What is the role of a lawyer in today's commercial law firm?

Please give details of your non-academic achievements and interests. State what you feel you have gained from them and how others have benefited from your involvement.

I enjoy [sport] and hold [sport] sessions at my local gym. At school, I regularly represented my borough and England in national amateur [sport] competitions. In [year], I won a gold medal for England in the [English sports tournament name] Amateur [sport] Tournament. At university, I pioneered the University of [university] Amateur [sport] Club for the first time in fifty years and was the president of the society. I feel that [sport] has honed my discipline and enhanced my leadership skills and resilience. By training people both at university and locally, I feel that I have helped others to develop new skills and learn a new sport.

I am closely involved with my local community and help people with their legal and administrative matters. This involvement has enhanced my client-facing and problem-solving skills. I feel that my contribution has helped to protect vulnerable people in the society who would have not otherwise had any assistance.

I am currently running an events management business. I am assisting the director in making important strategic decisions in order to grow the business and managing branches of the business in [area] and [area]. I feel that this is an important personal achievement because I have managed to utilise my knowledge and skills in a competitive commercial environment to establish a company with a highly innovative business concept. My business has benefited bars and restaurants by helping them to restructure in order to attract more customers.

I am a representative of a company specialising in innovative payment systems in the UK (prepaid cards and e-wallets) and liaising with businesses in emerging markets to devise bespoke financial models that will meet their commercial objectives.

In my third year of university, I helped to develop an innovative initiative to reduce the university’s carbon footprint by switching off all unused desktops during vacation breaks.

Think of a current commercial issue that has recently attracted your attention. Why does it interest you and why do you consider it to be significant? 300

Recently, I developed a strong interest in the global shale gas revolution because it can potentially play an important role in re-shaping the global energy landscape. I find the advent of shale gas interesting because it is still in its early transition period and is hence a very topical subject area. I consider the advances in the shale gas industry to be significant because they have the potential of opening up competition in the energy industry by breaking up large monopolies. The advances in shale gas exploration and extraction techniques will help to satisfy growing demand for energy across the world and increase consumer purchasing power. Similarly, lower gas prices can improve the competitiveness of energy intensive industries and attract foreign investment and create local opportunities, which can help to increase the competitiveness of many countries. However, the extraction of shale gas poses significant risks to the environment because hydraulic fracturing, a process of extracting gas from the shales, is potentially dangerous to the environment because it uses chemicals that can contaminate drinking water. Similarly, Shale gas also hinders the transition to renewable energy because it reduces fossil energy prices thus making renewable energy expensive. I am particularly interested in the developments in the shale gas industry because currently it is estimated that despite large reserves of shale gas, only a small fraction is extractable which puts the entire commercial viability of shale gas into question.

What is the role of a lawyer in today's commercial law firm? Why does this attract you and how can you meet these demands? 300

The role of a lawyer in today’s commercial law firm is to understand the specific needs of clients and have a deep understanding of their businesses and the sectors in which they operate in order to respond to different pressures and the ever-changing requirements facing the clients.

I would like to become a commercial lawyer because I have a very strong interest in both law and commerce. As a commercial lawyer, I will work with an exciting variety of commercial clients from across different industries which will provide me with a good insight into challenges and opportunities faced by the clients in their respective industries. This will require me to work in teams of solicitors to discuss complex issues and generate new ideas to produce cutting-edge solutions for clients. In effect, this will produce high quality and sophisticated work which will make my working environment challenging and intellectually stimulating.

I believe that I can meet the demands of a lawyer in today's commercial law firm because I have extensive legal experience and the relevant skill-set to become a successful lawyer. I possess commercial acumen and strong problem solving skills which will enable me to operate in a challenging and demanding environment whereby I will be required to deal with complex problems and make a meaningful contribution to the work that I undertake. I am a good team player and have an ability to express my ideas in a simple and understandable manner. I am very enthusiastic, entrepreneurial and focused which will allow me to bring new perspectives to the table and use my initiative to add value to my work. I possess good client-facing skills through which I will be able to deliver a good client service and work with the client to understand their business, objectives and legal requirements.

Give an example of a recent situation where you were involved with a team. What role did you play? What did you do? How did others react? What did you learn? 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. 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. 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.

When have you had to go out of your way to meet the needs of a customer or client? What did you do? What motivated you to do this and 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. 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. Towards the end of our strategic meeting, I noticed that some solicitors did not understand some of the more technical areas. I therefore 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.