Generation gap

Today, interviews with city firms are daunting experiences.

Andrew Towler goes down memory lane and talks to four Linklaters partners about how the selection process has evolved

The track to becoming a solicitor is littered with hurdles - getting into the right university, passing the degree, going to a good law school and completing the legal practice course.

After all the years of education there is still the biggest jump of all - securing a training contract with the right firm.

In the current ultra-competitive environment, this can lead to disappointment and frustration as candidates get an elbow in the ribs just when the finishing line comes into sight.The prospect of interviews can be intimidating, especially at big City firms that can appear to be unfriendly corporate entities, asking difficult practical questions: explain the concept of a credit card to a five-year-old, list 20 things you have achieved in your life, that kind of thing.The recruitment practices of law firms have altered markedly over the past 50 years and the expectations of what aspiring solicitors offer were not as high as they were as recently as 10 years ago.

The Gazette spoke to four partners at City giant Linklaters, who were recruited at different times over the last 45 years to gauge the changes.Sarah Wiggins, a partner in the corporate department, began her articles in September 1990.

'My interview was fairly informal,' she says.

'I met a couple of partners and it was my personal qualities that were examined as opposed to how much I knew about the City and the law.' Ms Wiggins admits that in this regard, it was just as well, as she 'didn't know a great deal about the law' having studied history at Manchester University.

She was interviewed at Linklaters at the start of her common professional examination course.'I decided to read through the Legal 500 and apply to the firms that I liked the sound of,' she says.

'I also had family and friends who used and recommended Linklaters and they sounded international, which interested me.' The only previous contact Ms Wiggins had with a law firm was when she worked as a tea-lady at DJ Freeman as a summer job and became friendly with founder partner David Freeman - so she also sent her CV to there.She says she found the interview she had at Clifford Chance more difficult.

'They asked me to comment on the legal issues that may arise out of the sale of a cuddly toy, which they promptly put on the desk,' she recalls.

'As I had only studied law for two weeks at the time, I found this quite tricky.'Ms Wiggins admits that with the knowledge she had then, she may not have fared so favourably in an interview today.

'The interviews are far more focused on finance and City work now than they used to be,' she says.

Despite offers from DJ Freeman and Clifford Chance, Ms Wiggins says she chose Linklaters because she was 'pleasantly surprised by the outlook of the firm', adding: 'They didn't appear concerned that I was a woman and that I wasn't an Oxbridge student.'The same cannot be said for Mark Sheldon, now retired but a former senior partner of Linklaters and a former Law Society president.

Qualifying in 1957, he says he only studied law at university because his father thought he should 'do something useful'.

Following the path of going from grammar school to public school, he went to Corpus Christi College at Oxford University where he says: 'Most of my contemporaries studying law, such as George Carman, went on to be barristers - those who didn't either weren't up to it or had links to a family firm somewhere.'He explains that contact with Linklaters was initiated by his tutor at Oxford - 'a terrifying blind man by the name of Theodore Tyler' - who had tutored a partner at the firm before the Second World War.'Mr Tyler wrote a letter to partner Kenneth Cole at Linklaters suggesting I would be suitable for them,' he says.

'Before the interview I was absolutely terrified, but from what I remember we talked about everything except law and it was a relaxed, pleasant experience.

Any idea of structure to the interview was laughable and the intellectual require-ments to be a City solicitor back then were not as great.'After a second interview, Mr Sheldon received an offer to work for the firm and says that was the last he heard from them until after law school, when he was told what day to turn up for work.

He says: 'At the time, it was pretty typical to join a City firm recommended to you by your tutor and a letter from them would do the trick.

Those less gifted usually went to family firms - but it was all very much less of a stress.'Though such practices may sound archaic and outdated in today's society, the method of recruitment had changed little 20 years on, according to Nick Eastwell, now a capital markets partner, but recruited as an articled clerk in 1978.

Mr Eastwell studied history and then law at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, but was again prompted into action by his senior tutor.He says: 'Towards the end of my days at Cambridge my tutor, John Collier, asked me in a bar one night what I wanted to be and I said "a City lawyer", saying there were only two firms I had heard of at the time - Linklaters and one other major City firm.

My tutor said he thought the other too stuffy for me, and described Linklaters as a "meritocracy", meaning I would be judged on my capabilities as opposed to my background, which was good as I came from a grammar school.'This was followed by a telephone call from the tutor to a friend of his who was also a partner at Linklaters, and a half-hour interview in which Mr Eastwell says they talked 'mostly about the author Graham Greene - but not much law'.

He received an offer the next morning,'Partners at law firms relied on tutors at various colleges to find them the right people,' he says.

'The tutors acted as referees and pointed you in the right direction of a firm they felt would suit you and your strengths.

It worked very well in those days.'Mr Eastwell says the size of the market now means that the selection process is a far more rigid process.

'We expect applicants to know a great deal about us and our work when they come here,' he says.

'When I was recruited the firm relied on your tutor to attest for your legal capabilities and the interview was merely to verify your character.'Similar advice was given to Simon Firth, a partner in Linklaters corporate department, who studied at Oxford from 1983-86.

He says: 'I was told by my tutor as I neared the end of my studies that the two firms head and shoulders above everybody else were Linklaters and Slaughter and May - and he had a good contact at Linklaters.' However, rather than the letter or telephone call to a partner, it was suggested to Mr Firth to go on a vacation scheme in the summer and he sent in his CV.

'Instead of having to sit through a 30-minute interview, I had four weeks of working like a trainee for the firm to look at me,' he says.

'After that it was quite a straightforward process - there was an offer made and then two years later, after my Law Society finals, I received a letter asking me to start in a month.'However applicant-friendly this may sound, Mr Firth adds: 'I was never asked what area I wanted to work in before joining the firm and I received no further information about what to expect on my first day here.

These days we spend a great deal of time trying to make our new employees feel part of the firm and keep in constant regular contact with them.'For example, before interviews, Linklaters now runs a roadshow around universities all over the country, and this is followed by a four-to-six-week detailed interview process.

Mr Eastwell adds: 'In the present day, it is a far more managed process on a level playing field.'While the images of old boys networks and futures being decided over a brandy and cigar may sound appealing to some - and a lot less trouble and strife than the rigmarole of the selection process today - there is one comforting thought for modern-day prospective lawyers.

Just as a lot less was expected of solicitors in the past, a lot less was also given by firms.

Ms Wiggins, who joined in the 1990s, was the only recruit to have any real contact with the firm between the offer and the start of employment.

She was also the only one to receive funding from the firm for her law school training.

And that is probably more valuable than even the best brandy and cigars.