Personal Legal Adviser

☛ How do you communicate goals to subordinates?

☛ Did you have faults as a leader? Describe the situation.

☛ What is your expected salary?

☛ If you were hiring a person for Legal Advisor job, what would you look for?

☛ Example when you were able to successfully communicate with another person.

☛ Give examples of steps taken to make each team member feel important.

☛ Why did you leave your last job.

☛ What qualities do you feel are most important for a successful legal assistant?

☛ What is your greatest strength? Greatest weakness?

☛ Can you give me an example of a situation where you needed to deal with multiple priorities at once and how you deal with it?

☛ How do you deal with stress?

☛ Do you work well under pressure?

☛ Do you enjoy working as part of a team?

☛ How do you deal with sensitive or confidential information?

☛ Can you give me an example of a situation where you demonstrated an eye for detail?

☛ Which areas of law are you most interested in?

☛ Why did you decide to become a legal assistant?

☛ What subject did you like the most at school? Why?

☛ Which subject did you like the least, and why?

☛ What made you choose to attend [name of school]?

☛ How has your education prepared you to work for us?

You don't want actual names, so this question does not violate attorney-client privilege. What you want to find out is whether the average client is an individual or a business and whether the average job resembles what you need done, both in terms of the legal matters being covered and, when applicable, the dollars involved. If you have a big estate and fear lawsuits, so that you want to set up an asset-protection trust, you don't want to be working with an advisor whose idea of asset-protection is an ordinary estate plan and protecting life savings from Uncle Sam. You're looking for someone who can make you virtually "suit-proof," and the difference is huge.

This should be straightforward. Reflect positively on your current employer but state how you are looking for more challenges, responsibility, experience and a change of environment. Explain how your current role can no longer provide you with these things, but how you believe the role on offer presents an opportunity for growth that will make full use of your strengths and potential.

Be honest: this will allow your enthusiasm to come across. This is also a chance to demonstrate the research you have done about the company.

Show what motivates you. Explain why this sector appeals to you and use any work experience you might have to back this up.

A sense of purpose is an attractive feature in an applicant, so this question is designed to probe your ambition and the extent of your career planning. Your commitment is also under question, but avoid blankly stating that ‘I want to be with your company’. Instead, describe how your goal is to continue to grow, learn, add value and take on new responsibilities in the future that build on the role for which you are applying.

The interviewer is testing your problem-solving skills and how you manage pressure. Find an example of a task, at work or during your studies, which at first seemed impossible and show how you used your skills to resolve it.

You're the one paying the bill, and you want to get what you pay for. If the lawyer uses paralegals or junior partners to do the work, you should find out just how involved your attorney intends to be. It's dumb to pay for a figurehead. You also want to find out what, if anything, the involvement of others does to your projected costs; it can push costs up or keep them reasonable, depending on circumstances.

Find out if there are ways for you to minimize costs. In some situations, it may involve your doing the legwork to find certain documents or to drive documents around yourself, rather than relying on a courier service. The smaller a lawyer's practice, the more he or she will value your ability to do some of the menial chores on your own, and the savings will be very real.

The interviewer is trying to find out your definition of ‘difficult’ and whether you can show a logical approach to problem solving. Select a tough work situation that was not caused by you. Explain the way you approached the problem, including the actions you took and the solution you applied to overcome the problem. Give your answer with the air of someone who takes setbacks and frustrations in your stride, as part of the job.

Again, this answer should reflect company values, for example, by showing that you are a team player.