COMMON INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What are your long and short range career goals and objectives?

2. When and how did you establish those goals?

3. How are you preparing yourself to achieve them?

4. What goals, other than those related to your legal career, have you established for yourself for the next 10 years?

5. What do you see yourself doing five years from now?

6. Why did choose to go to Northeastern State University?

7. What kind of life do you want?

8. How would you describe yourself?

9. How has your college degree prepared you to work in this firm?

10. Why should I hire you?

11. What are the most important qualities of a successful legal assistant?

12. How can you contribute to our agency/firm/company?

13. What two or three accomplishments have given you the most satisfaction?

14. What was your most rewarding collegiate experience?

15. What legal courses did you like the best?  Least?

16. Are your grades a good indication of your academic achievement?

17. What area of law appeals to you?

18. Describe your ideal working environment.

19. Why are you interested in this firm/company/agency?

20. What do you know about this firm/company/agency?

21. What two or three things are most important to you in a job?

22. What do you know about (the city in which the firm is located) ?

23. Do you have other job offers?

24. What have you learned from the other attorneys/paralegals you've spoken with today?

25. Do you have any questions I can answer?

26. Why do you want to be a paralegal?

27. Tell me about your legal experience. (Or why haven't you acquired any legal experience?)
 
 

 Questions To Which You Should Know The Answers Before You Decide On A Law Firm
 
 

1. How does the firm train new lawyers/paralegals?  By one-on-one mentoring, by hands-on practice, by seminars, or by neglect?

2. What can lawyers/paralegals expect to gain from their association with the firm?  In addition to monetary gain, what does the firm offer new associates in terms of professional development?
 

3. What happens to the associates/paralegals who leave the firm?  If the don't become partners/managing paralegals, how else are they successful:  politics, teaching, corporate practice, other forms of legal practice?

4. What is the goal of the clerkship programs?  How are law clerks used?  Do they have the opportunity to observe attorneys at work, or to otherwise form an idea of what it would be like to practice law in the firm?

5. How are paralegals and new lawyers evaluated?  How does the firm ensure that they obtain the widest possible exposure to the practice, clients, other lawyers in the firm, and the city/area?

6. Who are the clients?  Are they stable and varied, with a variety of interesting legal problems?

7. How does the firm market its services to established and prospective clients?

8. Is the firm dependent on the work of one or few major clients?

9. How has the recession affected the firm?

10. Are the firm's lawyers of a uniformly high calibre?  Are there competent and skillful people at all seniority levels and in all practice areas?

11. Is the firm well-organized and ably administered?

12. What is the firm's vision of its future?

13. Has the firm grown significantly in the past 15 years, in numbers of clients and lawyers as well as in profitability?

14. What is the relationship between junior and senior lawyers in the firm? What are the channels of communication and the degree of contact and formality?

15. Does the firm encourage lawyers/paralegals to engage in pro bono work, community service and government service?  How many firm lawyers/paralegals actually donate time to such programs?

16. Are associates/paralegals encourage to specialize? When?

17. When are associates/paralegals considered for partnership/paralegals promoted?

18. What does partnership/promotion entail in terms of compensation, responsibilities and contribution?

19. Does the firm have a friendly atmosphere?  Is it a place where people can work hard and enjoy themselves, or is it stiff and formal, or worse, personally threatening or intimidating?  Is there a spirit of cooperation among the lawyers?

20. What is the firm's general character, its stability and reputation?  Have there been any significant split-ups in its history?

21. Does the firm have an international practice?

22. What are its specialties and major areas of practice?

23. Will you enjoy working with these lawyers/paralegals?  Are they of sufficiently varied types and backgrounds to make your professional association interesting and rewarding?