How to apply

At Gowling WLG the application form is the first stage to apply for our early talent opportunities.

We are proud to have no minimum grade requirements and therefore our focus is to get to know the real you and learn about your skills and attributes.

Our application form is designed to test your self-reflection and research skills. The application form provides the opportunity to articulate your strengths, attributes and transferable skills, and to research an engaging topic relevant to the industry.

So how can you ace the application form?

We are proud to host a wealth of virtual events available for anyone to attend to learn more about the firm and the legal profession. You'll have the chance to hear from partners, trainees, and business services professionals about their areas of expertise, career journeys, advice, and how to build your professional network by engaging and asking questions.

The event series is the perfect opportunity to develop your understanding about who we really are.

What makes us different to other law firms? Why are we proud to work for Gowling WLG.

Beyond our virtual event series, the firm has a wealth of resources across our website, social media accounts, and our fantastic blog, LoupedIn.

Read about legal updates, client work, awards and our brilliant people.

The more you can learn about the firm and understand who we are, the better idea you have as to whether we're the right firm for you, and whether you can see yourself having a successful career with us.

Be curious. Build upon your knowledge of the legal industry and keep up to date with how we advise our clients through an ever-changing landscape.

As we mentioned, grades are not the be all and end all for us.

Life happens and we can't be defined by the grades we have achieved. Everyone deserves the opportunity to succeed.

Therefore, our application process tests whether you have the skills and attributes to be a successful trainee at Gowling WLG.

Our application form is made up of two halves. Work experience and two essay style questions. Legal work experience is absolutely not essential to apply for our opportunities.

In fact, it's our unique experiences, passions, and hobbies that make us different. And that's exactly what we're looking for. At Gowling WL everyone brings something different.

Gaining legal experience doesn't define your ability to succeed. But instead, building upon the transferable skills from your life experiences is what shapes you to become a fantastic trainee.

Have you worked in a customer facing role in a fast-paced environment? Do you have a passion that has taken lots of your time and developed key skills? Or have you worked on a challenging project or had a key role in a society at university?

These are all great examples of gaining experience and developing transferable skills. Whether that's communicating with others, teamwork, solving challenges, meeting tight deadlines or juggling priorities.

Take some time to list all of your experiences to date. Think about which experiences have shaped your skill set the most.

Reflect upon what you did and how the transferable skills you acquired would make you a successful trainee at Gowling WLG.

We want to hear about three of your best experiences, what you did, and most importantly, the transferable skills this has equipped you with.

Attention to detail is absolutely key. As a trainee, this is a key skill that you are expected to demonstrate and develop from the outset of your training contract.

Excellent spelling and grammar is expected on the application form and therefore it's important that you check, check an check your application again.

Read through your application line by line. Ask a peer for their feedback and look out for any words that may have been auto corrected.

Paying attention to word counts is also really important, and the essay questions on the application form will always give you a word count to adhere to.

This is a really useful tool to use to understand how much detail we are looking for. Where a word count is provided, this demonstrates the length of response we are expecting. So, try your best to meet the word count as close as possible.

So, to summarise, research, self-reflection and attention to detail are three key points to remember when applying to us.

I'm sure that writing applications can feel like a challenging process but remember that everyone brings something different, and we want to hear about the real you.

Your applications are reviewed by real people, and we want you to succeed.

We wish you the very best of luck and look forward to receiving your application.

At Gowling WLG, the video interview forms the third stage of our application process.

It is at this point which we get to hear from yourselves directly about your skills and approach to work. You'll be given four questions to answer in succession, each assessing the different competency that the firm deems integral to success in the role of a trainee solicitor. The video interview is not live, and for each question, you'll be given three minutes to prepare your answer, to make notes or bullet points and 90 seconds to answer the question.

Here are our top tips for the video interview.

The interview is a situational judgment based assessment, and therefore, you do not need to reference any prior experiences, whether relevant to the question or not.

90 seconds is a very short amount of time, and if you spend time talking about your experiences rather than discussing your approach to the task at hand, you'll not be able to give a fully developed response within the time limit.

