jacob7191 (Offline)

Hi,

I was looking at some old threads and came across you mentioning the vacation scheme you undertook at Macfarlanes

I have an open day with them pretty soon (which consists of a group exercise, written exercise and partner interviw), but wanted some insight as to the types of questions they ask and how they come across.

Would be extremely helpful if you could provide any information.

Thanks in advance

Congrats for the TC! Which office is it for?

Hey buddy, congrats on the TC! I see the messages below have general advice but was wondering if you had anything you could add in terms of preparing for the Assessment Centre! It's my first one and I'm nervous as hell. Cheers!

Hi, Thanks for your message. Mine's only one week - it was meant to be two, but I think there were too many people so they had to split it. Glad to it was a positive experience, and good to know it'll probably involve an assessment day (was wondering If we might have to go back another time for AC, but better that it's all in one!)

Heyy

I noticed you'd posted about Addleshaw a couple of times and wondered if you'd done a vac scheme? I'm there next week, and I've trawled discussion boards and can't find anything at all.

Any light you can shed would be appreciated... no idea what to expect :/

Elle

Hi. Here is the message I sent to someone else who asked me the same thing:

In general I found that there wasn't much you could prepare for. It started off with a re-test of the verbal reasoning test. Then there was a group exercise where you are given some information about a company and some possible strategic options it could take. Then as a group you have to discuss the options and decide which one(s) you would suggest to the company's CEO. Then you had to present your findings to the CEO (played by a partner) although this was not a formal presentation. The main thing here is to make sure everyone has a chance to contribute and say something in the presentation.

Next was the instruction-taking which was definitely the hardest part. You get 25 minutes to read through some information on a dispute between two companies, plus the contract between them. You then have to go in with two partners (or a partner and associate) and go through the issues - talking about what the main problems are, who you think is in breach, what further information would you need before advising etc? The partner will help you along by asking questions. In all honesty I thought I'd done terribly in this so I'm not sure what tips to give. Just make sure you keep an eye on the time when you are reading through the materials - 25 minutes goes very quickly! You can make notes which you can take with you into the partners' room but you can't take the original materials. I think the main thing is to focus on giving good commercial advice and not getting too caught up in legal details. Although I am a non-law student and they did say they expect law students to know a bit more about contract law.

Finally there was the interview which was fairly relaxed. At least, it wasn't very structured. They went through your application form and drew bits out from that, so I think it would be different for everyone.

Hope that helps.

Hi,

I hope you don't mind me contacting you, however, I was wondering if you had already completed the Addleshaw Goddard telephone interview? I have mine coming up and after so many rejections, really would like to progress past the telephone interview. If you could give me an idea of the types of questions and what I should be preparing, I would be o grateful. I totally understand if you don't want to though. Hope your progressing in all your applications!

Good luck

Hi. Someone just asked me this on the main board and I posted the following...

"Hi. Yep, I have done one. Was a couple of weeks ago now so I'm trying to remember the format. The competency questions were fairly standard - teamworking, building relationships etc.

On the commercial front they asked about the origins of the recession. Can't remember if they asked anything else on the commercial front but if they did it was quite general stuff.

One thing I would say is that you really do need to know about AG. Check out their key facts section on the website as they fire some questions about AG's profits, numbers of partners etc which it's easy to come unstuck on as you can't blag them. Also check out a couple of their clients and deals, and think about what makes AG unique - e.g. what sort of innovations have they come up with recently.

I thought my interview had gone terribly as the interviewer was quite severe but I got through to the next round so don't be put off if you think it's going badly as I think it's just the interview style they adopt."

Hope that helps.