It might just be the most important 30 minutes of your professional career. Getting your first mention in Chambers or Legal 500 or playing your part in getting your team a top tier ranking could be the catalyst for professional advancement. But first, you need to go through the interview!
With the stakes so high, it may feel pretty daunting and the pressure of expectation from your firm is likely to be significant. So, how can you give yourself the best chance of peak performance on the big day? I’ve been helping clients with their directory submissions for many years, these are my top tips for preparing for a directory interview:
- Understand how the submission works
Generally, an interview will last around 30 – 45 minutes on the phone or on a video call. However, if you have plenty of interesting things to say the researcher may want to talk for longer.Make sure you have blocked out plenty of time in your diary, so you don’t have to cut things short. The first half of the interview will usually be a chance for you to talk about your area of expertise and your firm. Remember this is a chance to promote your team as well as yourself so be sure to highlight the work of your colleagues during the interview. The second half is likely to involve a discussion of the broader market and trends and other law firms and lawyers.
- Know your submission
It may sound obvious but make sure you are familiar with the written submission that has been sent in. Have it to hand during the interview in case you go blank! If items are included in the submission that you were not involved with directly, make sure you get a briefing from those who were. Also familiarise yourself with last year’s rankings and keep these to hand so you can refer to them if you need to.
- Prepare, prepare, prepare
A Chambers or Legal 500 directory interview is not simply a chance to have a cosy hat about your practice. Time will be limited so you need to focus on the key messages you want to convey beforehand. Ideally you could role play with your marketing team (if you have one) or a colleague. Make sure you are clear about confidentiality and what you can and can’t share about client work before the interview. You should assume that everything you say about your work in the interview is attributable.
- Be objective when offering insights on others
Even better, if you can be positive in your feed-back on other firms and lawyers this suggests confidence in your own abilities. Showcasing your sector awareness by talking about deals you didn’t work on lends credibility to your claim to be an expert in your field. Insulting or derogatory comments about other firms or individuals is generally a no-no but it would be fine to provide intelligence on high profile partner moves or to point out that a competitor has seen a high turnover of fee-earners in the past 12 months.
- Respect the researcher
Bear in mind that while the researchers are well-educated and have a good understanding of commercial law generally, they are not specialists in your particular area of law. Avoid legalese and make sure you are pitching at the right level by checking with the researcher how familiar they are with your area. If your area is quite niche, you may need to explain unusual terms or acronyms but, don’t patronise, respect the interviewer’s intelligence.
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