Be concise. Again, time is of the essence. Whilst we appreciate there can be nerves, if you utilise the three minutes preparation time to formulate a concise plan of key messages you want to cover, then this will help deliver your answer confidently and succinctly.

Be yourself. There is no singular perfect answer to any of our questions, and we want you to be able to bring your unique perspectives and skills to the answer.

Do not overthink the preparation. Go with your gut instinct as oftentimes these will be your most natural response and way of working.

Try not to approach the video interview from the perspective of what would a Gowling WLG lawyer do?

Genuinely tell us what you would do.

Be mindful of where you record this video interview. Think about background noise and what your background looks like.

Make sure you are in a space where you can successfully complete it without any distractions.

If you experience any technical issues in the first instance, please reach out to the support team at iCIMS.

At Gowling WLG, the Vacation Scheme Assessment Centre is the final stage of our application process to secure a vacation scheme.

This is the perfect opportunity for you to meet the firm and for us to find out more about you as an individual within the context of a professional environment.

The Assessment Centre is designed as an immersive day in the life of a trainee, and as such, there are a mix of activities that you'll be expected to partake in during the day.

Each exercise is designed for you to demonstrate skills across the competencies that the firm deems are integral to success in the role of a trainee solicitor vacation scheme student.

The Vacation Scheme Assessment Centre consists of a written exercise, a team meeting, and a competency based interview with a partner at the firm.

Once you have arrived and settled into the group, you'll be briefed on the day of what to expect and should you have any queries.

There's always someone from early talent on hand to help you guide you through the Assessment Centre.

The written exercise will involve you analysing some information and formulating an email response to a request from a fictional member of our diversity, equality and inclusion team.

This activity is an independent piece and you must share your response with a coordinator once the task is finished.

As with any written exercise, spelling, grammar, punctuation, formatting, and layout are important to ensure your ideas are received clearly.

During the team meeting is important for you to be yourself and work with others the way you usually would.

Ensure that you both listen well and share your opinions, keeping in mind that the firm prides itself on the power of teamwork.

Following this half of the group will have the opportunity to meet a current trainee, while half the group will sit, their partner interview candidates will then swap over and those who are yet to complete their interview will do so.

The partner interview will consist of three competency-based questions.

When answering these questions, it's important to utilize the star technique to help provide a concise response to the question.

Situation.

Ensure you have set the scene when formulating your response, give the interviewer the context to ensure they can understand clearly the situation you are discussing.

Task. Outline what was expected and required of you during this situation.

Action. Arguably one of the more important elements.

Think about the actions you took, which helped demonstrate your approach to the competency being assessed.

Result. Be sure to discuss the results of your actions, both positive and negative, applicable, and what you learned from the situation.

If you can quantify your results, then this is also insightful.

It is important to remind you that when sharing your experiences and discussing the skills you've developed, these do not need to be examples drawn from a legal setting.

They could be from any area of your life where appropriate for the question at hand, such as volunteering, university extracurriculars, sports, part-time, and full-time, work, and other industries, hobbies, the list is endless.

At Gowling WLG, we champion the unique experiences of all and recognize that top talent is moulded from all areas of life.

Here are our top tips for the team meeting, exercise.

Listen to everyone's viewpoints.

This will help you make more nuanced and informed contributions.

Strike a balance between contributing and listening well. It's better to speak less with more informed contributions than to speak lots, but adding little value to the conversation.

If you notice, a peer not contributing, do your best to encourage their involvement.

If you are timekeeping, ensure this is not your only contribution to the meeting.

If you are challenged on a suggestion, it's completely appropriate to defend your viewpoint with conviction in a professional manner.

Equally, if you disagree with somebody, challenge their view.

Debate is healthy. Speak loud enough so that the assessors can hear you.

They cannot assess what they cannot hear.

Make sure you keep to the brief or the task at hand.

It can be easy to drift away from the task at hand, but always remember what is being asked of you during the meeting.