Alana Bathgate (she/her) is a senior early careers adviser at Addleshaw Goddard. She’s been with the firm for over three years and is based in the Edinburgh office.
What is your favourite part of the recruitment calendar?
My favourite part of the recruitment calendar is the placement schemes we run. They’re a great opportunity to get to know candidates, show who we are at Addleshaw Goddard (AG) and all the great things the firm has to offer. More generally in my role I enjoy all the people I get to meet, chat to and work with both internally and externally.
Does your firm run a placement scheme?
We run placement schemes across our UK offices with one-week Easter schemes taking place in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and London, as well as two-week summer placement schemes in Aberdeen, Edinburgh/Glasgow, Leeds, London and Manchester. We also run a summer internship in our Dublin office. All schemes/internship take place in person.
How important is the placement scheme as part of the recruitment process?
We recruit solely from our placement schemes and all those who take part will be considered for a training contract with us. The scheme is a great opportunity for not only the firm to get to know you, but also for you to get to know the firm. You’ll be immersed in the firm, our culture and get involved in the work that we do.
What kind of work can candidates expect to experience during the placement scheme?
Ultimately, we want candidates to get a true sense of the everyday life of a trainee at Addleshaw Goddard, so they’ll be involved in real trainee-level work for clients. During their time with us candidates are assigned a trainee buddy and a more senior supervisor who’ll work with them to assign work, answer questions and provide support.
We also organise information sessions with various teams across the firm, and candidates take part in group exercises and complete assessments.
Finally, there are planned social events too – these are a great opportunity for those on the scheme to get out of the office environment with some of our trainees and other colleagues.
What key skills does your firm look for in candidates when they apply?
We’re looking for candidates who are passionate and driven about a career in commercial law with Addleshaw Goddard.
Like many firms we’re open about the key skills we look for, so it’s important to keep these in mind when going through the application process. Skills such as teamwork, attention to detail, decision making and commercial awareness, to name a few, can be shown through examples.
It’s also great when we see that candidates are willing to get stuck in and put their hand up to get involved.
Should candidates use examples of non-legal work experience in their applications?
In our application form you’re not required to share work experience. However, during the voice interview and assessment centre there are opportunities to provide relevant examples. There are so many transferable skills from non-legal work experience. Look at everything you’ve been involved in and prepare examples of skills or achievements that can be shown through your work experience that relate to the role of a solicitor. Our assessors want to get to know you, and relevant work experience and your other interests are a great way to do this.
Are there opportunities for trainees to go on client secondments?
Our trainee secondments are an important part of our training contract programme. Our trainees can apply to complete one of their seats at one of our clients or at one of our non-UK offices.
These secondments are a great opportunity to better understand our work, build relationships with colleagues in another office and experience life in another city.
Trainees who are selected for a secondment at one of our clients will learn about some of the FTSE 100 companies and household names we work with.
How is the firm adopting the Solicitors Qualifying Exam?
The changes brought in by the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) has meant that there’s more flexibility around the way trainees can qualify as solicitors in England and Wales, and we’re now able to offer more than one route to qualification. While the majority of our trainees qualify via the traditional training contract route, we also offer a limited number of graduate solicitor apprenticeships.
You can find out more about the traditional training contract and graduate solicitor apprenticeship in the SQE drop down on our LawCareers.Net profile.
How important is diversity and inclusion to your firm?
Diversity and inclusion remain at the top of our agenda as a firm. We recognise the importance of nurturing an inclusive culture to help us attract, retain and enable our people to be the best they can be. We understand that people shouldn’t be excluded from the profession due to their background or identity, and that diverse firms are more innovative and agile.
In terms of our early careers process, we use a contextual recruitment system that helps us to identify the best talent by providing us with context regarding the background by which candidates have achieved their grades. It considers factors such as whether applicants had time in care, were eligible for free school meals, their postcodes, whether they’ve had excessive work during term time and whether they have additional caring responsibilities. We believe that by identifying these factors we’ll, in turn, identify candidates who are resilient, hardworking and have the ability to thrive at Addleshaw Goddard.
We also run blind recruitment at the application stage to help reduce the impact of unconscious bias. Included in our recruitment process is a voice interview rather than a video interview. We use a voice interview because we understand that some people are uncomfortable appearing on video or may not have the necessary facilities at home to undertake a professional interview – we want to ensure that these people aren’t excluded and can fully take part in the recruitment process. We also provide unconscious bias training for our recruitment assessors to further reduce the impact of unconscious bias.
In addition to the above, we encourage candidates to share with us any requirements they might need for interview so that we can make the requisite workplace adjustments as we believe everyone should be on a level playing field.
Beyond that, we have various employee networks at the firm. The Vine is our women’s network, OpenAG is our LGBTQ+ network, AG Embrace is our race and ethnicity network, the Ability Forum is our disability and carers’ network, as well as our Jewish Network, Muslim Network, Christian Network, Hindu, Jain and Sikh Network and Social Mobility Network. These networks provide an opportunity for people to come together whether they’re part of the specific communities or an ally. The networks help to develop the firm’s culture and are incredibly active in terms of the events they host.
If you’d like to find out more about inclusion at the firm make sure to register to attend our Discover AG series of events in the autumn. More details are on our website.
Does your firm run an assessment centre?
An assessment centre forms part of our recruitment process. The first stage is to submit a short online application form, along with completing a critical thinking test. We provide access to a full suite of practice tests that candidates can use to prepare for this. Those who are successful will be invited to undertake a voice interview and those who move forward in the process from there will be invited to attend an assessment centre.
The assessment centre lasts around half a day and consists of a proofreading exercise, group exercise, partner briefing exercise and a partner interview. During the assessment centre, there are opportunities to meet different people from the firm, including a networking lunch with some trainees.
Does your firm attend university law fairs in the autumn term?
Over the autumn, we’ll be running events directly with universities across the UK. We’ll also be attending a variety of online law fairs and in-person events organised by the likes of LawCareers.Net, such as LawCareersNetLIVE. Our website will be updated over the autumn with details of these. Make sure you engage with your university for events that are held on campus.
What’s your favourite way to unwind from work?
Getting outside into the fresh air is my favourite way to unwind at the end of the day. Going for a walk or enjoying the sunshine in my garden really helps me to switch off and reset for the evening.
