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Role guide

Legal interview preparation

Updated 3 September 2026

Legal interview formats differ between employers and routes. For Law Commission team interview candidates, questions cover behaviours, legal research and legal skills, technical motivation, handling complex information and relevant areas of law; Judicial Appointments Commission selection exercises use a selection day with a skills and abilities interview and an additional element, usually roleplay or situational questions. This guide explains those two employer-specific examples and how to prepare for each without treating either as a standard process for every legal vacancy.

01

How the interview usually works

The available process evidence concerns Law Commission recruitment and Judicial Appointments Commission selection exercises, so these are examples rather than a universal legal interview sequence. Judicial Appointments Commission candidates should check the current vacancy information because the process varies by role and may change from year to year.

  1. Application review and interview invitation

    Application-based shortlisting

    Depends on the employer

    For Law Commission team applicants, the selection panel invites applicants whose applications appear to best meet the team's essential skills, taking account of the number of vacancies.

    What they assess

    • How well the application appears to meet the team's essential skills

    How to prepare

    • Match each part of your application to the essential skills stated in the vacancy.
    • Choose truthful examples that show what you personally did and what resulted.
    • Check that claims about legal work, research or collaboration are precise and can be discussed at interview.

  2. Law Commission team interview

    Questions covering specified behaviours, experience, technical motivation and relevant law

    Depends on the employer

    Law Commission team interview candidates answer questions on communicating and influencing, working together, legal research, legal skills, technical motivation and working with complex information. They are also asked about one or more relevant areas of law; the invitation identifies the area or areas and provides the necessary material in advance.

    What they assess

    • Communicating and influencing
    • Working together
    • Legal research
    • Legal skills
    • Technical motivation
    • Ability to work with complex information

    How to prepare

    • Read the invitation closely and identify every stated area of law.
    • Study the material supplied in advance, noting the central issue and any uncertainty.
    • Prepare separate examples for communicating and influencing, working together, legal research and legal skills.
    • Practise explaining complex material plainly without losing the central point.
    • Be ready to explain your motivation for the Law Commission team's work.

  3. Application and shortlisting for a judicial selection exercise

    Application followed by shortlisting

    Depends on the employer

    Judicial Appointments Commission selection exercises use application and shortlisting stages before the selection day.

    What they assess

    • The supplied evidence does not specify what is assessed during these stages; candidates should follow the current vacancy information.

    How to prepare

    • Use the current vacancy information as the controlling guide for the exercise.
    • Prepare only the material requested for the specific application and shortlisting process.
    • Keep a record of what you submit so that you can refer to it accurately if invited to the selection day.

  4. Judicial selection day

    Skills and abilities interview plus an additional element, usually roleplay or situational questions

    Depends on the employer

    On a Judicial Appointments Commission selection day, candidates complete a skills and abilities interview and an additional element, usually roleplay or situational questions. In a skills and abilities interview, the panel asks for specific examples against each skill and ability, and the interview is normally face to face.

    What they assess

    • Specific examples against each stated skill and ability

    How to prepare

    • Prepare more than one truthful example for each skill and ability in the current vacancy information.
    • Structure each example around the situation, your responsibility, the action you took and the result.
    • Practise answering questions about your own decisions, actions and results.
    • For the additional element, listen to the full instructions, separate stated facts from assumptions and explain your reasoning clearly.
    • Plan for a face-to-face interview unless the current arrangements say otherwise.

  5. Character and background checks

    Financial, criminal and professional background checks

    Depends on the employer

    For judicial appointment candidates, the Judicial Appointments Commission conducts financial, criminal and professional background checks with relevant professional bodies to help decide whether a candidate is of good character.

    What they assess

    • Good character

    How to prepare

    • Read the current candidate guidance and provide complete, accurate information.
    • Check dates and factual details before submitting them.
    • If an instruction is unclear, ask the named contact rather than guessing.

Judicial Appointments Commission role and recruitment year

The exact selection process varies by recruited role and may vary from year to year, so Judicial Appointments Commission candidates should use the current vacancy information for their specific role.

Some senior Judicial Appointments Commission appointment exercises

Candidates in some senior Judicial Appointments Commission appointment exercises may be asked to submit examples of written work to test their Legal and Judicial Skills.

02

Your preparation plan

Build preparation around the actual route

Start with the vacancy, invitation and candidate instructions. Make a one-page map of every stated skill, behaviour or legal topic, then attach a truthful example or preparation task to each item. Keep the examples distinct so that you can choose the one that answers each question most directly.

