This question is tougher to answer. Honestly, the best way to answer this question is to go with the vague approach exemplified in the previous section 5-Year Outlook Response. Whatever you say, do not tell your interviewer that you expect to make partner by then or that you will have left your BigLaw firm. This is such an easy question. Usually, students put their hobbies at the bottom of their resumes, so the interviewer may ask about them. And why? I flustered a bit on what to respond.
I got an offer but I wanted to share my experience so that you can be more prepared for situations like this. Only a few firms asked me behavioral questions during my early interview week, but a few should be enough to motivate you to prepare for them. To effectively answer these questions, you can refer to a prior internship or job where you were tossed into the deep end. Follow this response formula:. I recommend the STAR response , which has been widely adopted as a framework for behavior-based interview questions:.
Situation: Describe the context or the situation you were in, touching on the important professional or social conditions. Task: Talk about the task that you needed to accomplish. Be specific and provide details. Action : Describe the action you took and your rationale for doing so. Focus on your contributions and organize your plan.
Result : Explain the results of your action. Focus on positive outcomes and accomplishments. Share what you learned or feedback you received. The attorneys were swamped with work, so one of them gave me the task of writing the first draft of a request for interrogatories. He quickly referred to a few resources I could use before leaving the office for meetings. I had never drafted a request for interrogatories before, so I felt like a fish out of water. I found several and studied the formatting and the specific language used.
After I completed my first draft, I asked a more junior attorney to glance over it, and he gave me some great feedback. Eventually, I was able to turn in the assignment on time, and my assigning attorney was pleased with my work.
This experience really taught me to leverage the resources around me. Again, this may be difficult for K-JDs lacking substantial work experience. Nevertheless, they can refer back to their 1L summer internship experience. Think back to any challenges you had to overcome during that time. There must have been something that was difficult for you, whether it be an assignment or a disagreement with a team member.
If you are a 1L interviewing for a 1L summer associate position and you receive this question, look back to any group projects where you encountered an obstacle.
Perhaps you had difficulty in managing and overseeing an event held by your student organization. You can discuss leadership experience gained through your hobbies, academic projects, school organizations, and even volunteering. Use the STAR formula again. I scheduled a meeting to discuss strategies and communicated my appreciation to my team for all of their hard work.
As a result, we were able to overcome all of our obstacles at once, and the event turned out to be a success. Sounds tough, right? They most likely just want to see you articulating something you learned in class that you thought was interesting.
Practicing attorneys are usually only experts in their practice area. During your 1L course, you covered a variety of topics e. Look at your interviewer. What field of law do they practice? Think back to another course where your professor discussed the application of the law to a recent case.
Take a look at the following short snippet from an interview with Keanu Reeves. He hears the question and takes up to 10 seconds to fully absorb it before giving his answer. One of my classmates who got this question responded by articulating the result of a recent case in her constitutional law class. Her interviewer already knew about the case, but my classmate still walked away with an offer from the firm.
Practice your interview responses. We also wrote a detailed article here about how to navigate screener and callback interviews during law firm recruitment week e. Asking questions is also big part of law firm interviews. Action: Describe the steps you completed or skills you used to address the problem or issue. Use this opportunity to highlight strengths and skills you could bring to the position.
Result: Summarize the result or lessons learned while addressing the issue. Tell me about a time you had to make a quick decision. Tell me about a difficult experience you had in a clinic or internship and how you overcame it.
Tell me about a time you had too many things to do and had to prioritize. Tell me about a situation where you failed. Why did you fail and what did you learn from it? Tell me about a time you had to work with someone who did things very differently from you. Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult client or coworker.
Describe a situation in which a detail you thought to be unimportant turned out to be very important. Tell me about a time you had to persuade a colleague to accept your point of view. Tell me about a time you went above and beyond the call of duty.
Describe a situation where your efforts had a direct impact on the outcome. Tell me about an ethical work situation you had to deal with. How did it turn out? Tell me about a time when you had to act in a leadership capacity.
What have you done in the workforce that shows initiative and creativity? How would you handle a situation where you and your supervisor disagreed about an issue or course of action? The officer arrested the defendant and searched the car. He found a pound of cocaine in the gym bag of the trunk.
What questions do you have for the officer before you analyze how to argue for admission of the cocaine in front of the hearing judge? Do you think the search was constitutional? Develop your argument. What would you do if you were assigned a case you were morally opposed to?
