Grounded in the real hiring process
Built from the employer's own process and public material, not candidate reports. Sign up and tell us what you were actually asked.
02 / Hiring process
Five stages, and one of them decides it
5 stages from application to offer. Interviews with the team is reported to be the one that decides it.
5stages
01
Application and office route office, program or team fit
Candidates apply through Blakes' public jobs site and the applicable office or student program. Student recruitment is office specific and subject to provincial or local recruitment rules. Tailor materials to the role, city and practice context.
02
Initial conversation background, motivation and readiness
Blakes does not publish one universal interview sequence. Recent candidate reports describe conversational, behavioural video interviews for some professional and student roles. The format depends on office, program and team.
03
Interviews with the team judgment, collaboration and work style
Student, associate and professional candidates can meet lawyers or business leaders who examine different parts of the same record. Prepare examples that are specific enough to test while preserving client and employer confidentiality.
04
Role-specific exercise writing, organization or functional judgment
A role-specific task may be used for legal, professional or business-services hiring. Blakes does not present one assessment as universal. Read the posting, clarify the deliverable and show your work carefully.
05
Decision and onboarding references, credentials and start planning
Successful candidates complete role-appropriate checks and start planning. Student and articling candidates should follow the governing recruitment timetable. Associate and professional candidates should confirm documentation and any confidentiality or conflicts requirements.
Ask before the interview: what will this round cover, who will I meet, and is there anything I should prepare?The question almost nobody asks
03 / Question library
Interview question practice library
The questions are drafted from Blakes' published student programs, live role taxonomy and clearly labelled candidate-reported process patterns. They are not claimed as a harvested verbatim question bank.
60questions
Asked in every interviewAsked in every Blake, Cassels & Graydon interview
01 Why Blakes? Motivation Open guide
Find your angle. Blakes question 01 examines your choice among leading Canadian business-law firms. The interviewer is testing whether you understand Blakes' mentoring, office-specific programs and business-law work, with enough detail to distinguish actual judgment from a polished claim.
Build your answer
- Define the situation. Set out your choice among leading Canadian business-law firms, including the people, deadline and consequence that made the decision important.
- Explain your judgment. Show whether you understand Blakes' mentoring, office-specific programs and business-law work. Separate what you owned from advice, approval or specialist work supplied by others.
- Prove the result. Close with one firm fact, one matching experience and a reason for this office. State the outcome, evidence and one remaining limitation.
Bring the evidence
For Blakes question 01, bring one firm fact, one matching experience and a reason for this office. Include a date, scale, decision point or measured result that can be tested.
What weakens it
When answering Blakes question 01 about your choice among leading Canadian business-law firms, do not replace the decision with claims that you work hard, communicate well or care about quality.
Likely follow upWhat would make another firm a better fit?
Pro
Build this answer out of your own experience
The guide for this question: what the stage is scoring, three steps to structure the response, the evidence worth bringing, what weakens it, and the follow up. Then Pro drafts your version of it against your CV, so you walk in with your own answer rather than someone else's script.
Subscribe to Pro Unlimited preparation, every question, every company.02 Walk me through your background. Background Open guide
Find your angle. Blakes question 02 examines the two decisions in your history that best predict performance here. The interviewer is testing whether you can make a broad resume relevant to a Blakes role, with enough detail to distinguish actual judgment from a polished claim.
Build your answer
- Define the situation. Set out the two decisions in your history that best predict performance here, including the people, deadline and consequence that made the decision important.
- Explain your judgment. Show whether you can make a broad resume relevant to a Blakes role. Separate what you owned from advice, approval or specialist work supplied by others.
- Prove the result. Close with two responsibilities with scale, one difficult judgment and one result. State the outcome, evidence and one remaining limitation.
Bring the evidence
For Blakes question 02, bring two responsibilities with scale, one difficult judgment and one result. Include a date, scale, decision point or measured result that can be tested.
What weakens it
When answering Blakes question 02 about the two decisions in your history that best predict performance here, do not replace the decision with claims that you work hard, communicate well or care about quality.
Likely follow upWhich experience is least relevant?
Pro
Build this answer out of your own experience
The guide for this question: what the stage is scoring, three steps to structure the response, the evidence worth bringing, what weakens it, and the follow up. Then Pro drafts your version of it against your CV, so you walk in with your own answer rather than someone else's script.
Subscribe to Pro Unlimited preparation, every question, every company.03 Why this Blakes office? Office fit Locked
Pro
Build this answer out of your own experience
The guide for this question: what the stage is scoring, three steps to structure the response, the evidence worth bringing, what weakens it, and the follow up. Then Pro drafts your version of it against your CV, so you walk in with your own answer rather than someone else's script.
Subscribe to Pro Unlimited preparation, every question, every company.04 Tell me about uncovering what a stakeholder actually needed. Client service Locked
Pro
Build this answer out of your own experience
The guide for this question: what the stage is scoring, three steps to structure the response, the evidence worth bringing, what weakens it, and the follow up. Then Pro drafts your version of it against your CV, so you walk in with your own answer rather than someone else's script.
