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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elizabeth K" data-source="post: 110747" data-attributes="member: 13455">Please state the month/year you interviewed at the firm.January 2021Please specify what the interview was for.Summer Vacation Scheme 2021Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings.9am - Arrival + talk from Graduate Recruitment (10 Minutes)9:30am - General Interview with an Associate and Partner (1 Hour)10:30am - Non-assessed trainee chat (15 Minutes)11:30am - Article Received (30 minutes, followed by hour-long case study interview with an Associate and Partner)Please provide a summary of each assessment on the day with approximate timings.Written Exercise - given 1 week prior (1 hour slot) - consists of spotting mistakes in a document and a redraft exercise. General Interview - (1 hour) - Competency, motivation, and situation based interview. Case Study Interview (1 hour) - interview based on an article from the FT or the Economist.Please list any interview questions you were asked.Why Law, why Freshfields etc. Various situational and competency questions. The Case Study interview was almost strictly commercial.What is your best advice for each aspect of the assessment on the day? Please break this down for each assessment. This can include advice for preparation, as well as tips for the day.1. The Written Exercise I was quite worried about this part – but it is straightforward. It was essentially to review a draft email, based on information derived from a series of emails provided prior. There were no commercial considerations – it is almost exclusively assessing your attention to detail. I was given four questions to answer (roughly): 1. What mistakes are there? How can you improve them? 2. Is the tone appropriate? 3. Is there anything that the client would dislike? 4. Redraft the final paragraph. Tips and advice: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Timing. You are given an hour, and I found this to be a generous amount of time. So long as you keep yourself at a steady pace, you will have time to read things multiple times. I submitted my document within the last 30 seconds – do not do this!</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In the draft document, DOUBT EVERYTHING. I would quite literally go word by word and question whether a mistake has been made. </li> </ul>Things to look out for: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The boring email information at the top. Is it being sent to the right person? Is the right person sending it? Are the correct people cc’d? Is the subject of the email appropriate? </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">How does the email begin and end? Is it too formal or too informal? Is the right person signing it off, and is it addressed to the correct person? </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Simple things – basic punctuation, silly spelling mistakes, capitalisation, so on. Don’t forget about these! </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Question every figure/clause/etc. Any number should be double checked. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Do the same with names of things, and any references to anything specific outlined in a previous email. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">With the final redraft task – KEEP IT SIMPLE. I think the trick is that you are led to believe that you must write something substantial. Remember, lawyers are succinct. I redrafted a couple of sentences into a handful of words. </li> </ul>2. General Interview The Associate and Partner were very friendly – as you often hear, it felt more like a conversation. The standard questions all come up (why law, why Freshfields, …) so do prepare them. What is unique about this interview is that there is a focus on follow-up questions – and this how they will apply pressure on you. The initial questions are simple enough, but anything you say will be up for scrutiny. Here is an example from my interview: As I am from the Middle East, I mentioned that I am interested in commercial in the region (and potentially doing a secondment/working in the future there). I was asked: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Why the Middle East? </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What is interesting about commercial affairs in the region? </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Well why don’t you apply to our Dubai office instead of London? (Greater variety of work, arguably more sophisticated clients + I have never worked in the region, but live in London) </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What offices do we have in the region? </li> </ul>The follow-up questions were insightful – it gave plenty of opportunity for me to talk about myself more naturally. Just be conscious of what you say, as they will really hone into any comments that leave room for further questioning. 3. Case Study Interview I was given an article from the FT about the performance of a company during the pandemic. I had plenty of time to re-read the article various times and make notes. Here is some advice and my experience: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The first question is inevitably going to be some sort of presentation. I was asked: Can you give us a 90-second elevator pitch style summary of the article? Really think about why the article was written, and then structure your summary around this. Mine was about the reasons WHY a company was SUCCESSFUL during a period of uncertainty. I therefore prepared 5 points with evidence from the article as to why they were, and 3 points highlighting potential causes of concern. (The quantities do not matter; it was just what I had found). </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">You should link these points to what lawyers could do. For instance, this business had been acquiring its competitors and integrating them. So M&A lawyers would have advised on these matters, and could continue to do so in the future. </li> </ul>Commercial Awareness considerations - As a non-law (History) student, all my questions revolved around financial/commercial considerations. Having a basic understanding of concepts was really useful. Here were some questions I was asked: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">So the company had a valuation of £xyz. Do you have any idea how this might have been calculated? </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What is a stock exchange? What is AIM? </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What is a supply chain? Which actors are involved in the supply chain of this business? </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Another consideration was the date of the article. It was written BEFORE a scandal that was front-page news about the business had been reported on. So being able to refer to this showed a strong understanding of commercial affairs. </li> </ul>Final bit of advice – just use your common sense! I know it’s easier said than done, but just remain cool headed. They were not trying to trick me out but were just trying to see how far they could push my logical thinking. I thought the atmosphere was quite laidback, and this was my favourite interview thus far.Were you successful?Yes</blockquote>

Verification: Our company is called, "The Corporate ___ Academy". What is the missing word here?

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