What M&A experience can you bring to our firm?
Since you are applying for an entry-level associate position, you may not have experience in a specific practice area yet. This question provides an opportunity to explain applicable law school courses or activities that may have focused on the subject matter. If you do not have academic experience, maybe you have past work experience where you were involved in a non-legal role during an M&A transaction.
"During law school, I focused on coursework for contract and transactional work that I know I could apply in various roles. I took a course in M&A Fundamentals in my third year of law school, and we spent a semester working through a merger transaction. We were partnered with a classmate and assigned different sides to practice what it would be like to work on such a transaction. I learned how to gain confidence through the feedback my classmates and the professor provided. In addition, as I knew I was interested in this area of law, I routinely visited my professor's office hours to further discuss the class materials and how to best apply what I was learning after I graduate."