CV AND COVER LETTER Flashcards
What drew you to International Commercial Arbitration?
I was drawn to studying it in my final year given its growing relevance and use in international commercial contracts as a method of resolving international disputes between businesses, state-owned entities and sovereigns.
What I particularly found interesting was the effectiveness of International Arbitration rests on the support of international treaties (such as NY Convention) and multiple national legal systems. As such, any dispute would involve the exploration of multiple legal systems.
These include the lex arbitri (seat of arbitration which typically governs procedural rules), NY Convention and the governing law (typically English law). This makes arbitration that much more stimulating.
What is the lex arbitri?
The lex arbitri typically deals with:
- Whether a dispute is arbitrable
- Constitution of arbitral tribunal
- Interim measures of protection
- Power of arbitrators
What is redlining?
The process of editing a contract or document when two or more parties are working on it to change terms. The goal is to produce a document that satisfies all parties.
I was given some notes and a template to redline this certificate of title, which involved a key eye for detail.
What is a certificate of title?
A document that confirms statements about the property being sold.
These include:
- No legal problems with the property - it has a ‘good and marketable’ title so the lender can safely lend against it
- Who will own the property once the sale is completed
- Any rights of which the land has the benefit and any potential interests that burden the land
What is a facility agreement?
A flexible form of credit provided to a borrower which enables them to draw down funds when required over an extended period of time
Attractive as otherwise they would have to reapply for a loan each time capital is required
What is a bridge-facility?
A short-term loan provided to a borrower until they can secure permanent funds.
Used when a borrower needs access to capital quickly, but in exchange for convivence a lender will typically stipulate higher interest payments
What is a freezing order?
An interim injunction that prevents the counterparty from dissipating assets before a final judgment is made in order for the party to be able to satisfy any claims.
How did you exceed KPIs at Holland & Barrett?
Average order value and daily sales:
- Very early on, I recognised the importance of drawing customers’ attention to our promotions, it is a great driver of sales
- Accordingly, on the shop floor or at till point, I make it a habit to inform customers of the savings they could make by making use of the promotions
- I also put my training to good use and always suggest a trio of products for relief, prevention and a complementary item, which increases basket sizes
Reduction of shrink
- Focus on ensuring we have a robust process in place for date checking and date rotating. When I started, date checking was done very inconsistently. However, I changed this by priotising Sunday’s as date checking day due to low customer traffic
- Thorough out the week, I got my team to get in the habit of date rotating products on delivery days
- Theft is also a major risk to retailer’s inventory shrink and unfortunately there is not much staff can do to tackle it when it is occurring. However, I really pushed for using dummies where appropriate on the shop floor, especially for big ticket items like CBD and Manuka Honey
What is non-IFRS information?
These are measures or financial information that an issuer believes would be useful for investors but is not prepared in accordance to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) (such as a KPI which is industry-specific)
Accordingly, auditors are not able to provide comfort letters for certain non-IFRS information and therefore a CFO certificate should be put in place, confirming the accuracy of such information
What is a comfort letter?
Confirms to underwriters that the auditor is independent and that the financial information has been extracted from audited financial statements or accounting records
What is a coupon?
The annual interest rate paid on a bond.
This is typically based on market rates - so at the time I was at White & Case, and most likely even now, an issuer should come to the market with a higher coupon rate given the interest rate on government bonds are higher
What is the UK and US base rates?
UK - 5.25%
US - 5.25 - 5.50%
What is a CLO?
A security backed by a pool of debt, typically corporate loans with low credit ratings or loans taken out by private equity firms to conduct leveraged buyouts
What was the impact of R(Daly) v SSHD (2001) on the law of judicial review?
The HL in Daly firmly adopted the doctrine of proportionality, which went further than Wednesbury irrationality and ultimately provided the constitutional justification for courts to challenge the misuse of executive power when they transgress one’s rights
In GCHQ, Lord Diplock, in reference to what Wednesbury irrationality allowed courts to do, spoke of a decision so ‘outrageous in its defiance of logic or accepted moral standards’. This seems quite wide-ranging enabling courts to strike down any executive decision they deem unacceptable. However, in practice their constitutional role prevents them from intensely scrutinising an executive’s decision.
Daly really changed this by providing courts with the constitutional stamp of approval to greater scrutinise executive decisions and better protect an applicant’s fundamental rights.
It involves balancing the legislative objective and whether it is important to justify limiting a fundamental right.
What did BIUCAC involve?
Consisted of five rounds testing contestants commercial awareness and ability to think commercially.
First three rounds involved multiple choice questions, testing our ability to recall definitions of fundamental commercial concepts, headlines and certain figures (such as the base rate).
The fourth round was live. Partners at the host firms quizzed us on a range of topics, such as how central banks tame inflation, what is quantative easing, the advantages and disadvantages of equity v debt financing
The fifth round was split into two: a semi-final and a grand final. The semi-final consisted of a client pitch and a negotiation. The top 6 from that round proceeded to the grand final and were required to present all identified risks and solutions to those risks from a commercial case study.
