Classic questions Flashcards
Why law?
- Intellectually stimulating - worked on a case advising a man who was being sued by the London School of Commerce for overpayment - worked out a delay to his payments and a new financing plan to avoid him having his house repossessed
- Working with people - worked as an SGL at the Union for over two years
Why commercial law?
- Strong relationships with clients - last years
- Ability to work on an exciting and dynamic team - attracts the best minds
- Working on headline cases, complex and interesting
Qualities for commercial law
- Dynamic and energetic team player - good feedback as a facilitator as Head of Publicity at TWS
- I enjoy problem solving - work through issues in a methodical way
Skills learnt for commercial law
Primarily, I have strong analytical skills, and intellectual flexibility - ability to analyse a narrative, pick out salient facts and construct an effective argument
Also have the ability to work well in a team
One character weakness
Can be too much of a perfectionist - sometimes I spend too much time on a project and work on it right up until the deadline
Manage this - set myself soft deadlines for sufficient time to edit and revise, make sure to plan out my time carefully
Why not consulting?
In and out quickly - more firing people and bringing down overheads
Why not banking?
Lots of uncertainty and less interesting - interesting parts of finance are covered by the legal profession, prefer not being numbers-based too
Why not the Bar?
Don’t really want to be a self-employed barrister
Also, tendency is as a barrister you will become a specialist in a microscopic area of the law
Why Slaughters
- Multi-specialist culture appeals to me having segued from one discipline to a multi-disciplinary course
- Culture of the firm - no billable hours and lockstep partnership foster a collaborative working environment, open door policy
- Excellent training - quickly stuck into high profile cases, lots of responsibility, and Bright Network interview emphasised the variety of work
Other firms? Why?
Other magic circle firms due to their high quality of client and excellent dispute resolution practices, other than Freshfields as I’m not as keen on their 8 seat training contract
Also HSF and Hogan Lovells because of their strong litigation practices
Why dispute resolution?
Find the idea of mediation, arbitration, etc. interesting - essentially enjoy the contentious element of the case, find it exciting
Very much enjoyed debating - won the Crabtree Cup at school debating issues like human vs natural responsibility for the climate, have retained interest in debating through the Union
Favourite module on my degree?
Really enjoying Caribbean in World History - have learnt a lot about post-emancipation societies, now writing on race in Cuba
Dissertation for MPhil.
Looking at post-revolutionary print culture in Cuba
Why not law at undergraduate?
Wanted to ground myself in something else before studying law - it was likely I would eventually pursue it, but I wanted to learn more about history first
Also felt history had excellent transferrable skills
Talk about masters
Latin American studies - great course
Weekly core seminars in very different core modules
Range of different approaches to one area - look through lens of anthropology, cultural studies, economics
Language has been great - 2 hours a week with CULP
