Aug 31, 2023

Proven techniques for impressing at your law assessment centre

Aug 31, 2023

Assessment centres have become an unavoidable stepping-stone for many law firm applicants. Usually administered over the course of a day, assessment centres test presentation, interview, psychometric, and in-tray skills in both group and individual settings. These five simple techniques will allow you to prove you’re a well-rounded candidate, bringing you one step closer to a training contract or vacation scheme offer.

Knowledge of the law firm

This will come as no surprise to anyone who has attended a legal recruitment event, but law firms are big on culture. Recruiters, while still looking for a diverse array of talent, want candidates who can fit into this culture.

Honesty is the best policy. Recruiters can smell insincerity from a mile away, so be your true self in all situations. Knowing a firm’s culture allows you to best convey your genuine skills and experiences from a perspective recruiters will be most receptive to.

Understanding the firm and its clients is an excellent step in presenting yourself as an engaged candidate. The stereotypical advice for this is to pick a handful of cases from the firm’s website so that you can show off your specific knowledge if the moment arises. While this can be a useful practice, don’t mistake knowledge of a case with knowledge of the firm.

Instead, consider: where are the firm’s offices located? Which are its biggest practice areas? What sort of pro bono work do they do? Why do their clients choose them over other firms? Then, given the above, why do you want to work for the firm?

Presenting with confidence

Presentations, either individual or group, are a notorious part of the assessment centre experience. Follow this technique, and you will realise that rather than being your biggest challenge, it is the greatest opportunity.

Whether a firm gives you an hour or a week to prepare for your presentation, your first goal should always be to understand why you have been given this task and how it can be related to the firm or broader legal market. This should give your preparation a clearer sense of direction.

Also, when working in a team, remember that firms are not looking for people who dominate or people who stay silent, but individuals who can collaborate fairly yet effectively.

Second, particularly when you have been given an extended period to prepare, the quality of your presentation will almost certainly be directly related to the depth of your preparation.

Recruiters are masters of picking up on insufficient knowledge, though remember most firms will have expectations relative to your experience. Interviewers often try to push you with their questions, so keep calm if you are asked something outside your comfort zone.

If you are looking for more detailed technique tips for presenting, check out Allaboutlaw’s Presentation Masterclass here.

Mastering the written exercise

In-tray exercises are the most common of all assessment centre tasks, and can often prove difficult for non-law students or those with limited work experience.

These activities will primarily be mock trainee work, such as a research task or drafting a client memo. In-tray exercises are a firm’s clearest opportunity to visualise you as a trainee, so make sure you play the part.

These tasks test your ability to maintain high standards while coordinating multiple responsibilities under time constraints. The best way to approach this is to be time conscious, appropriately prioritise based on the information you have, and pay attention to spelling, punctuation and grammar in the process.

Remember that you are also being judged on how you work, so try remaining organised with any handouts and demonstrate that you can systematically approach multiple tasks.

While there are specific skills that firm’s look for, the best way to broadly improve is to use virtual work experience opportunities. All About Law has both a Contract Review Exercise and a Written Exercise Masterclass, which should give you a good feel for what to expect. Several large law firms, such as Herbert Smith Freehills and Clifford Chance, also run direct virtual work experience programmes.

Understanding group exercises

Applicants often see group exercises as a tightrope where you have to balance speaking too much and speaking too little on either side. The reality is far less precise, with firms simply looking to understand whether you can effectively collaborate and meaningfully build upon the ideas of others.

Far from being an exact science, group exercises generally highlight particularly stubborn, unreceptive, or unengaged applicants who would not be conducive to collaborative work.

Remember that in these situations, you should not treat fellow applicants as competitors; you can uplift everyone in the group if you collaborate effectively. Remain receptive to the ideas of others, and do not be afraid to promote other people’s ideas. If you are looking for extra guidance on group exercise technique, see All About Law’s Group Exercise Masterclass.

Stay flexible in interviews

Law firm interviews are renowned for having the occasional curveball questions; these can range from tricky to downright baffling. While these questions seem absurdly abstract, they aim to force candidates to think on their feet. If you are going into an interview with a foundation of personal experiences, a strong understanding of the specific firm, and wider commercial knowledge, then you have nothing to fear from unexpected interview questions. Take your time, take a breath, and calmly consider how you may best answer with what knowledge you have rather than the knowledge you think the interviewer wants you to know. If you want a more detailed guide to improve your interviewing, see All About Law’s Interview Masterclass.

Selection & Assessment