Lord Hope and the Single Biggest Mistake Applicants Make When Preparing for Competency Based Interviews

Conscientious, able lawyers preparing for their judicial or silk competency-based interviews typically spend time identifying relevant examples that are additional to those they have included in their self-assessment application. They will often identify examples that they believe will be strong answers to questions they anticipate being asked. At first blush this makes perfect sense and…

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Why Good Lawyers Do Bad Interviews

When judicial and silk applicants perform badly during their  JAC selection days or silk interviews it is not usually because they found the questions difficult. In my experience, having advised and coached over a thousand lawyers and judges over the past 12 years, poor performance invariably comes down to one of the following: A failure…

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A Powerful But Simple Technique for Judicial and Silk Interviews

Whether they are a lawyer being interviewed for silk or the High Court bench, most interviewees invariably speak faster and answer before reflecting sufficiently, during an important interview. This invariably is a consequence of the pressure they experience. This tendency to race ahead has the following negative consequences: Answers are fired off without sufficient thought,…

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