Intern interview help please

[Birdsongsinging]

My son is in his 3rd year of studying law and has an interview for a summer legal intern job.

The information says that he should come with plenty of questions and we are unsure whether these would just be about the training or if they are looking for something else?

Any advice on this or generally what he should be researching would be great. Thanks for any help.

I think practical questions about hours/tasks etc are fine, but what they are really looking for is his interest in that internship at that company in particular.

I would recommend that he reads the company about us page and pulls some things from there that peak his interest and mention them in the interview.

It's also good to ask about 'company culture' and the team dynamic etc.

Questions for your DS (not the interview)! What kind of company is it (law firm)? And what does he know about it? Is it a typical vacation scheme (usually a couple of weeks with one week in 2 different departments)? What does the firm specialise in? How many students do they take per placement? It's a while since I did mine (20 years 😬). But I'm still a lawyer now and remember it well.

Thank you for your responses so far. It is a legal department within a bigger company which is nothing to do with law - it is an eco transport company and is for a few weeks. It doesn't say anything about being in different departments and I am not sure how many students they take but they are interviewing over several days. I work in health and know nothing about this whole area!

My son has been reading all about the company but there is so much to take in it is hard to know where to focus.

Just bumping this for any further advice. The company sells vehicles and so it is trying to think about the wider things a legal dept would be involved in that feels tricky. Also is it OTT to wear a suit to a zoom interview? Thanks

This is helpful information as in some respects the advice will differ versus it being in a law firm. Your son will probably know this if he or friends have done law firm vacation schemes in the past, but they are generally more structured than a placement in an in-house legal team (although this will also depend on the size of the business as a company with a large in house team like Sky, the BBC or BT will have more defined teams than a smaller company).

He should carry out good research into the company and think about what interests him about the company specifically and the industry as a whole. That should give him some questions to ask. If he's done a placement in a law firm, he should consider the differences between being a lawyer in private practice/in a law firm and those working in house. He could/should look into the backgrounds of the people interviewing him and then, if they've worked in a law firm before moving in house, he could ask them about what the biggest changes were for them when they switched and what they like about working within a business versus their time at a law firm. He can also ask them about their background (eg if they didn't study law at university, do they think that gave them a different perspective - especially if their degree is in a topic which is related to the field - for example patents lawyers often have science backgrounds).

Also he could ask them how they got to where they are now, who are the main stakeholders they work with within the business, what they like about the company, what the structure of the team is like and what their day to day work is like (or what's a typical day).

I'm the head of a legal team in house (General Counsel) and these are the kind of things I would expect to be asked in interviews with more experienced lawyers/paralegals. What's most important is properly researching the company and being ready to answer questions about it as the quickest thing to make me give a black mark is not bothering to do that.

I hope that helps!

PS not OTT to wear a suit for a legal interview on zoom. Better to be over-dressed rather than underdressed as far as I'm concerned and I'd be more impressed by somebody putting the effort in than not. And I work in a pretty casual office (although I dress more smartly due to my seniority).

@Birdsongsinging Has your son not had any discussion with the careers service at his university specifically about internship interviews in legal departments? They should have a wealth of knowledge from all the previous years of applicant from the university.

(I’m aware that students are often reluctant to take the most obvious route to getting information.)

Get him to drop the job description into chatgpt website and ask it for sample interview questions and answers,
Then tell him to make sure he personalises the response.

Oh and a question to ask what do they see as the impact of ai in law?

I am a lot older than your son but a few qns I ask in an interview are

'What do you enjoy most about working here / your job / this field, sector?' I'm fairly sure I nicked this off a thread here but it always get very positive comments!

'Can you tell me more about the team
I'd be working in?'

'Could you tell me about the organisational/team/dept culture?'

'What would a typical day/ week / month look like for this role?'

As its an in-house role I would ask what js the main type of work they do? Commercial and Employment and IP? Do they instruct external lawyers for other types of work?

What does a normal working day look like as an in-house lawyer?

Which other teams they work closely with? (eg. finance, HR, the board?)

How big is the team? Do they offer training contracts?

Obviously ask the questions if they haven't already given you the info and it's not readily available online.

Good luck.

Thank you that is really helpful and also goes with what I thought about better to be more formal than less. Thanks again.

Thanks. The input they get from the careers service seems to be more general so although it is helpful, this seemed to be particularly difficult (to me anyway) because it was not in a law firm and was in a very specific industry.

Thanks - these are all great suggestions.

Thanks, the whole area of AI is such an interesting one.