Weil, Gotshal & Manges Interview 2022

Elizabeth K

Esteemed Member
Gold Member
Premium Member
Jul 6, 2021
90
14
Please state the month/year you interviewed at the firm.

February 2022

Please specify what the interview was for.

Vacation Scheme 2022

Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings.

11:30-13:00 Written Exercise supervised by one member of Graduate Recruitment (half of the candidates do the written exercise first and the other half do the interview first).
13:00-13:15 Break.
13:15-14:00 Interview with one member of Graduate Recruitment and one Associate.
14:00-14:15 Trainee Q&A with one trainee to two candidates.

Please provide a summary of each assessment on the day with approximate timings.

1) Written Exercise - 60 minutes in-person (or 75 minutes online) In-tray/E-tray exercise.
The exercise replicated a trainee's inbox with various tasks of differing priority to complete. We were instructed to prioritise and work through the tasks. As this simulates an email inbox, you are only allowed to open the final task 20 minutes before the end to replicate an urgent email coming through. Some of the tasks require you to read, digest and summarise quickly, others are more about attention to detail in spotting mistakes. Note that there wasn't any task that required outside commercial awareness or knowledge, but if you kept up with the news regularly and had read about the topic before, it would help.
The tasks included: summarising news articles into a client memo, reviewing an NDA, collating information from an email chain, suggesting Grad Recruitment university careers event ideas and responding to emails generally (e.g. other members of your team, partners in other departments, the CR&I committee etc.).

2) Interview - 45 minutes of competency, motivational and commercial awareness questions.
Many of the motivational and commercial awareness questions were aimed directly at private equity and working in a high pressure environment.

Please list any interview questions you were asked.

Tell me about yourself and what you are doing right now.
Why commercial law?
Why Weil - there are many elite international law firms, so why Weil?
Has there been a recent deal Weil was involved in that interests you?
What is your understanding of private equity?
What makes an M&A deal different from a private equity deal?
How does Weil make money?
Tell me about a time you've worked as part of a team.
Tell me about a time you've shown resilience to a high pressure, long hours environment?
Tell me about some of your university work, such as a dissertation, that you're proud of.
What skills did you gain from that university work that you would use working in my team?

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) Written Exercise
From my feedback, I now understand that the main purpose of this exercise is prioritising and putting an adequate amount of time and detail into the tasks that you do decide to do. In other words, do not try to do many tasks superficially, only choose a couple/few and do them well. For example, when summarising the news articles for the client memo, make sure to show your analysis as well as rewording the facts from the articles. Keep in mind that the most urgent tasks (in my case the client memo and the NDA) are often the place to showcase your full written skills, analytical abilities and external knowledge, as replying to countless less important emails only shows that you type fast.

2) Interview
Research private equity and how the firm makes money well and understand why it is something that attracts you. I highly recommend TCLA's Private Equity course - it is definitely, definitely worth the premium membership, as it will give you everything you need to know to understand the sector for this and any future interviews/case studies. This interview was more casual than interviews I've had at other firms in the fact that they will not always probe you for further information and you need to be quite active in displaying your true knowledge. So, if you are asked 'what do you know about private equity?' or 'how does Weil make money?' do not be afraid to go off on a whole bit about what you do know - it shows research, dedication and commitment to learning. If you are interrupted, do not make that the reason you do not say what you want to get across. I think the vibe of the interview will be dictated by the associate you are with, but if you feel like they are not giving you room to put your full answer across, try as best you can to pack your answers full of researched information + why this relates to you. I think if you have a structure like: point + research + why does this relate to me/how does this show my interest for the firm , then you will do well. Don't get caught up talking about your university work unless it is directly related to the firm's work/why you want to work there, try to tailor any work you've done at uni to how the skills you've derived from that will benefit you in a career at Weil.

Were you successful?

No
 

lawyer256

Star Member
Nov 20, 2022
26
9
Please state the month/year you interviewed at the firm.

February 2022

Please specify what the interview was for.

Vacation Scheme 2022

Please give an overview of the day with approximate timings.

11:30-13:00 Written Exercise supervised by one member of Graduate Recruitment (half of the candidates do the written exercise first and the other half do the interview first).
13:00-13:15 Break.
13:15-14:00 Interview with one member of Graduate Recruitment and one Associate.
14:00-14:15 Trainee Q&A with one trainee to two candidates.

Please provide a summary of each assessment on the day with approximate timings.

1) Written Exercise - 60 minutes in-person (or 75 minutes online) In-tray/E-tray exercise.
The exercise replicated a trainee's inbox with various tasks of differing priority to complete. We were instructed to prioritise and work through the tasks. As this simulates an email inbox, you are only allowed to open the final task 20 minutes before the end to replicate an urgent email coming through. Some of the tasks require you to read, digest and summarise quickly, others are more about attention to detail in spotting mistakes. Note that there wasn't any task that required outside commercial awareness or knowledge, but if you kept up with the news regularly and had read about the topic before, it would help.
The tasks included: summarising news articles into a client memo, reviewing an NDA, collating information from an email chain, suggesting Grad Recruitment university careers event ideas and responding to emails generally (e.g. other members of your team, partners in other departments, the CR&I committee etc.).

2) Interview - 45 minutes of competency, motivational and commercial awareness questions.
Many of the motivational and commercial awareness questions were aimed directly at private equity and working in a high pressure environment.

Please list any interview questions you were asked.

Tell me about yourself and what you are doing right now.
Why commercial law?
Why Weil - there are many elite international law firms, so why Weil?
Has there been a recent deal Weil was involved in that interests you?
What is your understanding of private equity?
What makes an M&A deal different from a private equity deal?
How does Weil make money?
Tell me about a time you've worked as part of a team.
Tell me about a time you've shown resilience to a high pressure, long hours environment?
Tell me about some of your university work, such as a dissertation, that you're proud of.
What skills did you gain from that university work that you would use working in my team?

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) Written Exercise
From my feedback, I now understand that the main purpose of this exercise is prioritising and putting an adequate amount of time and detail into the tasks that you do decide to do. In other words, do not try to do many tasks superficially, only choose a couple/few and do them well. For example, when summarising the news articles for the client memo, make sure to show your analysis as well as rewording the facts from the articles. Keep in mind that the most urgent tasks (in my case the client memo and the NDA) are often the place to showcase your full written skills, analytical abilities and external knowledge, as replying to countless less important emails only shows that you type fast.

2) Interview
Research private equity and how the firm makes money well and understand why it is something that attracts you. I highly recommend TCLA's Private Equity course - it is definitely, definitely worth the premium membership, as it will give you everything you need to know to understand the sector for this and any future interviews/case studies. This interview was more casual than interviews I've had at other firms in the fact that they will not always probe you for further information and you need to be quite active in displaying your true knowledge. So, if you are asked 'what do you know about private equity?' or 'how does Weil make money?' do not be afraid to go off on a whole bit about what you do know - it shows research, dedication and commitment to learning. If you are interrupted, do not make that the reason you do not say what you want to get across. I think the vibe of the interview will be dictated by the associate you are with, but if you feel like they are not giving you room to put your full answer across, try as best you can to pack your answers full of researched information + why this relates to you. I think if you have a structure like: point + research + why does this relate to me/how does this show my interest for the firm , then you will do well. Don't get caught up talking about your university work unless it is directly related to the firm's work/why you want to work there, try to tailor any work you've done at uni to how the skills you've derived from that will benefit you in a career at Weil.

Were you successful?

No
Thanks for this! Just wondering how long it took them to get back to you?
 

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