Anthea Demetriou (she/her) is a senior early careers adviser at HFW. She’s been at HFW for two years and is based in the London office.
What has been your most memorable moment in the job?
It's hard to choose one, to be honest! Some of my most memorable moments involve making offers for training contracts – it’s so rewarding to see a candidate's hard work pay off through them receiving an offer from us at HFW and to be able to give them that good news. It's one of the best parts of my job. More recently, it has to be the upcoming September seat move at the firm – I managed to juggle a lot of different stakeholder needs and requirements, to give every trainee a seat that they wanted to be in! It doesn't always work out so easily, so it feels very uplifting, positive and memorable when it does.
How important is the vacation scheme as part of the recruitment process?
While we don't recruit exclusively through our vacation schemes at HFW, they’re an integral part of our recruitment process and we do make most of our offers to those who’ve attended and are successful in the other assessed elements that take place during the scheme. Just to give you a sense, over the past four years, we’ve made approximately 80% of our training contract offers to vacation scheme participants. So, I’d really encourage anyone who’s thinking about applying, to apply for one with us as a first port of call.
What key skills does your firm look for in candidates when they apply?
No HFW trainee is the same; however, we do look for some key skills from candidates and most of these centre around the key skills that solicitors need to be successful! We're not expecting perfection or a 'finished product', we're just looking for potential when looking at the skills candidates have. Some of these are:
- attention to detail;
- the ability to work collaboratively with others;
- intellectual curiosity; and
- a willingness to learn.
With 21 offices around the world, HFW is looking for candidates who are interested in a global career. As part of our training contract, we offer a guaranteed international secondment in one our international offices, so having a global outlook is important to us. Also, while we're not expecting candidates to know about our six core sectors in detail, we do look for use of research skills. You can do this by showing us that you’ve spent some time understanding what we do at the firm, why it sets us apart from other firms and what appeals to you about the work that we do.
How is the firm adopting the Solicitors Qualifying Exam?
As a firm, we’ve made a full move over to the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE). What this means is that all our future trainees must complete some or all parts of the SQE. We do, however, look at situations on an individual basis. If someone has already completed the Legal Practice Course, for example, they may be exempt from SQE1 but would still need to complete SQE2 and SQE Plus. The same applies for SQE2. It ultimately depends on the qualifications completed. The SQE Plus features some specific module selections that give our trainees the additional legal knowledge to help them settle into the firm. For example, one of the modules covers insurance, the other commercial law and international trade and the last one advanced dispute resolution. We front load all studying (ie, the Postgraduate Diploma in Law (PGDL) and SQE), so our trainees can join us without worrying about having to study at the same time. In terms of funding, the firm covers the cost of the PGDL and SQE courses and SQE assessments. We also provide a maintenance grant of £17,500 to help with living costs.
What is the most common way that candidates let themselves down in their applications?
A common issue that I see in applications is candidates not evidencing that they’ve researched HFW in enough detail. This often manifests in the form of generic answers that don't have the specificity required for the application to be progressed to the next stage. In addition, candidates sometimes refer to relevant work experience when answering the application questions but they then don't include that work experience in the 'work history' section. This makes it really challenging for us when reviewing the application, as we don't get the level of detail needed from candidates to fully understand their experience to date. As such, my top tip would be to make sure that all parts of the application form are completed fully and thoroughly!
What's the firm's stance on the use of AI in vacation scheme/training contract applications?
We know AI is everywhere and we know candidates may be using it as part of their application writing process; however, we feel that it shouldn’t be doing the bulk of the work for candidates. We know candidates may use it as a starting point but it's really the candidate's responsibility to make sure that they’re aware of and brushed up on what they’re putting into their application forms. We re-assess motivation, knowledge of the firm and the candidate's own research skills multiple times, at different stages of the process. So, if candidates get AI to do all the work for them, they’re only doing themselves a disservice later in the process.
How should a candidate approach researching a law firm? What key things about your firm should any good candidate know and be able to talk about?
A candidate should start with getting a general overview of the firm – for example, what does the firm do, how does it position itself in the market, what services does it offer, what practice areas or sectors does it cover and where does it have offices. This is the tip of the research iceberg. This should then be followed up with more specific research on the practice areas/sectors and the services, with a deep dive focused on specific examples of the firm's work in the chosen areas. Candidates should also look at HFW’s competitors and what they do – this will help the candidate start to form a view on how the firm distinguishes itself from its competitors and in the market. Candidates should also look at the training contract and its unique features (eg, the structure of the seats, client or international secondments and any specific training opportunities, such as more disputes-focused seats) and think about what appeals to them about that. I’d also then broaden the research to cover things like culture, diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and initiatives, corporate responsibility and sustainability initiatives and any other factors that make the firm the candidate is researching the firm that it is. Fundamentally, once all this research has been done, the candidate should be able to articulate why they want to work at that firm specifically and what appeals to them about the work of the firm and the training contract.
What is your dream job (other than this one!)?
I’d have probably been a wedding planner, or some kind of curated events planner if I wasn't an early careers professional! I love the idea of playing a big role in the pivotal moments of someone's life and making it a special moment. This is also why I enjoy what I presently do right now – I have the privilege of supporting individuals at the very start of their career journeys and that's something I’m proud of.
