Clayton Utz Interview Flashcards
- Tell us a bit about yourself
a. I study full-time at University of Southern QLD
b. I work full-time at a not-for-profit, community services organisation called Safe Places for Children, where I have worked for 9.5 years.
c. Safe Places is a therapeutic residential care service provider. Essentially, we care for children on child protection orders.
d. My current role with Safe Places is their Senior Licensing Coordinator. I am responsible for supporting the organisation to meet their child protection legislative, quality and compliance requirements across all operating states.
e. I’ve completed a range of different roles over the years and have learnt valuable skills which I believe are transferrable to a career change in law.
f. As a YW – learnt how to handle high pressure, high stress situations
g. As an AM – learnt how to effectively lead a team, work together as a team with both internal and external stakeholders to achieve a common objective.
h. As a QSM – learnt the importance of attention to detail and to develop a fine eye for detail as an auditor
- Why do you want to be a lawyer? Why are you interested in law? What motivated you to pursue a career in law?
Hint: Change of roles from AM to SQSM
a. When I changed roles from Area Manager to Senior Quality and Systems Manager, part of my job responsibilities was helping Queensland to meet its legislative and compliance requirements. I thoroughly enjoyed the legal aspect of the role, such as reviewing legislation, researching state requirements, and communicating this to the business. It sparked my interest to look into a career within the legal sector. Before jumping into a degree, I wanted to be sure so I spent a considerable amount of time researching different legal careers and what a role as a lawyer entails. Last year, I decided to make the jump into studying a law degree online while continuing to work full-time. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I want to use my law degree to pursue a career as a lawyer as it’s an incredibly important role within society. I believe it offers a great deal of intellectual challenge and stimulation, as well as opportunities for professional growth and development. I am interested in helping clients navigate complex and difficult issues to achieve their goals. It is incredibly rewarding to help solve really interesting problems for clients.
- Why are you interested in commercial law?
Hint: When considering career as lawyer, looked in different practice areas…
Business and legal interests…
Virtual internships…
Helping companies solve complex problems or achieve their business objectives…
a. When I was considering a career as a lawyer, I spent a lot of time looking into the different practice areas. Commercial law caught my attention and was the reason why I decided to study a law degree. Although I have found different areas of law interesting, I’m certain that commercial law is the area of law that I want to practice in. Commercial law appeals to me due to its business-focused approach. I would love to work in a role that combines my legal and business interests, which I am very passionate about. I have also recently completed three Virtual Internships: Introduction to Commercial Law (Allens), Finance and Mergers & Acquisitions (Ashurst) and Global Litigation (Herbert Smith Freehills). I thoroughly enjoyed working through scenario-based tasks, which solidified my interest in pursuing commercial law as a career. I also like the ability to create long-lasting client relationships, as opposed to one-off cases in some areas of law. I enjoy the prospect of helping companies to solve some of their largest and most complex legal problems and help them to achieve their goals and business objectives.
- What practice areas are you most interested in and why?
Hint:
Commercial Litigation
WRES
Corporate, M&A, Capital Markets
Pro Bono
a. Commercial Litigation
i. CU has the largest commercial litigation group in Australia
ii. Undertakes the most complex, significant and high-profile matters
iii. I enjoy the challenge of researching complex issues and developing persuasive arguments that support my client’s position. I want to be able to help companies in some of their most challenging and difficult times. Ideally work with the opposing counsel to come to a resolution that suits all parties.
b. Workplace Relations, Employment and Safety
i. Such a wide-reaching practice area - Workplace Relations, Employment and Safety impacts on every company in every industry.
ii. My understanding is that it would combine both front-end and back-end work. I would enjoy the variety.
iii. I am currently studying Employment Law at university
c. Corporate, M&A, Capital Markets
i. Heavy business/company focus, learning about the business and the industry sector they operate in. Interested in advising on the legal, strategic, and commercial aspects of the transaction, negotiating terms of agreements to help our client achieve their ideal outcome.
d. Pro Bono
i. Fundamental to CU
ii. First large Australian law firm to establish a formal pro bono practice; appoint a pro bono partner and pro bono senior associate; and sign the National Pro Bono Target
iii. Named three times as one of the world’s 10 leading pro bono firms
iv. FY23 averaged over 50 hours of pro bono work per lawyer for 8th year in a row
v. 1 in 24 hours of legal work was for a pro bono client
vi. Average 57.6 hours of pro bono work per FTE
vii. Employs two partners to run its pro bono practice, which was established in 1997
viii. Awarded the Who’s Who Legal Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year in London in 2019
ix. Built into lawyers’ performance assessments and eligibility for bonuses and promotions
- What are our firms’ values and how do you align to them?
a. CU’s culture is founded on the behavioural values of trust, respect and co-operation and the foundation value of highest ethical standards.
- Why do you want to work at Clayton Utz? / What do you know about Clayton Utz?
