Glassdoor users rated their interview experience at Freshfields as 100% positive with a difficulty rating score of 2.5 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty). Candidates interviewing for Engineering and Summer Vacation Scheme rated their interviews as the hardest, whereas interviews for Engineering and Summer Vacation Scheme roles were rated as the easiest.
The hiring process at Freshfields takes an average of 22 days when considering 2 user submitted interviews across all job titles. Candidates applying for Engineering had the quickest hiring process (on average 1 day), whereas Summer Vacation Scheme roles had the slowest hiring process (on average 42 days).
I applied online. I interviewed at Freshfields in Feb 2026
Interview
I had an initial screening call with someone from the recruitment team, this was via teams and lasted 30 minutes. It did feel like she was reading from a script and did most of the talking, but she gave me some helpful interview/CV tips at the end which was a nice idea. It also made me feel excited to learn more about the business and go for an interview.
I then had a 1 hr in person interview with two people. They were friendly, made me feel comfortable and welcome. The office was really nice too. The vibe in the office was very casual, with both interviewers in T-shirts and jeans. On reflection, a heads up about the dress code and casual nature would have been beneficial, I arrived dressed up as I thought a law firm would be professsional attire only. I think straight away this caused a misalignment between myself and the interviewers.
The questions weren’t too difficult but were being read from a generic document that’s used for roles across the business. It was a mix of competence based questions, general about me and situational examples.
The disappointing part is that I didn’t hear anything from the interviewers or recruitment team and had to chase up the outcome. The recruitment team then asked if I had time for a call to receive feedback after telling me I was unsuccessful, I sent my availability for a call and did not hear back.
It would have been good to hear feedback so I know where to improve for future interviews, and a call from the interviewers after meeting them in person, even to have a conversation about being unsuccessful would have been the right thing to do. This felt quite disappointing for an established law firm.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Example of when you have implemented a new process?
There are usually two rounds of interview with a technical exercise for senior roles. Usually an internal recruit team manages the process with external recruiters used by exception. LinkedIn is a first step to headhunt.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What is a unique skill that you have that you will bring to the role?
They asked several questions, although there were 2 unassessed that acted as warm ups, most of which were situational but the last one being motivations based. Overall the interview process felt positive, but apprentices were not informed that the assessment consisted on two phases