Home » Posts tagged 'Eversheds'
Tag Archives: Eversheds
BPP Careers Fair – Thursday 29 March 2012
Thank you to the BPP Careers Team for organising the BPP Annual Law Careers Fair 2012 this Thursday 29 March 2012. It was great to meet Saira Iqbal for the first time, and Eric Migliaccio whom I know well from Holborn.
All students of BPP were invited. We met up in the lower ground floor of the Waterloo campus of BPP Law School between 3 pm and 7 pm.
Legal training providers/City firms attending the event included Addleshaw Goddard, Boodle Hatfield, Charles Russell, Clyde & Co., CMS Cameron McKenna, Dundas and Wilson, Eversheds, Fox Williams, Government Legal Service, Jones Day, Kennedy, Macfarlanes, Orling, Herrington & Sutcliffe, Osborne Clarke, Reed Smith, Sidney Austin, Squire, Sanders and Hammonds, Stephenson Harwood, and Withers.
I went along there on completion of my second SGS on professional conduct and regulation at BPP Law School, Holborn. We had been studying financial promotions and mainstream/incidental activities as a solicitor (as indicated by the FMSA and SRA conduct rules).
I must say that I had a really enjoyable time. In fact, soon afterwards, I came to the decision that I would not apply for a training contract until after I had completed (and passed) the Legal Practice Course. I am not in an overwhelming hurry to do the training contract, as I am 37, and I have already experienced much in my life.
That’s what made my afternoon all the more enjoyable. I happened to speak to Alex, Emma, Izzy, Jonathan, Lorraine, Simon, Sarah amongst a few others (whose names I should have jotted down to be honest) at Addleshaw Goddard, Boodle Hatfield, CMS Cameron McKenna, DMH Stallard, Government Legal Service, Eversheds, Macfarlanes, and Stephenson Harwood. Having done numerous unsuccessful applications for training contract and vacation placements in the past, I must admit I had become rather jaded about the whole experience. It was therefore really refreshing for me to actually that these representatives of legal entities were all very nice people, all personable, extremely knowledgeable about the firms they worked for, and the legal sector in general.
This of course should be no surprise, but they do include one or two firms which have rejected my previous applications (I’ve never been interviewed by any of them). In some cases, it was really nice to meet the person behind the Twitter account, although I did accidentally find myself screening myself the law firms by an innocent question on their approach to social media. Of course, it was brilliant to meet @legaltrainee – Eversheds have been remarkably successful in treating recruitment as a two-way dialogue, where both parties can find out more about each other’s identity and culture in a mutually beneficial way; they also offer a number of excellent opportunities including the combined study training contract programme, for example. Likewise, it was lovely to meet the team behind @DMHSRecruitment, who IRL were as positive about the work of their firm as they are on Twitter daily; they also confirmed that the biggest gripe of a legal recruiter, aside from application forms with poor spelling and grammar, was an inability by the candidate to answer the question asked. Finally, I met members of our own society there, the BPP Legal Awareness Society (the official BPP students website, blog, twitter, Facebook) and members of the excellent BPP Commercial Awareness Society there too.
Legal entities either fielded graduate recruitment advisors, managers or administrators, and/or current trainees (including mostly BPP graduates). I had the pleasure of discussing the legal doctrine of proportionality, innovation, the relative importance of corporate social responsibility, and expansion of legal services into Eastern Europe with the Government Legal Service, Eversheds, Addleshaw Goddard and CMS Cameron McKenna, with current trainees respectively. For some firms, applying would be awkward in a sense that I don’t wish to fall out if I ultimately have rejection (it’s a highly competitive market out there), but something I’ve learned that the whole process is not personal in the sense until it comes to interview. I personally liked all the people I met on Thursday.
Without naming names, I would like to thank the legal entities for a fresh supply of pens, praline chocolates, a frisbee, a memory stick, hemp bags, company literature and highlighter pens. It’s the thought that counts, but actually all are very useful to me! What I especially found very reassuring was how the law firms have such a high regard for BPP – and the feeling is entirely mutual, I assure them…
Thank you for all giving up your time to attend, and, despite it being a hot day, I hope that the legal entities enjoyed meeting the current students of BPP.
