Legal Counsel Question:

To gauge how candidates think on their feet, throw a curve ball. Off-the-wall interview questions have now expanded beyond tech startups and have joined the ranks of lawyer interview questions. Glassdoor offers some real examples from other fields:

☛ If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?
☛ If you were to get rid of one state in the U.S., which would it be and why?

If you’re not comfortable going quite that far, take a leaf out of Microsoft’s book. Their interviews require candidates to shift gears and display logical thinking on unexpected, abstract topics, using questions such as: “If you were a brick in a wall, which brick would you be and why?” Candidates’ answers can give you a sense of their poise and critical thinking when taken by surprise, which is a valuable characteristic, particularly for litigators.