When she’s not rock climbing or go-karting, Claire’s involved in deals that are making national headlines.
I’m now into my fourth week of a client secondment at Barclays Capital (BarCap). It’s all very different from Linklaters here but I’ve found it surprisingly easy to settle in. The most obvious difference is that where at Linklaters you share an office with just one or two other people, at BarCap, like most other banks, everything is open plan. So I’m now sharing an office with a hundred or so other people! And where my group at Linklaters had around fifty people in it, I’m now part of a team of seven, surrounded by lots of other different teams all doing completely different work, which is really good for getting to know people outside your team and hearing how other people work. People rarely stay very late here either so it’s great to be able to make plans in the evenings and know I can always keep them.
My team is the legal team which deals mainly with investments that BarCap makes for itself (rather than its clients) in companies in a variety of different areas, either to develop relationships with companies in specific sectors or to research those sectors. Where at Linklaters you would generally only get involved at a later stage, here we work on the documents that need to be signed before the parties have decided to do a deal, way before an external law firm is instructed. I’m enjoying working so directly with the business, i.e. the bankers doing the deals. It’s a steep learning curve and there’s a lot to learn, but it’s surprising how much you pick up just by chatting to people! It’s also really interesting to be in a bank in the current climate – places like this are where it’s all happening!
I'm afraid I have very little to report in terms of Firm life at the moment, as I've spent the last two weeks in Costa Rica wandering around rainforests, diving and generally lazing on white sandy beaches!
Things are pretty quiet for me on the work front as I've been away, although I've just got involved in a cross border sale and leaseback which looks quite interesting. It's seat change time at the end of the month and most of the trainees are beginning to think about their next seat. I'm looking forward to a change of scene and seeing a different side of things working at a client's offices. They're based in Canary Wharf so it'll be a good place to be for the summer – great bars on the river and awesome shopping! This will be my final seat, so I need to make a decision about where I want to qualify quite soon. I can't quite believe I'll be a qualified lawyer in 6 months!
More next time...
I think this may have been my busiest couple of months, work-wise, since I joined the firm 18 months ago! Not what I had expected from Real Estate, which is traditionally seen as much less hardcore than Corporate or Banking. I’ve spent most of my time working on a pretty big cross-border property sale with the corporate real estate team, liaising with local counsel in a number of different jurisdictions – something I hadn’t really done before. I’ve been working in a small team of three: me, a junior associate and a senior associate. That’s meant that I’ve been given a lot more responsibility than I’ve had before which is great, and have really felt like a valuable part of the team. I did not expect to be leading conference calls of up to 15 people at a time as a trainee - which I won’t pretend I didn’t find terrifying the first time I had to do it! But I think I’ve learnt more in the last month than I had done in the previous three.
Needless to say I’m now very much enjoying the post-Closing down-time. It’s good to know I can make plans with friends in the evening again and catch up on odd jobs that have fallen by the wayside. Plus I’m off to Costa Rica for a two week holiday next week so my mind seems to be straying to white sandy beaches at the moment!
I found out last month that I’ve been successful in getting a client secondment for my next seat, so will be off to a big corporate client to get a taste of work on the other side. It’ll be strange being out of the “fold” but I’m really looking forward to it!
I seem to have had a pretty busy month since I last wrote! I was working on a corporate real estate deal quite quietly, and then all of a sudden, we had five days to sign it and it was all hands on deck! People always say (and I never believed them until I actually had to do it myself) that it’s the adrenalin that keeps you going late into the night. And it really is true. Knowing that you’re doing something which will enable the client to announce it to the market at 7am the next morning, that they’re absolutely over the moon to have done the deal and that you’ll get champagne and a celebration lunch at the end of it kind of gets you through!
Lots of the trainees are applying for secondments at the moment for their next seat, either to go to one of our international offices or to a client for 6 months. So everyone’s talking about where they might want to go. Other than that we’re all silently preparing ourselves for the Christmas party season. Trainees are lucky as we get a trainee party plus whatever party our department at the time decides to throw! Also causing a great deal of amusement is the month-long charity moustache-growing event to raise awareness for prostate cancer. It seems like every man in the office is sporting some kind of comedy moustache! Some are saying they can’t wait for the end of November when they can get rid of them, but I reckon quite a few will be very sorry to see them go!
I can’t believe another month has gone by already. That’s one thing you notice when you start work – the weeks seem to fly by. Since I last wrote I’ve been settling into my new group. It’s always a bit of a wrench leaving one group to go to another! It takes a couple of months to really get to grips with things, and then before you know it you’re off to your next seat in a different department, which can feel a bit like starting a new job! It doesn’t take long to find your feet though, and no one expects you to know much about the new practice area at first which is always a relief! Plus it gets easier each seat change, as you pick up more skills and gain in confidence with every seat.
We’ve been having loads of training sessions to get us up to speed on areas we’ll be working in, which has been really useful, and when I haven’t been training I’ve been getting a good spread of work. Trainees get a bit more responsibility in Real Estate to deal with their own matters, so I’ve had a couple of things where I’ve been giving the client comments on documents or completing small matters. Slightly daunting after only a couple of weeks but there’s always someone around to help if you get stuck.
Other than that I’ve been helping out with a bit of graduate recruitment. I went back to Bristol with the recruitment team and other trainees and associates to give a presentation, and then up to Edinburgh a couple of days later. We had a great time and, needless to say, took full advantage of dinner and drinks on the firm! I’m also making the most of having friends doing international seats and have just had a long weekend in Paris visiting a mate doing a secondment there. I may do a trip to Dubai next for the Dubai 7s…!
Back next month!
I joined Linklaters just over a year ago, having studied Philosophy and French at Bristol. I spent my first seat in Litigation, and was involved in a fraud case, a major piece of tax litigation, a regulatory investigation and various arbitration cases. My work generally involved research tasks, attending court and helping to draft documents. I really enjoyed the opportunity this seat gave me to experience a number of different areas of law, and it’s a great area to work in if you enjoy more black-letter law work.
My second seat was Corporate, where I worked on the sale of a large bank's headquarters, the sale of a wind farm, and a large takeover. I was responsible for drafting documents, undertaking research into the companies being sold, attending client meetings, emailing and calling clients, organising the signing of the documents and many other tasks. Although there’s still obviously a lot of law involved in M&A, Corporate work is far more business driven. It’s also an exciting area in which to work. There’s something hugely satisfying about closing deals that clients are really passionate about. Reading about a high profile deal in the paper and then finding out that a partner down the corridor is running it can give you quite a buzz!
My hours so far have been pretty good: not at all like the horror stories you hear about. And importantly for me I’ve met and worked with some great people. But it’s not just about work: there’s a brilliant attitude towards socialising here. I’ve had some wicked nights out with my groups learning how to rock climb, going go-karting (which I swear my team-mate and I would have won if there hadn’t been a mix-up with go-karts!) and learning the art of wine-tasting.
I joined the Real Estate group this week and am looking forward to getting stuck into a few property transactions!
