How to optimise the use of a contact within Clifford Chance?

[MJL77]

In July of this year, I was invited down to the Clifford Chance office in London to meet with a partner in the M&A department for a 1-on-1 chat and a tour of the London office. It wasn't part of any formal open day or vac scheme process, I had obtained this connection through a CFO I interviewed for my undergraduate dissertation who wanted to set me up with his legal contact at Clifford Chance.

The meeting lasted roughly an hour, I got a tour of the office, he asked me some quite detailed questions about my work experience and my desire to be a commercial lawyer and, in turn, I asked him about the inner workings of M&A, the firm, and about how to succeed in the application process.

At the end of the meeting, he said that I can e-mail him anytime if I have any application questions and that he would copy me into an e-mail with the graduate recruitment team so that I could aim any questions I had to them also. Obviously, having a major partner contact with the firm is a huge upper hand in the application process which I don't want to waste.

My questions are:
How should I make the most of this contact within the firm?
What kind of questions can I ask which will give me an upper hand in the application process?

I look forward to hearing any wisdom which anyone can offer.

 

[Jessica Booker]

In July of this year, I was invited down to the Clifford Chance office in London to meet with a partner in the M&A department for a 1-on-1 chat and a tour of the London office. It wasn't part of any formal open day or vac scheme process, I had obtained this connection through a CFO I interviewed for my undergraduate dissertation who wanted to set me up with his legal contact at Clifford Chance.

The meeting lasted roughly an hour, I got a tour of the office, he asked me some quite detailed questions about my work experience and my desire to be a commercial lawyer and, in turn, I asked him about the inner workings of M&A, the firm, and about how to succeed in the application process.

At the end of the meeting, he said that I can e-mail him anytime if I have any application questions and that he would copy me into an e-mail with the graduate recruitment team so that I could aim any questions I had to them also. Obviously, having a major partner contact with the firm is a huge upper hand in the application process which I don't want to waste.

My questions are:
How should I make the most of this contact within the firm?
What kind of questions can I ask which will give me an upper hand in the application process?

I look forward to hearing any wisdom which anyone can offer.

I don’t think it does give you an upper hand as such. It can obviously help inform your application, but that could be done through other methods too.


My advice:

Keep the email short - maybe prioritise 2-3 key questions you want answered rather than everything you need to know

don’t ask anything that you might have found out from your initial meeting or from CC’s graduate recruitment website

ask genuine questions you want to know the answer to - questions that are answered by an opinion rather than fact are typically a safe route to go.

make sure you contact them with plenty of time before you want to submit your application. They will be busy - it may take some time for them or the grad Rec team to respond to your questions.