Kimberley Johnston – Transcript
Hi, I’m Kimberley Johnston. I’m a third seat trainee here at
Linklaters. I did my first seat in Corporate 125, which is the
Private Equity Group, and my second seat was in Projects, which is
the Energy & Infrastructure group. I am currently in Litigation
and plan to do my fourth seat in a client secondment.
One of the first things I found about Linklaters is that the
people here are just amazing. I got to Linklaters through a bit of
a different route. I did my undergraduate law studies in the United
States. I am qualified in New York and I have actually come over
here to do a training contract in order to get qualified in the
UK.
So coming here, not knowing anyone, it was great to become
instantaneous friends with the trainees I started with. Actually,
four of us in Corporate ended up moving on to be in Projects
together and we had a great time. We were working pretty late
nights, but it was fine because we were all together and it sort of
made it feel like you were just with your friends for the
evening.
One of the things I found at Linklaters is that you’re working
on really cutting-edge deals that are internationally focused and
are splashed on the headlines of most major newspapers. So it’s
quite cool in the morning to get in and see the Financial Times and
have the headlines be whatever you have been working on the night
before.
It’s also interesting to see that the attorneys that you’re
working with are people who are the best in their respective fields
and they have so much to offer you and are so willing to train you
that it’s amazing to work with them. They also give you more
responsibility, the more you prove yourself. For instance, at the
end of my seat in Projects, I was able to go to Ireland by myself,
in order to oversee a signing that was a multi-billion-dollar deal
that was the refinancing of a wind farm. It was an amazing
experience that I don’t think you can get at many other firms.
It has also just been great to do things outside work here with
Linklaters. I have taken a drawing class. I’m a member of the
softball team and the captain of the ladies’ football team. We
actually had two tournaments that we won - one was in Stockholm and
one was in Lisbon, as well as a few locally. We’re doing OK in the
league this year but hopefully we’ll move up a bit. If you’re
interested in joining the football team, please do get in contact
with me at Linklaters! I have enjoyed my time here and I hope
you’ll consider coming here as well.