A Legal Advisor (sometimes called a Legal Counsel or Legal Consultant) provides legal counsel and services to companies or individual clients. Their role is incredibly versatile as they often act as the main point of contact on all legal matters. Whether helping solve disputes or drafting legal documents, the Legal Advisor assists a company to help limit their risk of facing lawsuits.
A Legal Counsel can have a huge impact on your business, so it’s important that you ask the right Legal Advisor interview questions while hiring to ensure you find the right person for the job. Below, we’ve listed over 15 of the best Legal Counsel interview questions to help you find that special candidate.
When hiring a Legal Consultant, these are the qualities you should be looking for:
- Thorough understanding of the law and legal terminology (preferably specialising in your industry)
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to translate complex legal issues into easy to understand language
- Great organisational skills and the ability to work independently as well as in a team
Interviewing a Legal Advisor
Before you sit down for the first interview with potential candidates you will need to prepare the right questions to ask them. Since the person in this role can have such an impact within your organisation you should have several job-specific questions ready to test their skills.
You will find a list of such interview questions below. Do bear in mind though that these questions are to be asked early on in the interview process. Further down the line, you should ask Legal Advisor interview questions for more experienced candidates.
How to open the Legal Advisor job interview
Job interviews can be scary. There’s a good chance your candidate is nervous at the start of the interview, which can knock their confidence and give you an inaccurate impression of how they are as a person. So helping them feel as comfortable as possible during the interview is in everyone’s best interest.
Luckily, it often isn’t that difficult to help ease the candidate’s nerves. Start the interview with a few light-hearted questions to help them settle in. For example, ask them how they travelled to the interview (if the interview is held at your office) or simply ask them how their day has been so far. A positive opener to the conversation can go a long way.