How would you reconcile the conflict between your personal beliefs and the case? What would you do if your supervisor told you to file a case but you did not believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty? Can you imagine a case in which you believed beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed but you chose not to file? You are an ADA on a case and offered the defendant a plea of five years.
The defendant rejected it and wants to go to trial. You receive a call the night before the trial informing you that your only witness just died of a heart attack.
What would you do? The victim is an year-old white man who was robbed at gunpoint at 3 AM with no witnesses. After the robbery, he sees a police officer and flags him down. The officer and the victim proceed to drive around for a minute when the victim points out the robber in front of a store with three other men.
The robber has nothing on him at arrest — no gun, no wallet, not even his own identification. Would you charge armed robbery? You are about to start a gun possession trial. The defendant was arrested after he was pulled over for running a red light. At 9 AM on the morning of the trial, the arresting officer says he needs to talk to you. He explains that the arrest happened as he explained in the grand jury, except that he came on the scene after the actual seizure of the gun. The officer who saw the running of the red light and found the gun was at the end of her shift and asked this officer to cover the case.
What do you do? A police officer comes to your office with an arrest. She tells you that she heard about a robbery on her police radio; during the robbery, three guys knocked down an old lady and grabbed her purse. The officer started driving to the scene of the crime and she saw two men running down the sidewalk. One man was holding something bulky under his coat. She ordered them to stop.
She searched them and the one with the bulky coat had a purse under his jacket, so she arrested them both for robbery.
Would you write up the case? You are prosecuting a robbery case. You have spoken with the victim several times about the events that occurred the night of the robbery. She presents consistent facts to you every time you speak with her, providing you with specific details about robbery, including the location, time, and description of the perpetrator. There are no inconsistencies. You just do not believe her and you cannot point to a specific reason why. Why do you do?
How would you counsel a young client who had never been arrested and is proclaiming his innocence in the face of prosecution for a serious crime based completely on the testimony of several police officers? The client is facing a long jail sentence should he be convicted after a jury trial but is now being offered a plea-bargained sentence of probation.
What do you say to the client? Would you notify the judge or the prosecutor when the witness failed to show up for court in the correct courtroom? You represent John Smith, charged with beating his wife. He also tells you in an offhand remark that he would beat her again if he had the chance. After performing some in-depth research and interviewing several employees, I was able to find out that there was a delivery driver present who corroborated my client's story.
Thankfully, we were able to settle quickly after that. This question helps a hiring partner understand more about your client relations. Think about how you want a client to feel after an interaction with you in the office or courtroom. Consider what attributes you have and how you work that makes a client happy to have you represent them.
Employers want to make sure that you treat clients well and represent their law firm in a positive light. Example: "I want my clients to know that I'll work hard in their case because they matter to me. I care a lot about their personal outcome and do my due diligence in researching their issue to offer solutions, file the appropriate paperwork and represent them in disputes.
My clients should know that I am their advocate, and they can be honest with me about their situation and take comfort in the fact that I'm providing a safe space for them. How you perform in the courtroom can be the determining factor in winning your case. Answering this question is your chance to share how you interact with members of the court, present your case and represent your client.
Give a detailed, step-by-step answer that shows exactly how you prepare and work in a courtroom. Example: "Either the night before or the morning of a case, I study all of my notes so I'm fully prepared for the trial. I make sure any witnesses or evidence I need to present are confirmed. I usually take an aggressive stance during proceedings so my client gets fair representation. When the opposing side is presenting, I take thorough notes so I can counter effectively.
Here are some interview tips to consider so you can present yourself well to the hiring partner:. The law firm's hiring partners may ask you questions about recent court rulings to make sure you have up-to-date knowledge in your field. Be prepared to discuss them and your thoughts as this shows your potential new employer that you take your career seriously. Read more: How to Prepare for an Interview. Especially if the law firm is well established in the community, the partners want to make sure you will continue to bring good representation to them.
It's important to show that you have researched the firm and are excited to work there. You'll also be able to better explain what makes you a good fit for the firm and why you chose it as your new place of employment. A large component of working at a law firm is being able to articulate your case in a clear, concise and professional way. Hiring partners may want to see evidence of your writing, so bring some examples.
This could include court documents you have prepared, an extensive legal research paper you wrote in school or a legal memo. Find jobs. Company reviews. Find salaries. Upload your resume. Sign in. General questions.
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