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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jaysen" data-source="post: 1017" data-attributes="member: 1">When was your Macfarlanes interview? March 2016What was it for? Vacation SchemePlease describe the interview process at Macfarlanes.There were quite a lot of applicants together on the same day. We sat around in a conference room and there were ice-breakers. We talked to the person next to us and then relayed to the rest of the room. It was good to relax us a little bit before things started. The grad rec partners was reassuring in telling us that we had done very well just to get there, and assured us that there were enough places for us all to go through.The first exercise was a group negotiation exercise. I was put in a group with 6 people including myself. The scenario was an acquisition of an airline. At first there was a list of potential issues and we discussed as a group, led by two current trainees, how serious each would be, which were the most serious etc. Then we were split into two groups of three, representing each side of the acquisition. We had certain goals to achieve from the negotiations, and time to prepare amongst ourselves. Then we negotiated with the team opposite. It didn't matter too much what result you achieved; it was more about how you did it, whether you were calm, cordial but stern, didn't back down too easily, showed commercial awareness in your arguments, and reached an agreement before the time limit.The second exercise was a written exercise: a letter to a client advising on whether they had grounds to sack some employees. This involved looking at the employment contract, examining against the facts, and coming to a conclusion. Time management is key for this; I only just finished in time.Then we had lunch with trainees and partners, which was a little intimidating at first but fine once we were going. It's important to remember they're just there to have a lunch and answer any questions you have or just discuss things. They're not out there to assess the quality of your questions or anything.The final exercise was a blind interview with a partner. Before this we had fifteen minutes to read over a scenario involving the ethics of coming across inside information and whether or not to use it. We discussed this in the interview for about ten minutes, and it seemed mostly about how we thought about the issue. Then there was a quick interview about background, and usual questions about motivation. My interviewer was very friendly and put me very much at ease when I was very nervous going into it.What advice would you give to future applicants for the Macfarlanes interview?Be sure to contribute in the group exercise. We structured it so that each of us in the group could start and make the point on one of the issues up for negotiation, and 'lead' the negotiations for our side. That was helpful for sharing the opportunities to speak. Make sure you keep an eye on the time, though the other people in the exercise made a big show of checking their watches and announcing how long we had left, clearly trying to earn points with the assessors. Draw upon what other people say, expanding on their points. Try to draw in to the discussion someone who hasn't been saying much.Think about how you would structure a letter to a client, but otherwise it's difficult to prepare for the written exercise as it's just applying facts to the contract to see what can be done. Make sure to give clear advice and really watch the time. You can't go too wrong if you finish on time.It's very difficult to prepare for the quick scenario to discuss, but think about privileged information and codes of ethics for solicitors. Then prepare the usual motivation questions, competency, but the interview went very quickly.</blockquote>

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

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