BEST RECRUITER – NATIONAL/LARGE REGIONAL FIRM
important part of its recruitment strategy. “Every legal discipline is
traditional backgrounds.” Certainly, William found that his army career was no barrier to settling in. “There are people from all sorts of background in my intake – those who’ve studied law and those who’ve had other careers first. It’s nice to have that mix.” In particular, he was impressed with the tailored nature of the support he received – after he accepted Osborne Clarke’s offer of a training contract, Zoe put him in touch with an ex-RAF pilot also at the firm. “It was really good to talk to him about how he’d made that transition,” he recalls. “I remember thinking – they’ve gone beyond what’s necessary here.” The firm’s outreach efforts start with Zoe and the graduate recruitment team – they tend to visit between 10 and 15 universities from October to December, covering not only all the big law fairs, but also striking out alone by putting together their own presentation evenings in an effort to attract attention from those who might not otherwise consider a career in law. The team is also working to develop links with student law societies, an increasingly
no secret of the fact that it is looking not just for academic excellence, but also commercial awareness and skills development. “In the application form, we want to see that a candidate can articulate themselves clearly and succinctly in the 250-300 word space,” Zoe explains. “That’s crucial.” However, applicants need not panic. “We’re not looking for the finished article – we are looking for evidence of raw talent, intellectual ability, the ability to strike up a rapport with new people, and the confidence to make themselves heard during group exercises. We want to see people pick up a business issue and run with it. As well as that, we want to see evidence of “soft skills” – that they’re articulate and confident individuals.” William went to a number of assessment centres and interviews – leaving the army and embarking on a career in law was not a decision he took lightly – but Osborne Clarke stood out for being a place he felt comfortable. “Even though there was the pressure that this was my number one choice, I always felt they put me at ease by the way they approached the process,” he
different,” Catherine argues, explaining Osborne Clarke’s willingness to think outside the box and to recruit so widely. “So we need to have a broad cross-section of candidates. We are after a diverse mix, which will grow the firm in different legal areas. A brilliant tax lawyer has different skills and character traits to those which make for a fantastic IP litigator.” She is under no illusions that this sort of diversity can happen without help. “Despite our best efforts, there will always be unconscious bias involved,” she points out. “A danger that we might recruit in our own image. For that reason, we look carefully at the make-up of our recruiters and ensure that we have a wide variety of people involved at all different levels. Three members of the trainee leadership group read through applications after the first sift – initially we get hundreds – and we all talk through our choices and argue them to each other. At the assessment centre we have people involved from partners to associates. Osborne Clarke makes
Osborne Clarke is very open, very collegiate, a high-support culture – this makes us attractive to people from non-traditional backgrounds
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