- Equal Opportunity
- Posts
- 📩 What firms won't tell you, but this recruiter will
📩 What firms won't tell you, but this recruiter will
Hey
Join us for an exclusive insider session with Mark, a seasoned legal graduate recruiter with years of experience at Mayer Brown and extensive experience advising top firms. He’s interviewed thousands of candidates and now he’s here to share exactly what works (and what doesn’t).
What you’ll gain from this event:
✅ The truth about what firms really look for beyond academics
✅ How to craft an application that demands attention
✅ Insider strategies to ace the entire recruitment process—without the stress
✅ How recruiters assess your personality, aptitude, and potential
✅ The mindset shift that turns a vacation scheme into a training contract offer
💬 Plus, a live Q&A—get your burning questions answered!
Applications
Research for your applications
Access over 20 law firm profiles, complete with breakdowns, seats, secondments, and other requirements.
A 9-step law firm research checklist that shows you what to look for, where to find it, and how to use it.
This breaks down recent transactions and explains how to move beyond simply mentioning a deal, towards demonstrating real commercial understanding and relevance.
How to structure your answers, apply the rule of three and build a compelling narrative for your applications.
15 real application answers samples from major firms along with an explanation of what worked and why
What to do if your efforts still aren’t converting, despite trying everything.
Application tracker, CV & Cover Letter Guidance
Track your applications, access CV and Cover Letter templates, and more.
Psychometric Tests
A clear breakdown of the key skills tested in critical thinking tests, along with where to practice, mistakes and red flags to watch out for.
Interviews
Commercial Awareness Starter Pack
Guidance on how to develop your commercial awareness and a worked example showing what a strong answers looks like.
Over 80+ interview questions asked by leading law firms.
Covering common formats, how firms assess answers, and how to communicate clearly and confidently on camera.
Work Experience
How to gain Legal Work Experience
This covers six avenues you could explore to gain relevant legal work experience.
Explore free virtual internships and DIY vacation schemes. Build real-world skills you can showcase on applications.
80+ opportunities across law firms, chambers, early-careers programmes and paralegal roles.
Studying
Includes proven tips for managing time, revision, and exams.
First Class Problem Question Model Answer
How to structure a problem question answer and showcase your legal reasoning.
Covers how to open with impact, write clearly and finish with a focused conclusion.
Oscola Referencing Cheat Sheet
A simplified guide to OSCOLA referencing, covering how to cite cases, legislation, books, journal articles, and more.
Helsing, a German defence technology company, is on course for an $18 billion valuation, making the company one of Europe’s most valuable startups. The valuation represents a substantial increase for the company from a year ago when it was sitting at a $14 billion valuation.
Helsing develops AI software to analyse battlefield data, and also manufactures kamikaze drones that explode on targets. Additionally, the company has expanded into autonomous underwater vessels and unmanned aircraft, having partnered up with established European defence contractors.
Analysis
The funding round - so how much money Helsing was seeking to expand business operations - was vastly oversubscribed. This demonstrates strong investor enthusiasm for defence technology following a trend of geopolitical tensions. In particular, Helsing has secured a €269 million contract to supply drones to German armed forces, with the potential for additional orders worth over a billion euros.
This is significant because for decades European defence budgets declined following the Cold War’s end as this money was redirected toward social programmes. The Russia-Ukraine invasion shattered this consensus, making European countries realise that they require credible military deterrence.
What does this mean for the defence and technology sector?
Defence technology investment is shifting from typical large contractors to innovative startups that are developing AI, drones and autonomous systems
High valuations reveal opportunity but also warn of a bubble that may burst if battlefield limitations are discovered or geopolitical tensions suddenly ease Sovereignty concerns are driving
European governments to support domestic defence technology despite superior offerings from US firms
How to Use This In Applications
10 May 1773 — The Tea Act is passed, granting the British East India Company a monopoly on the North American tea trade(!)
11 May 1812 — The first and only assassination of a Prime Minister of Britain. Spencer Percival was allegedly mistaken for someone else and killed in the House of Commons.
12 May 1969 — Minimum voting age in Britain was lowered from 21 to 18 through the Representation of the People Act 1969
13 May 1787 — The first fleet of ships carrying convicts to the new penal colony of Australia left England. The Criminal Law Act 1776 suspended the transportation of convicts to America as it under revolution, so they switched to Australia.
14 May 2013 — R v Stuart Hazell is decided, sentencing Stuart Hazell to 38 years in prison for the murder of Tia Sharp, a 12 year old.
15 May 1536 — Trial of Anne Boleyn is held. She is accused of incest, sleeping with four men and plotting to kill her husband, King Henry VIII. (Why relevant? Well, the guy changed the law AND established his own church so that he could marry her three years prior)
16 May 1983 — London starts using experimental wheel clamps for illegally parked vehicles. Read the debate here.
Register Today to Unlock FREE Access
Want a clearer route to securing a training contract?
The Future Trainee Academy brings the full recruitment process into one place, with guidance from a recruiter who assessed 10,000+ candidates and examples from future trainees at top firms.
It covers applications, interviews, assessment centres, and more. You’ll also get a certificate you can add to your CV and LinkedIn.
When you join, you will also gain access to the Watson Glaser Practise Hub where you can practise as much as you need to comfortably pass it!
Reply