For each experience example, note the context, your responsibility, the action you took and the result. Check that you can explain your own contribution, the information available to you and why you chose that course. Practise aloud until the structure is clear but the wording still sounds natural.

For a Law Commission team interview, use the areas of law and advance material named in the invitation. Organise the material around the central issue and any uncertainty. Prepare separate evidence for communicating and influencing, working together, legal research, legal skills and handling complex information.

For a Judicial Appointments Commission exercise, work from the current vacancy information because the process depends on the role and year. Prepare specific examples against every listed skill and ability. If the selection day includes roleplay or situational questions, listen to the full instructions, identify the stated facts and explain your response clearly.

Finish with practical checks. Confirm the location, start time, contact details and any documents you may bring. If your interview is remote, test the equipment, connection, camera and audio. Keep permitted notes brief enough to scan without reading from them.

The week before

  • Read the vacancy, invitation and candidate guidance, then list every stated skill, behaviour and legal topic.
  • Select truthful examples that show your own judgement, action and result.
  • For a Law Commission team interview, study the identified area or areas of law and all material supplied in advance.
  • For a Judicial Appointments Commission exercise, match specific examples to every skill and ability in the current vacancy information.
  • Practise concise answers aloud, keeping your own contribution clear.

The day before

  • Review your application and check that dates, roles and claims are consistent.
  • Confirm the location or joining details, start time, named contact and permitted materials.
  • Prepare short notes with prompts rather than complete answers.

On the day

  • Bring or open the documents permitted by the interview instructions.
  • If the interview is remote, test the connection, camera and audio before joining.
  • Listen to the whole question, pause briefly and give a direct answer.
  • Ask for clarification when a question or exercise instruction is genuinely unclear.
03

What interviewers look for

Legal analysis, research and judgement

For Government Legal Service qualified lawyer roles, candidates need to apply relevant law, recognise legal risk, produce sound analysis and conduct secure legal research. Legal apprentices also need to choose suitable digital sources and research tools.

Evidence to prepare

  • Choose a matter where your research changed or refined the advice given.
  • Identify how you checked the authority, currency and relevance of your sources.
  • Prepare an example of reaching a defensible conclusion despite incomplete or conflicting information.

Clear, practical client advice

Solicitors may translate a client's issue into legal terms, give specialist advice and protect the client's legal interests. Government Legal Service qualified lawyer roles also expect constructive work with clients to reach legally sound solutions that meet client needs.

Evidence to prepare

  • Find an example where you explained a difficult legal point to someone without specialist knowledge.
  • Choose a matter where the legally safest option did not fully meet the client's initial request.
  • Note how you confirmed that the client understood the advice, risks and next steps.

Confidentiality and careful information handling

Legal professionals are expected to protect company, client and colleague information and address information-security risks. In-house lawyers should also control who may request or receive advice and manage its labelling, storage and circulation to protect confidentiality and legal professional privilege.

Evidence to prepare

  • Prepare an example of handling sensitive information with restricted access or careful circulation.
  • Recall a time when you noticed an information-security risk and acted on it.
  • For an in-house role, identify how you would establish who the client is before sharing advice.

Prioritisation, accuracy and delivery

Government Legal Service qualified lawyer roles require timely performance, accountability for quality outcomes and constructive responses to challenges. Legal apprentices working in legal teams in England may prepare accurate notes, review files, collate bundles, maintain databases and apply version control.

Evidence to prepare

  • Choose a real example involving two or more deadlines that could not all receive immediate attention.
  • Record how you assessed urgency, consequence, dependencies and available capacity.
  • Find an example where a checking process prevented an error in a file, bundle, note or document.

Objective decision making and risk assessment

Government Legal Service qualified lawyer roles require candidates to use evidence, knowledge and sound judgement, evaluate options and give accurate, well-reasoned advice. In-house legal teams may also allocate or escalate instructions by risk level.

Evidence to prepare

  • Select a decision where several options were legally possible but carried different risks.
  • Explain which facts mattered, which assumptions you tested and why you rejected alternatives.
  • For an in-house role, prepare an example of deciding whether a matter required escalation.

Professional relationships and ethical conduct

Government Legal Service qualified lawyer roles require positive, professional and trusting working relationships, alongside learning from feedback. In England, legal apprentices need knowledge of ethical and professional frameworks and of professional obligations affecting clients and organisations.

