Yushan Ng

Yushan joined Linklaters as a trainee and qualified in 2001. He was an associate for three years and a managing associate for four – becoming a partner in Restructuring and Insolvency only seven years after qualifying.

A truly rewarding experience.

The environment at Linklaters is very meritocratic, which is fantastic. The people who truly succeed here are driven, have a desire to understand clients inside out, and are team players. So many of our people have the entrepreneurial spirit needed to ensure that Linklaters keeps working on the groundbreaking, global deals for which we’re renowned.

The world of Linklaters.

Global exposure is actively encouraged. In fact, it’s a necessity. It’s incredibly important that Linklaters’ lawyers know how to interact with people from all cultural backgrounds. To date, I’ve been fortunate enough to be seconded to both Stockholm and New York. But global exposure isn’t just attained through secondments. It also comes through the everyday experience of dealing with Linklaters’ lawyers across the world, as so much of our business is about delivering a seamless cross-border service.

Making partner is a big deal.

I think you know when you’re ready to make the step up. In my case, it was a restructuring of a Brazilian company. I was a new managing associate and was sent to Sao Paulo at 48 hours’ notice – on my own. It was slightly nerve-wracking. I went straight off the plane into having to lead a meeting with some very senior bankers I had never met, and then spent the next six weeks there trying to make a deal happen in quite difficult circumstances. Fortunately, it all went extremely well. That gave me the confidence and belief I needed to make the step up.

There’s no experience quite like it.

For me, the most exciting part of becoming a partner is being able to participate directly in the strategic decisions taken by our clients and providing practical commercial advice - it’s definitely more than just technical work. Doing what we do, it’s imperative to have clarity of vision and to always be thinking ahead. It can be challenging to do that, particularly working in restructuring and insolvency. We’ve never experienced an economic situation quite like the one we’re in now, so there’s often no precedent for the challenges that come our way. But that’s true for a lot of work you’ll do at Linklaters.