Capsticks

Capsticks is a law firm specialising in healthcare related work. The firm advises over 200 NHS, regulatory, voluntary and private sector healthcare organisations including the Department of Health, the General Dental Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Healthcare Commission, Nuffield Hospitals and the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Capsticks have offices in London and Birmingham. The London office is in Wimbledon; a glass-fronted building that commands great views.

Interview Questions

Capsticks have a policy of primarily recruiting from their Summer Vacation Scheme.

• Online application
• Interview with HR
• Partner Interview

HR Interview

The first Capsticks interview with HR is relatively straightforward. You will be asked questions about your personality, commercial awareness/interests, ability to draw on life experiences to show your competence and other factors.

Partner Interview

Candidates will be asked questions about their CV and why they have an interest in Law and primarily Healthcare Law. Candidates will be asked to show evidence of how the skills they possess would be beneficial in the legal profession. Candidates will be asked what they feel are the most important skills for a solicitor to possess and be asked for examples of when they have demonstrated these skills in the past.

Candidates will also be quizzed on various problematic legal scenarios to gauge how they would deal with challenging situations in the workplace. For example, you will be given scenarios such as situation where you must deal with urgent enquiries from stressed clients, at a time when you have other pressing issues to attend to. This type of question assesses your client handling and time management skills.

Another scenario candidates have been given in the past involves how your would inform a doctor that a case was being commenced against him or her and deal diplomatically with similar sensitive issues. In addition candidates may be asked about how they would advise a client on the merits of alternative dispute negotiation and encourage settlement as an effective solution.

Candidates will also be questioned about extracurricular interests and activities and asked to give their specific reasons for choosing to work at Capsticks and what they hope to gain from a potential training contract at the firm.

During the interview, partners will be keen to establish your dedication to a career in healthcare law and explore how the skill-set you have developed through other work experience would be suitable for the legal profession. Your interviewers will probe you to find out how you would respond to problematic situations in the workplace to gauge your commercial awareness and personality traits.

Interviewers will be friendly to begin with but begin to get increasingly tough, particularly as they begin to quiz you on your CV and past work experience.