Evidence to prepare

  • Choose an example of building trust with a demanding client, colleague or other professional.
  • Find a piece of feedback that changed how you approached later work.
  • Prepare an example where a professional obligation affected what you did, said or documented.
04

Questions you should be ready for

Use the answer plans as prompts, not scripts. Your examples should sound like you.

Legal analysis and judgement

These questions explore how you research a legal issue, distinguish fact from assumption, weigh risk and reach a conclusion that another person can follow.

Tell me about a matter where your legal research led you to revise your initial view.

What they want to learn: To understand how you select and test sources, respond to contrary authority and form a reasoned legal conclusion.

Answer plan

  • Set out the question you had to resolve and why it mattered.
  • Explain how you chose sources and checked their authority, currency and relevance.
  • Describe the evidence or authority that challenged your first view.
  • State how your conclusion changed and what you communicated to the client or decision maker.
  • Finish with the outcome and one lesson you applied to later research.

Evidence to use: Choose a genuine matter where the research produced a meaningful change, not one where you simply confirmed what you already believed.

Avoid

  • Listing databases or research steps without explaining your judgement.
  • Claiming certainty where the facts or authorities were genuinely unclear.
  • Giving confidential details that are unnecessary to understand the example.
Describe a time when you had to give advice despite incomplete or conflicting information.

What they want to learn: To examine whether you can separate known facts from assumptions, assess legal risk and give defensible advice without pretending that uncertainty has disappeared.

Answer plan

  • Define the decision, the information available and the material gaps.
  • Explain how you verified facts and identified the law or principles that governed the issue.
  • Compare the realistic options and their legal risks.
  • State the advice you gave, including any qualifications or safeguards.
  • Describe the result and what you would revisit if further information emerged.

Evidence to use: Use an example where you made a reasoned decision under uncertainty and can explain the limits you placed around your advice.

Avoid

  • Treating a guess as a legal conclusion.
  • Reciting law without connecting it to the decision.
  • Ignoring the option of seeking clarification, supervision or escalation.
Give an example of evaluating several legally possible options before recommending one.

What they want to learn: To assess objective decision making, comparison of legal risk and the ability to justify a recommendation with evidence and knowledge.

Answer plan

  • Explain the client's objective and the decision that had to be made.
  • Outline the options briefly and identify the criteria you used to compare them.
  • Describe the legal and practical risks attached to each serious option.
  • Explain why your recommendation was proportionate and defensible.
  • Close with the decision, result and any later review of the risk.

Evidence to use: Pick a matter where at least two options deserved genuine consideration and where your analysis influenced the decision.

Avoid

  • Presenting only the chosen option, which hides your evaluation.
  • Letting the client's preferred outcome replace independent legal judgement.
  • Overloading the answer with background before reaching your reasoning.

Clients, communication and service

These questions focus on turning legal analysis into usable advice while maintaining professional relationships and a clear view of the client's needs.

Tell me about a time when you explained a difficult legal issue to someone without specialist knowledge.

What they want to learn: To assess whether you can translate a client's issue into clear legal terms and communicate advice in a form the recipient can use.

Answer plan

  • Describe the audience, the issue and the decision they needed to make.
  • Explain how you identified what the person already understood.
  • Show how you removed unnecessary legal language without losing accuracy.
  • Describe how you checked understanding and dealt with questions.
  • State what the person was able to do as a result.

Evidence to use: Choose an example with a real communication challenge, such as unfamiliar terminology, anxiety, time pressure or competing priorities.

Avoid

  • Equating clarity with removing important qualifications.
  • Saying you used plain English without showing how.
  • Judging the recipient for not knowing the law.
Describe a time when a client's preferred course conflicted with your assessment of the legal risk.

What they want to learn: To see whether you can protect a client's legal interests, exercise independent judgement and work constructively towards a legally sound solution.

Answer plan

  • Explain the client's objective and the risk you identified.
  • Show how you confirmed the relevant facts and legal position.
  • Describe how you explained the risk and listened to the client's concerns.
  • Set out any safer alternatives you developed.
  • Finish with the agreed course, outcome and any risk controls.

Evidence to use: Use an example where you preserved the relationship while giving advice the client might not initially have wanted.

Avoid

  • Portraying the client as an obstacle.
  • Softening the legal risk merely to gain agreement.
  • Failing to distinguish the client's commercial or operational choice from your legal advice.
Tell me about a professional relationship that was difficult at first and how you improved it.

What they want to learn: To assess how you establish professional trust, respond to feedback and work constructively with clients or colleagues.

