White & Case Assessment Centre Prep

Case study / commercial exercise

Typical scenarios. Assessing an acquisition target or financing structure for a cross-border infrastructure project, with partners challenging assumptions ('if inflation spikes 4%, how does that alter your financing route?').

Common failure modes. Superficial legal jargon over commercial analysis, fence-sitting instead of a definitive stance, or collapsing under interrogation.

Tactical advice. Treat the partners as clients. Structure around three commercial risks and three explicit mitigants, give one concrete recommendation and defend it logically.

Written / drafting exercise

Typical scenarios. Reviewing a bundle of emails, clippings and memos on a distressed client and drafting an internal memorandum to a partner summarising liabilities, commercial implications and next steps.

Common failure modes. Running out of time with an incomplete memo, missing minor details like conflicting dates or misspelled client names, or writing an academic essay instead of a crisp note.

Tactical advice. Spend the first 15 minutes mapping the bundle, then use clear subheadings (Executive Summary, Key Issues, Commercial Impact, Next Steps) with short, declarative sentences.

Competency / behavioural interview

Typical scenarios. 'Why White & Case over a Magic Circle firm?', 'Tell me about balancing conflicting priorities with identical deadlines', and 'Describe acting on critical feedback'.

Common failure modes. Over-rehearsed, generic answers that do not articulate why the cross-border model suits you, or failing to show genuine resilience.

Tactical advice. Use a hyper-structured STAR method with the Action phase on your personal contribution, and quantify results where possible.

Group exercise

Typical scenarios. Allocating a corporate venture fund across competing international energy or technology projects, or negotiating the terms of a cross-border joint venture where each candidate represents a different stakeholder.

Common failure modes. Dominating to the detriment of cohesion, going entirely passive, or arguing rigidly for a brief without commercial flexibility.

Tactical advice. Frame contributions around advancing the group's objective, pull quieter candidates in, monitor the clock and move the group to drafting final points about 10 minutes before the deadline.

Direct training contract, in-person AC, London (passed)

Prep. Spent two weeks building a deal tracker on the London Banking and Project Finance groups, read the Financial Times daily and did mock timed drafting.

Experience. The written exercise was a dense internal-correspondence pack on an energy acquisition, tackled with a one-page executive summary and structured bullets. In the partner interview they attacked the financial assumptions; held two points but explicitly conceded a third regulatory flaw. In the group, took the scribe role and synthesised everyone's points on the whiteboard when two candidates fought for control.

Outcome. Offer accepted; partners liked that the candidate did not panic when told an initial conclusion was flawed.

Summer vacation scheme, hybrid final round (passed)

Prep. Focused on the firm's position as a US firm with a fully integrated English-law practice and memorised the guaranteed international secondment details.

Experience. A conversational but structured competency interview drew out concrete resilience evidence (restructuring the budget of a failed university event). The case study was dense sovereign-debt-restructuring data, tackled by focusing on the commercial impact on lending banks. At lunch, asked trainees how they coordinate seamlessly with New York and Singapore.

Outcome. Secured the scheme place and then a training contract; authenticity and high energy in the group and at lunch made the difference.