Two novel social media innovations by law firms creating social value: the cases of Eversheds (@legaltrainee) and Inksters
Law firms are increasingly embracing innovation as a source of competitive advantage within the UK. Innovation allows an unique strategic marketing niche for law firms within a highly competitive marketplace, and offers law firms a means to improve on market share and market growth. In management of these firms, especially in the contemporary landscape of alternative business structures, such flexibility and adaptability can mean that firms such as Eversheds and Inksters flourish, whereas older, bigger incumbent firms struggle.
Fundamental to the definition of an innovation is an idea or product which is easily understandable; that then ‘diffuses’ across to ‘adopters’ within a wider ‘network’, who can then decide to make or break an idea. Google+ is an idea but its ultimate survival depends on whether the general public take to it, in the way that they have taken to Facebook; indeed, Facebook announced its IPO today. The network no longer consists of employees, including trainees, within the firm; it is much wider, critically involving now the general public, other clients, potential clients, and even potential trainees. In this post, I describe two innovative uses of the social media by two law firms: @Inksters and the trainee account of @Eversheds, called @LegalTrainee, both involving Twitter. Inherent in the innovations is full participation by the intended audience in determining the success of the innovation; this is reflected indeed in the tagline of ‘Legal Trainee’, “this is not just a brochure, this is conversation” (as depicted here).
Inksters decided to send out Christmas hats through the post in a campaign which is still going strong, and @LegalTrainee decided to offer a competition whereby a law student who had put ‘@LegalTrainee’ into his or her profile could win coffee with a partner of Eversheds. Both were relatively simple ideas, but were remarkably successful. I put various questions to Brian Inkster of @Inksters and Ismat Abidi, a trainee solicitor of Eversheds @LegalTrainee, earlier this week. As explained here, @LegalTrainee is not simply a Twitter account, but is how Eversheds has embraced the social media in a number of different platforms.
Both are great examples of how an organic social media marketing campaign should be conducted. Indeed, for a wider discussion of the social media issues, a brilliant short book has been written by Guy Clapperton called ‘This is Social Media: Turning Social Media into Sales’ (this book, newly published by Capstone, is available in Kindle and iBook formats too, and available from here). This updated book is especially great for practical tips throughout the text, including “action point” boxes, with a variety of topics covered such as content, tone, business analytics, platforms for innnovation, and returns-on-investment. Guy discusses in his book the critical issue of participant behaviour; implicit in his argument is the convergence of the culture and mindset of the two parties, and fundamentally increasing brand awareness. This is certainly no mean feat, as it is all about the ultimate holy grail of marketing – discovering new members of the target audience.
Brian Inkster (Inksters)
1. What is the concept behind the ‘Inksters hats’ campaign?
Inksters rebranded in December 2011. The new brand reflects Inksters’ place in the legal market as forward thinking lawyers and incorporates an arrow device. This points to Inksters’ care for detail, progressive approach and the fact that we direct clients and lead the way.
2. Where did the idea come from?
As part of the rebranding exercise we asked our designers, O Street, to design a Christmas Card to launch the rebrand. They came up with the idea of a Christmas Hat as the cut out in the Christmas Crown reflects the arrow device in our new logo. Indeed, as with the hat, on our new notepaper and business cards the arrow is actually cut out of the paper/card rather than being printed on it.
3. Why has the campaign been such a success?
Social media has really made it a success. We printed on the hats an e-mail address to send photos to but the vast majority of the photos received have been tweeted to us. Tumblr was an excellent blogging platform to post the hat photos and Twitter quotes to. Setting up the Tumblr blog with the www.inksterschristmashats.com domain enabled the hats and quotes to be showcased. This combined with Twitter was a winning combination. Tweeps tweeted about receiving the hat and/or tweeted photos of it on themselves, their pets, toys or elsewhere. Other Tweeps who had not received hats asked if they could get one and we were still just a week ago (which is a month after Christmas) posting them out. We are now into February and still have the promise of some hat photos over the next week including someone who has a carefully planned photo to take this coming weekend! All of this has kept Inksters Christmas Hats in peoples minds well beyond Christmas and given it a longevity that a standard Christmas card would never have had.
Ismat Abidi (@LegalTrainee)
1. Why does Eversheds, through @legaltrainee, consider it important that applicants understand the work and culture of the firm through social media?
