I read Law at Durham University and enjoyed it so much that I
thought commercial law might just be the career for me. The exam
format of getting a problem and applying the law to resolve that
problem really suited my logical style of thinking, and to be
honest that same format of problem and resolution is largely the
work of law firms (although usually the problems are a little more
complicated!). I figured that a job in a field that I really
enjoyed and may be good at would be the best idea.
After university I went to the College of Law in London to do
the Linklaters-specific LPC, which I cannot recommend highly
enough, and which I’ll talk more about in a later blog. Although I
started work at the firm in September 2008, I feel like I’ve been
part of the Linklaters fold for a lot longer as you are at law
school with all the other Linklaters trainees in your intake and
there are a lot of social events and training sessions organised by
the firm during the LPC year.
In September 2008 I started my first seat in the Mainstream
Corporate department, where I worked on some of the biggest deals
to ever hit the press. As Linklaters picked up so much of the work
surrounding the financial crisis, I really felt like I was at the
hub of a firm that was being trusted with the most important and
complex work in the world. It is common for firms to say that the
deals they do are reported in the financial press, however, the
deals I worked on in Corporate were the headlines of the national
press everyday. Needless to say it was a busy time and we all had
to work very hard, but I was given real responsibility and I
couldn’t have asked for better work in terms of quality.
My second seat was in the Competition/Antitrust group. As an
advisory seat it was very different from the transactional work I
was doing in Corporate. Advisory seats tend to involve more legal
research and drafting instead of transaction management. However
one thing remained constant… the quality of the work. At no time
was I simply re-hashing standard pieces of research for the client.
The questions posed were always pushing the margins of what had
been done before which proved to me that clients really do come to
Linklaters with the most challenging and groundbreaking issues. My
Competition seat was both intellectually challenging and immensely
rewarding.
I’ve just started my third seat which is in the Banking group,
sitting with a Partner who specialises in Restructuring &
Insolvency. I’ll let you know how I’m getting on in my next blog
entry, however with the economy the way it is I’m sure I’m going to
be busy with very good work. Already I feel that the group is
extremely friendly and people are genuinely happy to help if I have
questions.
Until next time …