Examples of firm-specific questions to ask interviewers Forum

[usma84]

I have never seen a thread on this topic but I bet one exists. How does one construct firm-specific questions? Would you say, "I know your firm recently opened offices in [area]. How do you see the firm using this office to grow it's business.". Or, "I know your firm recently receieved the [] award: to what do you attribute this accolade?". There are a lot of threads out there about doing research on firms, but what are specific questions that you have found successful? The example questions from my CSO to ask firms seem really vague.

I was hoping people might give their thoughts on how to answer the "why law school question.". I still don't know how to answer this question and am also just curious why ppl chose law school. Many thanks in advance.

[A Swift]

Try to make any question you ask tied to your interviewer as much as possible, or you risk not engaging them.

Imagine someone working 100 hours a week in a windowless room having 20 kids ask him about some random award the firm won or expansion strategy they know nothing about and/or took absolutely no part in.

[DocHawkeye]

"I see that you just argued _______ case before ______ (Supreme) Court. Tell me about that..."

[desertlaw]

I thought it was good to ask them what they were attracted to about the firm when they were either a) doing OCI like me or b) lateraling.

Harkens them back to a situation like what you are so that they can relate with you.

[Advice Dog]

Google the interviewer's name to look for some recent press releases about him or her. If he or she is a litigator, go on Westlaw and run a case search with a field for lawyer's name. That's a pretty cool feature, actually.

When you find out what they've worked on, you can say something like: "Most big firms have large clients, but frankly, one of the things that really drew me to (firm name) was the caliber of clients you've worked with in the xxxx field. Actually, I heard you worked on XXXX deal/case." You can then ask about that matter, about related matters, etc. Once I would touch on this, they would usually pick up the ball and talk for awhile and then it would become conversational.

The goal should be not just to ask firm specific questions that show you've done your research, but to also get the interview to feel more like a conversation then a series of questions and answers.