A Trainee gets as much out of a TC as they put into it. It’s also no secret that Trainees that most closely fit the firm’s culture will be the most valuable to the firm, get the most out of their training experience and become more likely to secure an NQ position with that firm. It’s really a two way process, so by finding applicants that fit this bill at the graduate recruitment stage, it’s a win-win situation for both sides. That’s why it’s important that applicants understand the work and culture of the firm. It’s not crucial that this is done through social media, but social media is the best way for Trainees and Graduate Recruitment to engage in real and live conversation with potential candidates. It’s like a 24-7 international networking event where recruiters and candidates can come and go as they please. What’s even better is that all conversations are public, so unlike face-to-face networking events, students can see what other candidates are asking and join in discussions between recruiters, legal bloggers and other students.
2. In addition to offering the competition, how does @LegalTrainee use social media to achieve an innovative, competitive edge in securing the best applicants ?
@LegalTrainee isn’t just a Twitter account – it’s an entire project using three social media platforms: Brave New Talent, Facebook and Twitter, which are integrated with one another. Chances are that our target applicants use at least one of these platforms. The competitive edge is that we’re offering a live brochure to candidates (our slogan is: This is not a brochure, this is conversation), which no other firm really does at the level of direct engagement we’re involved with right now. Aside from the project itself being innovative (@LegalTrainee recently won the SoMe Graduate Recruitment Award 2012 for Best Use of Twitter), Eversheds allows real Trainees from across its international offices to manage and run these accounts using mobile devices and engage directly with press/candidates/any other followers. It ’ s not the PR team or graduate recruitment that followers are speaking to (though they do monitor the account), it’s the real trainees talking about their real experiences at the firm – something that hasn’ t previously been done before in the legal world.
3. Why do you think that the various competitions run through @LegalTrainee have been so successful in reaching new candidates?
It’s unfortunate that there’s no other way to sift through large volumes of high-calibre applications more efficiently than online applications. We’ve all been through it (most of us have done so several times) and it can be a really grating process. You could be an absolutely ideal candidate and for one reason or another, have a bad numbers day and fail the numerical reasoning test, which means your application automatically stops there. I applied to Eversheds in 2005 and again in 2007 (with a supposed destined-to-fail-in-a-TC-hunt 2:2), so I know what it’s like. These competitions that Eversheds run offer a chance for those who otherwise didn’t get through the standard application process. Unlike spending an evening filling in your work experience and grades in an online form, the way to enter these competitions is quite refreshing for law students. It can range from submitting a video/song/blog with a friend to win work experience in our Hong Kong office or simply following a Twitter account to win coffee with one of our Trainee Partners. If I was still searching for a TC, I’d definitely enter these sorts of competitions.
This is a general article about law firms, social value and social innovation ; LegalAware has received nothing in the production of this article which is a freely-written opinion, and please note that the article is not representative of the views of BPP or the BPP Legal Awareness Society. The blogpost is a personal academic viewpoint of @Legalaware.
LegalAware four-part series on psychometric tests: Factsheet 3 – What are situational judgement tests?
This is the third in a four-part series looking at psychometric testing.
Lots of employers use situational judgement tests (SJTs) during their recruitment stage, particularly at graduate level.
SJTs measure your behaviour and attitudes to work-related scenarios. With a bit of “insider knowledge” you will have nothing to fear. This is where it is most likely to have a substantial advantage to ‘understand’ the corporate environment or culture, from having done ‘relevant’ work experience. Possibly reading all the books in the world about what it is like to work in a City environment won’t fully prepare you for such tests. However, here is one very good book, which is available on Amazon UK:
It is therefore perfectly possible for you to ‘train’ to become good at these tests. Currently organisations as diverse as Waitrose, the NHS, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sony, Wal-Mart, Deloitte, John Lewis, the law firms Herbert Smith and Eversheds, the Fire Service and many more, are using SJTs as part of their recruitment process.
Situational judgement tests present candidates with a range of different situations that they might experience in the job for which they are applying. For each situation, a number of possible actions are suggested. There may be around 3 actions, but this varies. It is the candidate’s job to choose between these possible options and judge which is the most effective course of action to take and therefore which action they would take if faced with this situation.
SJTs are always multiple-choice; no answers other than the options listed are allowed.? The ‘name of the game’ is not to have an in-depth discussion over the various pros and cons of the various options on offer; often one of the options will be completely daft according to most reasonable people.
