The most memorable part of the past year for me was milkround, it's such a busy period in graduate recruitment as we attend various events at our 16 target universities. I love meeting all of the students and getting to know future candidates – we do just under 100 events throughout the autumn virtually and in person.

We run three vacation schemes – two three-week summer vacation schemes that take place from June to July and July to August. We also run a two-week winter scheme that normally takes place across the first two weeks in December. These schemes are now all in person and we have around 20 to 25 students on each one.

The vacation schemes are important because we recruit the majority of our trainees through them (around 75%). We get to know the students really well throughout their time at the firm. It’s also a great way for candidates to get an understanding of the firm, helping them to make a more informed and confident decision when it comes to accepting a training contract offer.

That said, we do offer a direct training contract route too. The direct route can be a great opportunity for candidates who are already working or can't commit to a vacation scheme.

The vacation schemes involve a real mix of activities, including workshops, case studies, and networking opportunities with trainees, associates and partners.

However, the main focus of the scheme is to get vac schemers involved with live work. They’ll have the chance to experience two practice areas across the two or three weeks and will be allocated a trainee buddy for each group, as well as a supervisor and partner who’ll give them their work. Our vac schemers are fully integrated into their teams and are regularly invited to team socials and get involved in real-life work within the team.

There are several key skills that we’re looking for during the application process and on the vacation scheme. One of the biggest skills we want to see is sound commercial awareness – clients want their lawyers to be trusted advisers and so it’s important that candidates are comfortable speaking the language of the clients.

We’re also looking for communication and personal skills. Candidates must show that they can integrate well into a team, talk to supervisors and trainees, and get the most out of all conversations. Good verbal and written communication skills are key to being a successful lawyer.

Hogan Lovells wants excellent team players and people who can build relationships. There’ll be opportunities throughout the vacation schemes to work on presentations and group projects, which is a great chance to showcase these skills.

Candidates must also showcase resilience. We don’t shy away from the fact that a career as a lawyer can sometimes be difficult and we recognise that to be successful, candidates must be resilient.

We are part of the City Consortium and introduced the SQE in September 2022. All of our future trainees will take the City Consortium training programme to prepare them for the SQE assessments, as well as for a career in City law and Hogan Lovells.

We have a separate diversity and inclusion (D&I) function that reports direct to the firm’s CEO. Our D&I strategy is focused on accountability, processes, recruitment and retention, culture and clients.

In terms of our recruitment process, we want to ensure a diverse stream of applicants and trainees. To do this, we have several methods in place, including the Rare contextual recruitment system. We also participate in various widening access schemes, which involve reaching out to school, college and university-age students who wouldn’t necessarily get the opportunity to experience what it’s like to work in law.

In terms of firm-wide D&I initiatives, we have various diversity networks that aim to ensure we’re delivering on our commitment to D&I.

It’s easy to think we’re looking for specific examples on the competency-based questions, so candidates often fall into the trap of writing what they think we want to see, as opposed to mentioning examples that are relevant to the question.

My advice, even if candidates think that the example they have is slightly unusual or doesn’t relate to law, is to include it if it answers the question. Some of our best answers are from students who have more unusual scenarios as it ensures that they stand out from the crowd.

At the application and interview stage, it’s incredibly important for us that candidates have researched the firm. On the flip side, it’s also crucial that candidates research the firm for themselves because it’s somewhere they might end up spending a large chunk of their time, so they need to be sure that we’re right for them.

Candidates aren’t expected to know everything about the firm but, by the interview stage, they should be able to confidently discuss the practice areas they’re interested in and why they want to work for Hogan Lovells.

It's really important to showcase commercial awareness in your application – you can do this through the competency questions in our application form.

Yes, our assessment centres include a technical interview, situational interview and networking opportunities with trainees. The assessment centres for vacation schemes are run virtually, however there’s the option for candidates to opt for an in-person assessment day.

Yes, we’ll be attending our target university law fairs and our main aim is to meet as many students who are interested in Hogan Lovells as possible. The feedback from students is that they’ve missed it too so we’re really looking forward to meeting people again. Our main objective when we go to a law fair is to meet as many interested students as possible and to inform them of Hogan Lovells!

We speak to candidates at various different stages in the journey into law. For some students, a law fair is their first insight into the legal world and we're happy to answer their questions; however, we also speak to students who’ve completed in depth research and are narrowing down their application choices.

I’d encourage candidates to research the firm to make sure it’s the right place for them to develop their career. Secondly, if you’re really committed to a career at Hogan Lovells, try to attend as many events as possible – speaking to representatives at the firm really is the best way to get a feel for what we do and the culture of the firm. We have a separate section on our application form that’s designed to give candidates the space to list all the events they’ve been to, which will help to showcase their interest in commercial law. These events, which include insight days, workshops, law fairs, are great opportunities to meet the firm and find out as much as you can ahead of submitting your application.

I do a lot of running and cycling to unwind!