Please give details of when you have been part of a team.

Please give details of when you have been part of a team. What was your common goal? What part did you play in particular? How well did the team work together and why? 300

Whilst working on a large banking matter at [law firm], I worked in a team in order to draft an executive summary for one of the issues in the case in a very short space of time for a meeting with a client. I was responsible for running searches and reviewing documents on the internal database against a set of criteria in order to establish a chronology of the main events whilst others had to identify the key legal issues. In order to allocate our time and resources efficiently, I organised a short meeting with the associate to discuss what aspects he wanted to feature in the executive summary which helped us to signpost the relevant issues. Having run the searches and reviewed documents, I organised a team meeting at which we shared and discussed our results and ideas which helped us to create a skeleton for the executive summary. During the meeting, I played a very proactive role by making suggestions on how to structure our executive summary and dealt with questions from other team members. I also helped to re-distribute some work depending on the capacity of the team members and set internal deadlines. Overall, the team worked exceptionally well because we adopted a collegiate and supportive approach to our work which helped us to discuss ideas and resolve issues swiftly. The team also worked well because we successfully planned our tasks and allocated the work streams across the team in order to meet the deadline.

Please give details of when you have had to handle some form of conflict or disagreement. What was the situation? What did you do? What was the outcome? 300

Please give details of an idea you've had, and how you have told others about it. How did you get them to take it on board? 300

Please give details of an occasion when you have felt out of your comfort zone. How did you approach this? What was the outcome? 300

Whilst at [law firm], I accompanied the client and solicitors from several jurisdictions to a board of directors EGM of a joint venture vehicle in Amsterdam in my capacity as an interpreter on the first week of only having joined the firm. During our strategic pre-EGM meeting, the client informed the solicitors of the latest developments in their business to enable the solicitors to understand the client’s latest requirements. I operated under pressure and assumed a high responsibility in that I was required to explain technical issues in the context of the client’s business and industry.

Towards the end of our strategic meeting, I noticed that some solicitors were having difficulties in understanding some of the nuances pertaining to the [language] market in which the client was operating. To address this, I held a small presentation during which I summarised the main issues raised during the meeting and how they related to the client’s overall commercial objectives. After the presentation, I held a Q&A sessions during which the solicitors had an opportunity to ask the client questions. I was motivated to ensure that all solicitors were as fully informed of all the issues so that an optimal solution was achieved for the client at the EGM. Given that I was a central port of contact for the client, I was also motivated to apply my entire understanding of the case and the client’s business during a critical time to add value to my work and deliver an excellent service to the client. As a result, the solicitors had a good understanding of the client’s position when going into the EGM which allowed them to act quickly to dissolve the meeting in order to prevent the passing of a resolution that would have not been in the client’s interests.

Commercial law firms operate in very competitive markets and therefore constantly face challenges to sustain their position. What challenges do you think SGH Martineau LLP face and how do you think they meet these challenges? 300