The situations (or “scenarios” as they are sometimes called) are almost always reflective of a real-life aspect of the job. SJTs are usually designed using ‘Subject Matter Experts’ – usually people who are successful at the job themselves. These experts are asked to suggest likely scenarios with which a jobholder might be faced and also to suggest possible responses and rate these responses for effectiveness. This forms the basis of the scoring system for the test. So in other words, how closely your responses match the answers rated highly by the ‘experts’ will determine how well you do on the test.
For employers, SJTs are a very cost effective, powerful and convenient way to select the potential strong performers from a large group of candidates. Employers will be more likely to use an SJT if they have a high volume of candidates applying for a role or position and if they recruit for this position on a regular basis.
How should you prepare for a SJT?
It has been suggested that one of the best ways to be prepared for a selection test, including a situational judgement test, is to be aware of what the test is seeking to measure. In other words, what aspects of you, as a candidate is the test hoping to pick up on?
Competencies are bundles of skills, abilities and personality traits which are considered by most experts to contribute to good job performance. The relevant competencies will vary according to the job or job-type being considered. As a law student applying for a training contract, you will normally be expected to demonstrate “graduate level competences”.
Graduate competencies will reflect the range of skills, abilities and styles that are effective at a graduate entry level role in an organisation.
They are unlikely to include managerial competencies such as ‘directing others’ and ‘strategic thinking’.
They will probably include some, or all, of the following:
- Communicating, influencing and negotiating – looking for clarity, appropriateness and persuasiveness? of communication.
- Drive to achieve results – looking for motivation and drive to achieve high standards and deliver results on time.
- Planning and organising – looking for the tendency to approach tasks in a systematic and organised fashion, to prioritise activities and manage time.
- Analysis and decision-making – looking for accurate and timely analysis of information, facts and data and good judgement with regard to what course of action to take based on that information.
- People and relationship skills – looking for capacity to build effective working relationships, to have empathy and awareness of others and work well in a team.
No particular training or knowledge is required to take this type of test. However, as mentioned above, if practice tests are available on the employing organisation’s website, or elsewhere, it is well worth taking full advantage of these.
When you sit down to take the test, look closely at the detail of both the situation, the possible answers, what you are being asked to comment on and also whether you are being asked for your judgement or information about your most likely response. It is important that you read each scenario thoroughly.
Another point is that, as for ability tests, you are expected to use only the information provided in the question; do not make assumptions about the situation or scenario, even if it is similar to one that you have come across yourself in the past.
And finally, as mentioned above, if you have been given information about the competencies assessed then keep this in the back of your mind as you progress through the test. If you haven’t been given this information then make your best guess as to the competencies that are typical of the role for which you are applying. By identifying the competency or competencies that the question is addressing you can more easily get into the correct ‘mindset’ to judge the options effectively.
Example questions
1. Your friend, who has always been your competitor at law school, is about to give a Powerpoint presentation on share acquisitions in Korea as a trainee, and you know that the Managing Associate is looking forward to this presentation with interest. However, there appears to be a mechanical fault with accessing Broadband, and the only copy of the file is an email which she sent to you to check yesterday. You saved it on your memory stick, which you happen to have brought to the meeting. You know the memory stick is compatible with the computer she is using for her presentation. How do you decide to proceed?
Pretend you have forgotten the memory stick, and you cannot help. (0%)
Offer to upload the presentation on her computer using the memory stick, but to offer also to download the file from the internet if that fails from a neighbouring computer. (94%)
Ask the Managing Associate for help, to demonstrate that you enjoy teamwork. (6%)
2. You are a trainee in the corporate finance seat in London where all team members are extremely busy. You have recently been liaising with ten particular clients on an almost daily basis in France. Your Supervisor has asked you to canvass for opinions of various clients in different countries towards the recent fall in stock prices in the European markets. You feel you do not have time to do this task on your own in time. Which of the options do you consider first?
Seek help from other trainees to help you to write the report, and ask other trainees which clients should be contacted. (24%)
Seek help from other trainees to help you to write the report, and contact some or all of the ten clients to ask them for their opinions. (47%)
Research the information which could be obtained from the clients and punctually write a report. (28%)