Subscribe to Pro Unlimited preparation, every question, every company.05 Describe catching an error before it became costly. Quality Locked
Pro
Build this answer out of your own experience
The guide for this question: what the stage is scoring, three steps to structure the response, the evidence worth bringing, what weakens it, and the follow up. Then Pro drafts your version of it against your CV, so you walk in with your own answer rather than someone else's script.
Subscribe to Pro Unlimited preparation, every question, every company.06 Tell me about taking ownership without being asked. Initiative Locked
Pro
Build this answer out of your own experience
The guide for this question: what the stage is scoring, three steps to structure the response, the evidence worth bringing, what weakens it, and the follow up. Then Pro drafts your version of it against your CV, so you walk in with your own answer rather than someone else's script.
Subscribe to Pro Unlimited preparation, every question, every company.07 Describe coordinating conflicting priorities. Teamwork Locked
Pro
Build this answer out of your own experience
The guide for this question: what the stage is scoring, three steps to structure the response, the evidence worth bringing, what weakens it, and the follow up. Then Pro drafts your version of it against your CV, so you walk in with your own answer rather than someone else's script.
Subscribe to Pro Unlimited preparation, every question, every company.08 Tell me about difficult feedback. Feedback Locked
Pro
Build this answer out of your own experience
The guide for this question: what the stage is scoring, three steps to structure the response, the evidence worth bringing, what weakens it, and the follow up. Then Pro drafts your version of it against your CV, so you walk in with your own answer rather than someone else's script.
Subscribe to Pro Unlimited preparation, every question, every company.09 Describe a decision with incomplete information. Judgment Locked
Pro
Build this answer out of your own experience
The guide for this question: what the stage is scoring, three steps to structure the response, the evidence worth bringing, what weakens it, and the follow up. Then Pro drafts your version of it against your CV, so you walk in with your own answer rather than someone else's script.
Subscribe to Pro Unlimited preparation, every question, every company.10 Tell me about protecting a professional boundary. Integrity Locked
Pro
Build this answer out of your own experience
The guide for this question: what the stage is scoring, three steps to structure the response, the evidence worth bringing, what weakens it, and the follow up. Then Pro drafts your version of it against your CV, so you walk in with your own answer rather than someone else's script.
Subscribe to Pro Unlimited preparation, every question, every company.11 How do you handle urgent competing deadlines? Priorities Locked
Pro
Build this answer out of your own experience
The guide for this question: what the stage is scoring, three steps to structure the response, the evidence worth bringing, what weakens it, and the follow up. Then Pro drafts your version of it against your CV, so you walk in with your own answer rather than someone else's script.
Subscribe to Pro Unlimited preparation, every question, every company.12 What questions do you have for us? Questions Locked
Pro
Build this answer out of your own experience
The guide for this question: what the stage is scoring, three steps to structure the response, the evidence worth bringing, what weakens it, and the follow up. Then Pro drafts your version of it against your CV, so you walk in with your own answer rather than someone else's script.
Subscribe to Pro Unlimited preparation, every question, every company.Associates and inSource Lawyers6 to practise
6 questions
The questions this role actually gets asked
The core set above is asked whatever you applied for. These 6 are specific to Associates and inSource Lawyers, and they are usually what the decision turns on.
Create a free accountWhat you get
Less than the cost of one lunch, for a great deal more confidence.- Unlimited tailored interview preparation
- A massive database of actual questions and answer guides
Role specific
Pick your role and the list narrows to what that role tends to get asked.
A guide for every answer
What the question is testing, three steps to build your answer, and the evidence to bring.
Prepared, not guessing
You walk in knowing the shape of the round and which of your own stories fits it.
04 / In the news
Worth mentioning in the room
The strongest answer to why this company is something that happened last month.
1story
Free account
What happened at this employer this month
Stories screened from everything published about this employer, chosen because they can be used in the room rather than because they are recent.
- Each one carries a line on how to use it in the answer
- Crime, recalls, litigation and share price moves are excluded outright
- Refreshed daily, so it is different the week of your interview
05 / The four values
What is actually being scored
Blakes publishes a culture of mentoring, learning, inclusion and high-quality client work. Show those ideas through decisions you have actually made.
4stories
Mentorship and feedback
A time you sought specific feedback, converted it into a better work product and showed the person who helped you what changed.
Broad exposure
A time you learned quickly across unfamiliar subjects or stakeholders and made a useful connection between them.
Inclusive collaboration
A time you brought a quieter or different perspective into a decision and improved the group's outcome.
Quality under pressure
A time you used a repeatable check, clear escalation and honest communication to protect an important result.
06 / Before you apply
Where candidates lose it
Pro
Where candidates lose this before anyone meets them
The part of the process that eliminates most people is not the interview. It is what happens around it, and almost none of it is written down anywhere.
- The assessment answers that read as dishonest rather than confident
- What the availability question is really deciding
- The application detail that cannot be edited once submitted
Interview in 48 Hours
Turn your experience into your advantage.Bring your own stories to the interview. Start with the role, build your preparation sheet.