Questions for Law Firm Positions

Are you attending an interview for a position in a law firm? If so your pre-interview preparation must be thorough and you should concentrate on asking the right questions that will help you stand out of crowd of contestants. The right questions are: What is the firm's client base and how (if at all) has it changed over the past ten years? What changes in the client base do you foresee in the future?

What areas of practice is the firm most known for? Is it a "boutique" firm with only a handful of specialties, or does it have a more diverse range of specialties in-house? What is the culture associated with the specialty (generally, bankruptcy work is considered to require a more aggressive temperament, while trusts and estates work is considered to require a more genteel and comforting disposition)?


What is the turnover rate for associates after the first three years, and the first five? In each of the past five years, how many associates have been made partner as a rough percentage of the total number of associates who were considered for partnership positions (I find that this question generates more useful information than simply asking about the firm's partner to associate ratio, since the latter does not take into account changes in the firm's practice or client base)? Generally, where have those associates who have been passed over tend to find work once they leave the firm?

How important are the business generating skills in determining whether an associate will be made a partner?

What does the firm do in terms of training associates in their assigned duties (for an entry level position, you are probably more concerned about the quality of the education you will receive there than with your prospects of making partner, which is a long way in the future)? If the firm needs to grow into new areas of practice, will they do so by retraining their associates or by hiring laterals from other firms (or merging with another firm that practices in the desired area)?

How are the partners and associates divided into "teams"? To how many partners and senior associates will an associate have to report on each team?

Do the partners of the firm generally get along well? Will the partners that head up a particular team be likely to agree on those matters that are most important to the associate, such as the quality of his work (reinforced by periodic reviews), his training and professional development, the number of desired billable hours, and the need for the associate to become involved in outside activities?

What is the firm's culture? Is it aggressive, polished, "white shoe", low-key? Is there a tolerance for a diversity of associates in terms of race, gender, ethnicity and so forth? How tolerant is the firm of an individual's eccentricities? Does the firm have longstanding ties to a particular charity or political party?

Does the firm believe that public service or community legal work is important? Have any of the partners served in government or other non-legal appointments? How important is the "bottom line" to the firm (it is always important, but is it the only thing that is important)?

See Also: How to Answer the “Tell Me about Yourself” Interview Question

Questions for Corporate Legal Positions

What is the key to success in winning the confidence of the businesspeople? Is the legal department highly or poorly regarded within the organization? Is inside counsel expected to '"lead" the businesspeople, or is the inside counsel's role limited to counseling the businesspeople and letting them make the final decisions?

Who are the company's outside counsel (there will usually be more than one firm depending on the type of work involved), and how strong are the company's ties to each firm (i.e., if the general counsel came from Firm X, you can be sure Firm X will always get at least a certain amount of work from the company)? Is the company looking to change its relationships with outside counsel in any way? Are there any areas in which the company's businesspeople believe they are not being adequately served by existing outside counsel?

As between inside and outside counsel, who is expected to take the lead on transactions? Is inside counsel expected to attend every meeting and negotiating session? Is the inside counsel expected to "manage" the outside counsel's costs?

Is the position more of a "work" position (one in which the inside counsel's job is primarily to do the technical legal work on smaller matters, and the larger matters are handled by outside counsel with minimal involvement by the inside counsel) or a "managing" position (one in which the inside counsel is expected to know only a little about a lot of things and focus his energies instead on managing the company's relationships with outside counsel and participating in company business decisions)?

If the position is with a corporate subsidiary, how do the legal departments at the parent and subsidiary level interface? How much freedom of operation is allowed to the subsidiary's attorneys?

Questions for Government Agencies

What is the agency's mandate from Congress (or the state legislature), and how has it changed over the years (i.e., is the agency's authority expanding or shrinking)? Upon which aspects of the agency's mandate are the senior lawyers currently focusing their efforts (rarely are all of an agency's regulations enforced with equal zeal at all times)? Are there areas in the agency's mandate in which the senior lawyers feel more enforcement effort is needed?

Are lawyers at the agency expected to play a role in expanding or clarifying policy? For example, if the agency receives a request for an administrative ruling which evidences a "hole" in the agency's regulatory structure, how involved will the staff lawyer become in this process? Do staff lawyers ever become involved in the legislative committees that draft laws which affect the agency's mandate?

Whom does the agency regard as its primary constituents? Does it tend to cozy up to the people it regulates, or is it a "watchdog" that doesn't give an inch when interpreting its regulations and its mandate?

Does the current governmental administration have any expectations about how strong or lax an enforcement effort will be made by the agency? If it does, has it provided the agency with adequate support in achieving the administration's goal?

What is the average tenure in office of lawyers at the agency? Is there a "revolving door" by which lawyers seek jobs in the private sector after a few years at the agency? If so, where do they tend to go and why do they leave?