Legal Summer Placements

01 Application Form

After applications have opened, you will find a link to the form on this page. We feel strongly that it is important to widen access to the legal profession for those from less socially mobile backgrounds, and some of the questions on the application form reflect this.

The form also includes questions about your university, work experience, skills and extracurricular activities.

Here are some tips:

• Complete the application form in full
• Answer the question. For example, if a question asks about your skills, be sure to talk about skills in your answer
• Triple-check your spelling and grammar – and then check again!
• We want to hear about all your work experience (paid, unpaid, legal and non-legal), so don’t leave anything out
• We start to conduct interviews as soon as we receive applications, so it’s to your advantage to submit your application well before the deadline
• It may seem obvious, but spell Shepherd and Wedderburn correctly!

02 Online Testing

If you are successful in the application stage, you will be invited to undertake testing via SHL, an online assessment provider. We use SHL’s G+ test, which assesses numeric, inductive and deductive reasoning.

You have will three days to complete this, and we recommend that you practice by doing some mock assessments first. You’ll find some here.

03 Assessment Centre

If you pass the test section, you will be invited to attend an in-person interview with two members of the firm – one who is legally qualified and one who is part of the graduate recruitment team. The interview is split into two parts.

Presentation

At least three days before your interview, we will send you a description of a legal issue. Your presentation should be five minutes long, and should describe how you would approach and resolve this issue. Your presentation will be scored on timekeeping, structure, clarity and relevance to Shepherd and Wedderburn.

Interview

A more traditional interview will follow your presentation. It is natural to feel nervous during an interview, but rest assured that our interviewers want to hear from you so that they can find out more about you, your skills and your experience. So try to relax and be yourself.