Answer plan

  • Explain the working context and the source of difficulty without assigning blame.
  • Describe what you did to understand the other person's needs or concerns.
  • Set out the practical change you made to communication or ways of working.
  • Give evidence that trust or effectiveness improved.
  • Reflect on what you carried into later relationships.

Evidence to use: Choose a relationship where your own behaviour changed and where you can point to a concrete improvement.

Avoid

  • Using the answer to criticise the other person.
  • Claiming that rapport alone solved a substantive disagreement.
  • Leaving out what you personally did differently.

Confidentiality, ethics and professional responsibility

These questions test how you protect information, identify the proper recipient of advice and act when professional obligations constrain an easy course of action.

Describe a time when you had to protect sensitive legal or client information.

What they want to learn: To explore how you maintain confidentiality and respond to information-security risks when handling legal work.

Answer plan

  • Explain the nature of the sensitivity without revealing the protected information.
  • Identify who needed access and what risks you considered.
  • Describe the controls you used when storing, transmitting or discussing the material.
  • Explain any concern you raised or remedial action you took.
  • State the outcome and what the episode changed in your later practice.

Evidence to use: Select an example involving a real handling decision, access restriction, suspicious communication or insecure method of sharing information.

Avoid

  • Disclosing confidential material during the interview.
  • Relying on vague claims that you are always careful.
  • Focusing only on technology while ignoring conversations, documents and access decisions.
For an in-house role, how would you decide who may request and receive a piece of legal advice?

What they want to learn: To assess whether an in-house candidate can identify the authorised client group and control the circulation of advice with confidentiality and legal professional privilege in mind.

Answer plan

  • Start by clarifying the organisation, matter and ultimately responsible decision maker.
  • Explain how you would identify the client group authorised to instruct legal and receive advice.
  • Describe how you would limit labelling, storage and circulation to the appropriate people.
  • Cover how you would respond if an unauthorised colleague requested the advice.
  • Finish with the records, clarification or escalation you would use where authority remained unclear.

Evidence to use: Use an in-house example if you have one; otherwise connect your approach to a truthful situation involving restricted information and explain the limits of that comparison.

Avoid

  • Assuming every employee is automatically the client.
  • Treating broad circulation as harmless convenience.
  • Giving an absolute answer before clarifying the organisation and matter.
Tell me about a time when a professional or ethical obligation changed how you handled a task.

What they want to learn: To understand whether you can recognise when professional obligations affect service delivery and act on them in practice.

Answer plan

  • Describe the task and the obligation you identified.
  • Explain how you established that the obligation applied.
  • Set out the conflict, pressure or inconvenience it created.
  • Describe the action you took, including any advice or supervision you sought.
  • State the outcome and what you learnt about handling similar issues.

Evidence to use: For a legal apprenticeship in England, choose a specific decision where a professional obligation affected your conduct, documentation, communication or recommendation.

Avoid

  • Discussing ethics only as an abstract principle.
  • Claiming personal preference was a professional rule.
  • Hiding a difficult decision behind an unexplained reference to policy.

Priorities, delivery and resilience

These questions examine how you organise legal work, maintain accuracy and respond when deadlines or risks compete.

How do you prioritise and deal with competing deadlines?

What they want to learn: To test how you handle a specific situation, think on your feet and organise legal work when demands compete.

Answer plan

  • Use a real example and describe the competing deadlines and their consequences.
  • Explain how you assessed urgency, legal or client risk, dependencies and available time.
  • Describe the action you took, including communication, reallocation or escalation.
  • Give the outcome for each significant deadline.
  • Close with what you learnt or changed in your later approach.

Evidence to use: Prepare a real-life example with genuinely competing demands. For this legal interview competency question, the SAO method can help you keep the situation, action and outcome clear and concise.

Avoid

  • Giving a hypothetical system instead of a real-life example.
  • Claiming that you simply worked longer without explaining prioritisation.
  • Discussing only the task you completed and ignoring the work you deferred.
  • Spending so long on context that your own decisions become hard to find.
Tell me about a time when you found an accuracy or version-control problem in legal work.

What they want to learn: To examine how a legal apprentice working in a legal team in England maintains reliable files, notes, documents or bundles and takes responsibility for quality.

Answer plan

  • Describe the document, file or record and why accuracy mattered.
  • Explain how you noticed the discrepancy and checked its extent.
  • Set out the immediate correction and who you informed.
  • Describe how you protected the integrity of the remaining work.
  • Finish with the checking or version-control change you adopted afterwards.

