do not meet the application criteria below, your application will be unsuccessful:
or
- Tier 4 student visa
- Penultimate year of a 3-year law undergraduate degree
I spoke to the brand ambassador at my university and he said it's only their recommended candidates but I'm feeling a bit restless.
- Final year of a non-law undergraduate degree
I have the same, I am not entirely sure! I think they might have looked at our applications.
Hey everybody, I have received an AC invite from DLA today!
Just wondering if anyone has any advice for how to prepare?
Just wondering if anyone has any advice for how to prepare?
Congratulations! I'm still waiting to hear back from DLA, but I'm currently prepping for an AC with clifford chance, so if you're interested we could form a study group to prep the commercial awareness stuff?
Hi, sorry to jump in, I'm also currently prepping for an AC with Clifford chance, so very happy to share ideas or join the study group!
Hi guys, count me in this too! I am also preparing for an AC with Clifford chance too!
I emailed grad recruitment and they said that they don't send a confirmation. The screen reads a little message confirming it has been completed and that is the only confirmation we get.
You mean straight after the test? Like there isn't one on the screen when you login on the DLA Piper website?
Thank you so much! Congratulations to you too!
Yes that sounds great, I would love to be part of the group!
I did an AC with them last year and was made a TC offer after the virtual scheme (didn't accept). Happy to provide some advice though!!
CV interview
To prepare for this part of the interview adequately, understand where DLA as a law firm is going, and reflect this in terms of what you want from your own career. I think the things they like to hear are about how well you can fit to their values, the work they do, and also the ‘One UK’ approach- people are often put off about DLA because of their regional presence, but this isn’t reflective of the work they do as each firm gets to work on the ‘cutting edge’ rather than what some firms do which is export their more mundane work to the regions. DLA also have SUCH a clear vision for their future in terms of being their clients’ trusted *business* advisors as well as their legal advisors. this shows that they’re keeping in line with how the legal profession is changing and thus offers a more holistic /commercial approach to training there compared to some very traditional law firms that limit themselves to providing legal advice and that’s it. If you refer to the firm’s collaborative and collegiate nature (I’ve never seen a firm more truthful when they say they’re collegiate) then also link in how you and the firm both value relationship building- most of DLA’s clients are long-term clients- this tells you a lot about the quality of the work the firm does and how they continually adapt their business to be able to respond to clients’ changing demands. A good example of this would be all the free resources they released for clients and generally anyone who fell across their website on pandemic support.
Also, know your CV inside out. Be prepared to be asked about your experiences at university- why did you choose your university? Why your degree? What has been your favourite module? They’ll also likely dig into your work experience and ask you to substantiate- I had a part-time job and the chap was a huge shopper at the store so we spent a good 10 mins just discussing why I chose to work there, how long I work, what I enjoy about it, and then linked to the competency questions, how I managed working up to 20 hours a week whilst maintaining a solid First. DLA like all-rounders so they’ll likely also bring up what you do in your spare time- be honest here and try to show a real passion for the stuff you do outside of study.
Generally just prepare for competency questions too. I did this by tying up competencies they look for with the values they hold. Try to use different examples for every question too and use the STAR structure. Be precise in how you express yourself too.
Group Exercise
Im not quite sure if this will be replicated via the online assessment centre but I’ll go through it anyway. You’re given a booklet of information about a company and there’s several tasks to go through. You’re given 15 mins ( I think) at the start, to just read and then there’s an hour ( I think) to work as a group to solve all the tasks. I don’t think there’s anything particular you can do to prep for this exercise and there’s not much commercial awareness required either. The purpose of the task is how you communicate with others, and how you go about the tasks.
Case study
Split your time 50/50. Use half an hour to read the case study material, and use the other half to prepare the presentation. Ensure you know *exactly* what the brief requires. They’re not looking for you to be comprehensive in identifying every issue, but more at whether you can assimilate that much information in a short period of time and adequately present on it.
I’d recommend structuring your presentation as following.
Introduction- outline what you’re going to discuss, show an awareness of who you are in the case study (i.e. you would speak a lot differently if you were speaking to a Partner as opposed to the client themselves), make a verbal note that there’s a lot more information that you could deal with, but you’re going to focus on the 3 most important aspects but that you’re happy to follow up on the subsidiary elements later.
Main body- in referring to the brief, address all the elements, justifying any premise you put forward with the case study material. Can't be more specific here as I know their case study changes yearly!
Conclusion- repeat what you outlined in your introduction, summarising your key advice and invite questions.
Good luck!!!!
