Law interviews — for a place on a degree, a training contract or a vacation scheme — feel like a test of personality. They are not. Most are structured: every candidate is asked the same questions and scored against the same criteria, much as your essays are marked against a rubric. That is good news, because a structured interview can be prepared for.
1. Answer in four moves
When you are asked about something you have done — a group project, a moot, a difficult module — answer in four steps: the situation you were in, the task that fell to you, the action you took, and the result. Research on interview performance finds that candidates who structure answers this way are rated more highly than those who do not, and that candidates coached in the method beforehand perform better.
It is the same discipline as a problem question. State the issue, identify what was required, apply yourself to the facts, reach a conclusion. Rambling loses marks in both settings.
2. No experience is not a problem
Applicants worry that they have nothing to draw on. The research is clear that non-work experience counts: a law society, a moot, a part-time job, a sports team, volunteering, caring for a family member. What the interviewer is testing is how you reason and behave under pressure, not where it happened.
3. Know your own personal statement cold
If you claimed an interest in human rights law, expect to be asked what you have read about it. Interviewers routinely take their questions straight from the form in front of them. Read your own application the night before and prepare to defend every line of it.
4. Have one legal issue you can actually discuss
You do not need an opinion on everything. You need one case, statute or legal controversy you have genuinely followed, and the ability to argue both sides of it. For commercial firms, be ready to say why a recent development matters to that firm’s clients, not just why it interests you.
5. Nerves are less visible than you think
Interview anxiety takes many forms — worrying about how you sound, how you look, whether you are coming across badly — and candidates consistently overestimate how obvious it is. Interviewers are generally poor at detecting it. Preparation and rehearsal reduce it; telling yourself to relax does not.
6. Do not perform a version of yourself
Over-polished, rehearsed-sounding candidates tend to land badly, and an invented answer collapses the moment it is probed. A frank “I have not read that, but my understanding is…” reads as the kind of intellectual honesty the profession runs on.
7. Prepare questions of your own
Ask something that could only have come from someone who has done the reading: about how a module is taught, how trainees are supervised, what the firm’s recent work in a practice area involves. Avoid anything answered by the first page of the website.
A week before
- Write out six STAR answers covering teamwork, pressure, failure, persuasion, initiative and an ethical dilemma.
- Re-read your personal statement or application form and question every claim in it.
- Choose one legal development you can argue from both sides.
- Rehearse aloud, ideally with someone who will interrupt you.
- Check the format: panel, online, written exercise, group task.
I run admissions interview preparation as realistic practice supervisions, with the kind of academic scrutiny you can expect on the day. Ask about a session or pick a date.
Draws on research summarised in Nicolas Roulin, The Psychology of Job Interviews, and Rebecca Corfield, Successful Interview Skills.