My answers to Bird & Bird application questions - any good ?

[Sagal Mohamed]

Hello, I'm applying for bird and bird vacation scheme and im wondering if you can rate my answers - they all have a 150 word limit.

1] Based on your research, what do you understand to be the biggest opportunity for one of the sectors in which we specialise?

Data will be the biggest opportunity for Bird and Bird as it will become the most sought after commodity, due to digitalisation taking over every facet of consumers lives. With one of the most specialised privacy and data protection practise area’s, Bird and Bird will be presented with innovative legal challenges as digitalisation will generate a new rush of legal activity. One of those activities will be an increase in Government regulation, which businesses will resist as they argue hindering full access to its customer’s data will restrict their business’ potential. These new legal challenges development’s will provide great opportunities for Bird and Bird, as it has precedent of mounting successful legal challenges against data regulations for their clients, such as in Scarlet v Sabam (2011) when Bird and Bird argued that data collected on Internet Provider Services was subjective thereby policing it would contravene EU law on internet user’s privacy and freedom.


2] In your view, what will be the greatest innovation to influence the firm in the next 5 years and why?

Due to the covid-19 restrictions preventing mass attendees, the live sports business model will innovative into a majority gaming form, specifically in the Esports market. This change will be paramount to Bird and Bird as it has represented clients from the live sports industry, such as advising Celtic Rugby who have in the past relied on expanding its membership to include South Africa. This shift in advice includes: A larger role for Bird and Bird’s IP team, as developers will want to protect their ideas from being stolen or copyrighted without their approval. The data protection team will need to make sure developer’s data protection is in line with industry standards, so their customer’s data isn’t vulnerable to theft or hacking. As an insurance policy, Bird and Bird will need to make sure their private litigation team is prepared for any incoming lawsuits.

3]
Please tell us about the key event or experience that has influenced you to develop yourself as an individual. As we are interested in learning about your non-academic experiences, try to use an example from your extra-curricular activities (music, sport etc) or your work/voluntary experience.

• What was the key event/experience and how did it come about?
• What obstacles did you have to overcome?
• What was the key learning for you?

The LSE Women’s Rowing team had their first boat race in November 2019 and to prepare for it I set myself a goal of two rowing and gym sessions per week. The hard slog of waking up at 6AM and rowing in the morning winter hardened my resolve and enabled me to focus my mind on my end goal. The training schedule over six weeks was fundamental in developing my appreciation for delayed gratification. My success was enabled by creating a thoroughly researched schedule from the beginning, which enabled me to gain the optimum likelihood of success. I used flexibility as a way to bolster my chances of winning, as when new recommendations were given to me by my coaches, I modified my training sessions to fit their advice, because I knew that as experienced rowers they had an in-built knowledge on how to win that I didn’t.

 

[Jaysen]

Hello, I'm applying for bird and bird vacation scheme and im wondering if you can rate my answers - they all have a 150 word limit.

1] Based on your research, what do you understand to be the biggest opportunity for one of the sectors in which we specialise?

Data will be the biggest opportunity for Bird and Bird as it will become the most sought after commodity, due to digitalisation taking over every facet of consumers lives. With one of the most specialised privacy and data protection practise area’s, Bird and Bird will be presented with innovative legal challenges as digitalisation will generate a new rush of legal activity. One of those activities will be an increase in Government regulation, which businesses will resist as they argue hindering full access to its customer’s data will restrict their business’ potential. These new legal challenges development’s will provide great opportunities for Bird and Bird, as it has precedent of mounting successful legal challenges against data regulations for their clients, such as in Scarlet v Sabam (2011) when Bird and Bird argued that data collected on Internet Provider Services was subjective thereby policing it would contravene EU law on internet user’s privacy and freedom.


2] In your view, what will be the greatest innovation to influence the firm in the next 5 years and why?

Due to the covid-19 restrictions preventing mass attendees, the live sports business model will innovative into a majority gaming form, specifically in the Esports market. This change will be paramount to Bird and Bird as it has represented clients from the live sports industry, such as advising Celtic Rugby who have in the past relied on expanding its membership to include South Africa. This shift in advice includes: A larger role for Bird and Bird’s IP team, as developers will want to protect their ideas from being stolen or copyrighted without their approval. The data protection team will need to make sure developer’s data protection is in line with industry standards, so their customer’s data isn’t vulnerable to theft or hacking. As an insurance policy, Bird and Bird will need to make sure their private litigation team is prepared for any incoming lawsuits.

3]
Please tell us about the key event or experience that has influenced you to develop yourself as an individual. As we are interested in learning about your non-academic experiences, try to use an example from your extra-curricular activities (music, sport etc) or your work/voluntary experience.

• What was the key event/experience and how did it come about?
• What obstacles did you have to overcome?
• What was the key learning for you?

The LSE Women’s Rowing team had their first boat race in November 2019 and to prepare for it I set myself a goal of two rowing and gym sessions per week. The hard slog of waking up at 6AM and rowing in the morning winter hardened my resolve and enabled me to focus my mind on my end goal. The training schedule over six weeks was fundamental in developing my appreciation for delayed gratification. My success was enabled by creating a thoroughly researched schedule from the beginning, which enabled me to gain the optimum likelihood of success. I used flexibility as a way to bolster my chances of winning, as when new recommendations were given to me by my coaches, I modified my training sessions to fit their advice, because I knew that as experienced rowers they had an in-built knowledge on how to win that I didn’t.

Throughout, note the firm is Bird & Bird, rather than Bird and Bird. Also, be careful of missing/incorrect apostrophes, incorrect capitalisation (e.g. 'government'), and typos (e.g. 'the live sports business model will innovative').

1. I feel we're taking quite vaguely in this answer. At the moment, I'm not convinced on why data is the biggest opportunity for Bird & Bird's privacy and data protection practice area. On a similar note, I assume you mean something specific about 'data', rather than simply data on its own. We also seem to making some claims here e.g. 'which businesses will resist as they argue...', but I'm not sure how you are coming to those conclusions. I like the reference to a case, although I think it would help to be clearer as to how this backs up your argument that data will be the biggest opportunity for the privacy and data protection practice area.

2. This seems like quite a niche topic as the greatest innovation to influence the firm in the next five years. This doesn't mean your topic is wrong, but I think we need to make a stronger case here, beyond the firm having represented clients in this area. We also make some vague/general statements here (about Bird & Bird's need to prepare for lawsuits), which I'm not sure add much value to the answer.

3. I think the example is very good. Try to replace vague phrases (e.g. optimum likelihood of success) with more specific detail. I also think we need to be clearer as to what obstacles you had to overcome. Finally, was there an outcome here?