Individual Presentation Tips

[EEE]

Hi everyone!

I will have to conduct an individual presentation soon (5 minutes long followed by a 5 minute Q&A). This can be in any format I prefer, e.g. digital or not. The topic will not be legal, but related to current issues in the news.

Has anyone ever had to prepare a presentation in advance for an interview? This is for a US firm.

Or does anyone have some more general tips about presentations for interviews? E.g. what aspects to cover, how to structure it, what stance to take, what information to include? How to introduce/conclude? What to expect from the Q&A?

This will be my first time doing this, so I am keen for any advice at all.

Many thanks in advance!

 

[ella01234]

Hi, I am guessing from your posts that your presentation is with Morrison & Foerster, I had my presentation a couple of weeks ago. In terms of the structure of your presentation, I guess it depends on the topic that you pick, but as it is only 5 mins you only need to talk about the most convincing and key parts of your argument. They did ask quite a lot of questions about my topic when I did the presentation and some were quite difficult to be honest, but I think they just want to see if you can think outside of the box and put your points across logically. The questions were less about knowledge but more about taking a stance on something. They were really nice about everything that I said so you don’t need to worry!

After the Q&A for the presentation, they wanted to find out more about my interests and discussed my application in more detail just to get to know me a bit better. Be prepared to answer questions about why MOFO and why commercial law again. Then I would just say have a lot of questions to ask them at the end and if you know who will be in the interview, research the lawyers beforehand so your questions will be quite specific. Hope this helps!

 

[EEE]

@ella01234 that is so so useful thank you!! Really appreciate that advice. Do you mind me asking how you found the case study interview?

 

[ella01234]

No problem! I think the case study wasn’t extremely difficult but I was only given 30 minutes to prepare before speaking to the associates and I felt the time went by quite quickly. It was split up into different sections so I think it’s best to try not to focus on one specific part of the case study for too long so you’ll be able to discuss everything in as much detail as you can. I was told before I started that the case study was much less formal and it was definitely more like a discussion, but try and be as structured as possible when going through your answer. The associates helped steer me in the right direction with questions if I was uncertain about anything or if there was something that required more detail. In general, I think having a general awareness of the different practice areas of the firm, what the role of a lawyer entails and understanding what businesses have to consider when making decisions will help. At the end I also got to ask the associates questions as well and they made me feel quite relaxed. Good luck!

 

[EEE]

No problem! I think the case study wasn’t extremely difficult but I was only given 30 minutes to prepare before speaking to the associates and I felt the time went by quite quickly. It was split up into different sections so I think it’s best to try not to focus on one specific part of the case study for too long so you’ll be able to discuss everything in as much detail as you can. I was told before I started that the case study was much less formal and it was definitely more like a discussion, but try and be as structured as possible when going through your answer. The associates helped steer me in the right direction with questions if I was uncertain about anything or if there was something that required more detail. In general, I think having a general awareness of the different practice areas of the firm, what the role of a lawyer entails and understanding what businesses have to consider when making decisions will help. At the end I also got to ask the associates questions as well and they made me feel quite relaxed. Good luck!

Amazing, thank you!! Really appreciate that.
Also, sorry if this sounds incredibly misinformed - this is my first round of applying and I'm not a law student - but when you say 'your answer', do they provide you with questions?

 

[ella01234]

No it's not really a task where you have to answer a set list of specific questions, they want you to be able to identify key points in the information provided and come up with solutions. Your 'answer' is basically you giving advice.

 

[EEE]

@ella01234 Amazing. You've been super useful, thank you. Wish you all the best if you haven't had the outcome of your interview yet!!!