Evidence to use: Choose an example where your checking found a concrete issue or prevented an avoidable error.

Avoid

  • Blaming another person for the mistake.
  • Saying only that you are detail oriented.
  • Correcting the immediate error without addressing how it could recur.
For an in-house role, describe how you would triage a new instruction and decide whether to escalate it.

What they want to learn: To assess whether an in-house candidate can allocate or escalate instructions by risk level and identify the appropriate decision maker.

Answer plan

  • Clarify the instruction, desired outcome, deadline and known facts.
  • Identify the legal, financial, operational or reputational consequences that are evident from the matter.
  • Explain how you would determine ownership and the ultimately responsible board or committee.
  • Describe what you could progress yourself and what required escalation.
  • State how you would record the decision and communicate next steps to the instructing colleague.

Evidence to use: If you have worked in-house, use a real instruction. Otherwise, use a truthful example of risk-based triage and be explicit about the difference in setting.

Avoid

  • Treating urgency as the only measure of risk.
  • Escalating everything without first defining the issue.
  • Proceeding without identifying who is responsible for the ultimate decision.
05

Questions to ask them

“What would you want the successful candidate to handle confidently in the first few months?”

This clarifies the immediate priorities and helps you judge where you would need support or subject knowledge.

“How is legal work allocated and reviewed within the team?”

The answer can show how responsibility, supervision and feedback work in practice.

“Which types of matter would take up most of this role's time?”

This helps you compare the day-to-day work with the emphasis in the job description.

“How does the team approach difficult points of legal judgement or competing interpretations?”

This gives you a clearer picture of how colleagues test reasoning and reach a view.

“Who are the main clients or colleagues this role works with?”

The answer helps you understand the working relationships and communication demands attached to the post.

“What does strong performance look like during the first year?”

This invites the interviewer to describe concrete expectations rather than relying on the job title.

“What learning, feedback or supervision is available in this role?”

This helps you assess how the employer supports development and how often work is discussed.

“What are the remaining steps in this selection process?”

This gives you a practical view of what comes next without assuming that every legal employer uses the same stages.

06

On the day

In person

  • Re-read the job description and your notes shortly before leaving. Concentrate on the examples you intend to use rather than memorising scripts.
  • Bring any documents or notes the employer has permitted, arranged so that you can find them without interrupting the discussion.
  • Allow enough time for travel, building access and reception. Use the named contact if an unexpected delay occurs.
  • Listen to the whole question, pause to organise your answer and distinguish what you did from what the wider team did.
  • For a legal-sector face-to-face interview, prepare with the same care you would give a video-conference interview.

Remote

  • If your interview is remote, test the camera, microphone, connection and meeting link beforehand.
  • Keep the job description, permitted notes and a glass of water within reach, but avoid reading answers from the screen.
  • Choose a quiet setting with a plain background and switch off notifications.
  • Join early enough to resolve a minor technical problem. Keep the named contact's details available in case the connection fails.
  • For a legal-sector video-conference interview, prepare with the same care you would give a face-to-face interview.
07

Common mistakes

In a legal-industry job interview, opening with a salary discussion.

Start with the role and your suitability. Raise salary later in the process rather than making it the first subject.

In a legal-industry job interview, letting the opening small talk run on.

Be warm but concise, then follow the interviewer's move into the formal questions.

In a legal-industry job interview, criticising a former employer or colleague.

Describe the circumstances neutrally, explain your response and keep the emphasis on what you learnt.

In a legal-industry job interview, blaming a manager entirely for a poor working relationship.

Discuss the communication difficulty or other contributing factors, then explain what you did to improve the situation.

In a legal-industry job interview, giving impressive examples without connecting them to the position and business.

End each example by making the relevant fit explicit, using the job description as your reference point.

Preparing for the substance but overlooking the interview format.

For a legal-sector video-conference or face-to-face interview, rehearse the relevant practical arrangements as well as your answers.

08

After the interview

Send a short, factual thank-you message after the interview if you have an appropriate contact. Refer to one specific point from the discussion, confirm your continued interest and correct a small factual omission only if it matters.

Record the questions while they are fresh. Note which examples worked, where an answer became unclear and what you would change before another stage. If the employer gave a timetable, wait until it has passed before making a polite enquiry; otherwise, follow the named contact's instructions.

09

Frequently asked questions

From guide to application

Make your CV and your answers tell the same story.

Use cvlift to tailor your CV to the role and bring the most relevant experience forward. Then use this guide to practise the examples behind it.

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