Personal Questions

Tell me about yourself.
How would your friends describe you?
How would you describe yourself as a person?
Why this particular geographic area?
What is the latest non-legal book you’ve read?
What are your outside interests and hobbies?
Who is your hero/heroine?
Why did you choose law?
What is your biggest accomplishment?
What are your strengths/weaknesses?
What would make you a good trial advocate?
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made?
How would you go about building a trusting relationship with a client?
What is something interesting that’s not on your resume?
What one thing have you done that you’re proudest of?
What is the most difficult/rewarding thing you’ve ever accomplished?
How do you work under pressure?
What type of people do you work with best or would have trouble working with?
Are you a team player or do you prefer to work on your own?
What do you feel are things that help a person become successful?
What constitutes success in your mind?What kinds of things give you the most satisfaction in your work?
How do you feel about representing alleged child abusers?
Is there any crime you would have trouble defending?
How do you feel when defense of the First Amendment conflicts with other rights?
How do you feel about accountability versus reconciliation?

Resume / Transcript

What type of responsibilities have you had in prior work experiences?
Why did you choose to work at these specific organizations?
What did you particularly like/dislike about that work?
Why did you leave your prior jobs?
Why did you choose your undergraduate major?
What did you do between college and law school?
Why did you decide to switch from your previous field to law?
Why did you go to law school? Have your goals changed since then?
What extracurricular activities have you participated in during law school?
What was the issue you argued in Moot Court? What was the argument on the other side?
What clinical work have you done in law school?
Tell me about your participation on the journal, in your externship, your clinical program, or your research project.
Tell me about your thesis/journal article.
Why did you only get an “LP” in…?
Tell me about your interest in rock climbing, course on Islamic law, etc.
Knowledge of Organization/Position

Why do you want to work in our office, as opposed to other offices that do similar work?
Which of our legal practice areas and/or areas of interest are you most interested in?
Why our practice setting? Why our issues?
Why are you looking at this area of specialization?
What qualifications do you have that will make you successful at this job?
What would the greatest drawback of this job be for you?
Why should we select you over all the other candidates?
How are you prepared to work with clients/colleagues who are different from you?
What two or three things are most important to you in a job?
What kind of training or supervision are you looking for in a job?
How would you describe your ideal job?
What criteria are you using to evaluate the employer for which you hope to work?

Commitment to Public Service

Why did you decide to switch from private sector to public interest work?
How much experience have you had in your field of interest?
What fields interest you other than the one you are in?
How much experience have you had with public interest organizations?
What community service project do you believe allowed you to make the greatest impact and how?
What has been the greatest challenge you have faced during your volunteer efforts? How did you overcome such a challenge?
What are your short/long term career goals?
Where do you see yourself in 5 (or 10) years?
Where else have you applied for a job?

Legal Reasoning/Thinking

What do you like most about law school?
What do you find most challenging?
What was your favorite class in law school? Why?
Who was your favorite professor in law school? Why?
What qualities do you think a good lawyer should have?
Tell me about your legal writing sample/note.
Tell me about a legal memo you wrote this year.
Tell me about a recent Supreme Court case you disagreed with and why.
Tell me about your hardest law school exam question.
Tell me about a complex legal issue you worked on.
If you were a court, how would you rule on the following issue…?

Key Questions to Ask your Interviewers

The following are types of questions to consider asking a prospective public interest employer. These kinds of questions should help you determine whether the job will be a good match for you. It is important to ask thoughtful questions as well as questions that are pertinent to the specific organization so that the employer knows that you are very interested in this particular job.

Could you tell me more about the areas of specialization?
On what kinds of cases or issues are you currently working?
How do you enjoy your work overall?
Could you tell me a little about how you came to work here?
What do you consider to be the greatest challenge of your job?
What kind of person is your office looking for in this position?
What personal attributes are required in order to do this type of work well?
Who would supervise my work?
How much direction/autonomy is there in this position?
What kind of training would I get?
How would you describe the work atmosphere here?
What are your greatest challenges for the coming year?
What is the office’s history of hiring summer interns into full-time positions?
What are your expectations for the person hired into this position?

RESOURCE: Harvard University