Hint:
Pro Bono
Graduate Program
Reputation and achievements
a. There are many reasons why I would love to work at Clayton Utz, but I’ll focus on just a few.
b. When applying for clerkship programs, it was important for me to look at the firms’ commitment to Pro Bono work and how they give back to the community. To me, Clayton Utz’ commitment to Pro Bono is second to none. Starting back in 1997, when Clayton Utz was the first large Australian law firm to establish a formal pro bono practice, appoint a dedicated Pro Bono partner and senior associate, and sign the National Pro Bono Target. It’s incredible that Clayton Utz has been recognised for its immense contribution to pro bono work by being named three times as one of the world’s top 10 leading pro bono firms. It was great to see that Clayton Utz remains committed, averaging over 50 hours of pro bono work per lawyer for the 8th year in a row, specifically 57.6 hours per FTE and 1 in 24 hours of legal work being for a pro bono client. For a large Australian law firm to have these sorts of statistics is amazing, and it’s a culture that I would love to be a part of.
c. Secondly, when I was looking to apply for clerkships, I also looked at their graduate programs. Clayton Utz’ graduate program stood out to me and was another reason why I decided to apply. I love how graduates get to complete three rotations of six months in different practice groups, access to professional learning and development opportunities and support with practical legal training. As I am just starting out, it is important to receive high quality training and I believe that Clayton Utz facilitates this.
d. When applying for firms, it was also important for me to consider their reputation and achievements within the industry. I applied for Clayton Utz as it is an award-winning, highly reputable law firm. It was impressive that the firm has achieved awards at all different levels, including the law firm as a whole, to specific practice areas, and individual lawyers. I want to work for a firm that has highly skilled, award-winning lawyers, as I would love to learn from some of the best lawyers in their field. I hope to work hard and one day be one of those lawyers. What is also unique is Clayton Utz’ significant public sector client base, having over 250 local, state and federal government departments, agencies and organisations as clients. To receive such a significant amount of important work from the different levels of government demonstrates to me that Clayton Utz delivers a high-quality service and has an excellent reputation within the community. I want to help contribute to the continued success of the firm.
- What was your favourite and least favourite subject at university? And why?
a. Favourite – Dispute Management, Evidence Law, Contracts
b. Least favourite – Legal history due to lack of practical application
- How do you stay organised and prioritise competing tasks?/ How do you stay organised while working on numerous tasks simultaneously?
a. Write down a list of all tasks
b. I’ll use Eisenhower’s Matrix
i. Important and urgent – DO: Highest priority, do it straight away
ii. Important but not urgent – SCHEDULE: plan to finish it later, focus/deep work
iii. Not important but urgent – DELEGATE: Give to someone else, “busy work”
iv. Not important and not urgent – ELIMINATE: Avoid entirely, no added value
- Tell us about a time when you made a mistake? What did you do? How did you fix it?
Hint: Budget with higher costings
a. In my role as Assistant Area Manager, I was responsible for sending financial budgets through to Child Safety to approve prior to us providing services. Child Safety contacted me to explain that they did not want items included within the budget and asked for these to be removed. I created the budget and sent it through to the Child Safety worker, who sent it to the financial delegate. The delegate rejected the budget due to the costs being too high. When it was sent back to me, I realised that I had accidentally forgotten to remove the items as requested. I contacted the Child Safety worker to explain what had occurred and to apologise. I immediately rectified the issue and sent it back to them. The budget was passed back to the financial delegate who approved the budget and was pleased with the timely amendments. Upon reflection, I realised that I had been trying to complete multiple tasks at once and didn’t review the budget like I should have prior to sending. Since then, I have always made sure to double and triple check. This was about five years ago now and I haven’t made the same mistake again.
- What does teamwork mean to you?
a. To me, teamwork is working closely with other people to achieve a shared goal. Every person brings their own knowledge, skills and experience to the task. Identifying and utilising every team member’s strengths makes the team work, so you can successfully reach that goal together.
- Tell us about a time where you had to work with others as a team and achieved a positive outcome?
Hint: AM - extreme behaviours referral, collaborated with stakeholders
a. In my role as Area Manager, I was responsible for ensuring that appropriate matching considerations were undertaken prior to accepting to place a child within our care. One day, I received a referral for a young person who had some extreme behaviours. I arranged a meeting with house manager, workplace health & safety and the therapeutic practitioner to discuss the referral and seek everyone’s input as to how we can accept the placement safely. We were able to create a plan that Child Safety was happy with and we accepted the referral. The young person was able to transition into a less intensive model 6 months later.
- Tell us about a time where you had to work with others as a team and achieved a negative outcome? How did you handle it?
Hint: Staff pre-employment checks, communication amongst themselves, communication gaps, using Teams.
a. I worked on a staff pre-employment screening project, where we reviewed our current checks to see whether they were still sufficient. This project involved the Licensing team but also involved the HR Manager, Administration Team Manager, and the State Managers. We would formally meet on a fortnightly basis, then worked individually on our components in between. Some team members who knew each other well spoke among themselves between meetings, which attributed to some communication gaps and caused confusion about allocated tasks. I suggested that we start using Teams so everyone could stay updated between meetings. Once we started using Teams, we were all better informed of each other’s challenges and progress.
- How do you react to group environments? Are you someone who likes to take the lead, or sit back and listen?
Hint: Either depending on situation
a. I will do either depending on the situation
b. I would look at the task and the knowledge, skills and experience of the team
c. It’s important to rely on the team and play to our strengths and skillset to achieve the best outcome for the client
d. In some situations, it might be that I am the best person to take the lead. Other situations, it might be someone else.
e. I would do what is best for the client and the firm.
- What are your interests outside of work or study? What are you passionate about?
a. I enjoy bushwalking, going to the gym, listening to country music, watching Netflix/streaming services, spending time with my fiancée.
- How would you describe yourself?
a. Hardworking, open-minded, respectful, resilient, eager, driven, focused, passionate.
