My decision to become a lawyer was based on a number of factors that made it seem a natural career choice for me. When I was considering my options, careers were confined to three main professions — medicine, accountancy and the law. Since I did not have the stomach for blood and gore or a particular passion for numbers, a natural tendency towards the law emerged.
My father’s early legal career as a solicitor was an encouraging factor, even though I had seen the long hours he put in to his work. He subsequently left the law to pursue another career in the wider business arena, which indicated to me that a legal career might be a useful stepping stone to other things in the future.
I was also aware I had the kind of mind that liked resolving abstract problems, involving defining terms with precision and undertaking logical analysis. I harboured a love of words and today am still fascinated by how you can logically work your way to very fine distinctions that still make good sense.
When considering the type of law I would enjoy, my own interests dictated I would be most suited to a commercial practice, where the client is a company or organisation, rather than to a non-commercial practice where the client is likely to be an individual.
There is a debate about whether commercial practice is socially useful. I believe commercial lawyers can make a significant difference for the overall good by helping corporate clients understand the legal threats to their businesses, and profit from the legal opportunities. My view is that in doing the job I do, the economy should become a more efficient place, which should increase employment and the nation’s wealth. I think that is a worthwhile and valuable project.
Other people, quite legitimately, arrive at a different conclusion. They feel they want to help individuals who perhaps find it difficult to help themselves, and from this get more satisfaction. That just drives some people to a different career choice.
It is, however, a misconception to think commercial lawyers do not deal with people — throughout my day I talk to and meet with individuals at all levels who work for my corporate clients, in many cases forming lasting relationships. But I felt I would rather deal on a larger scale, where I think you can have more impact than on individual cases.
Students today need to make this choice when deciding to which firms they are going to apply. Do they want to be in a corporate-based firm, or an individual client-based firm?
The same basic skills remain relevant, but with different emphasis. In my opinion, commercial practice has greater emphasis on technical legal knowledge, while non-commercial law places greater emphasis on the argument of facts. In a commercial deal, the facts are rarely in dispute and you are dealing with two or more parties who want to do a deal, but who are haggling over the precise terms.
Given how the legal profession is organised in this country, I also had to consider whether my future lay as a barrister or a solicitor. The Bar had the attraction of advocacy and I enjoyed debating.
But I was persuaded, rightly, that solicitors spend much more time in advocacy than most barristers, because we are constantly in negotiations where you have to present your client’s point of view to its maximum benefit.
Moreover, as a solicitor you have a greater degree of contact with the client — you are part of their team and involved in so many more aspects of what they do. That is such an important source of job satisfaction for me.
A third factor is know-how. A modern law firm like Slaughter and May has massive resources of knowledge and experience that enable you to be at the cutting edge of law on a daily basis.
Once I felt sure I wanted to pursue a career in law, I decided I would read history at university before undertaking the conversion course. I wanted to try learning about something else for three years. I think it is important that students enjoy what they are studying at university and that they are aware that if they are on a non-law course, this is no barrier to becoming a solicitor.
The objective should be to get a well-rounded education and to develop as a person. Such people tend to come over as more enthusiastic and dynamic in interviews.
When I joined Slaughter and May as a trainee solicitor, I knew very little about the firm. There was no legal press, no law firm directories and, of course, law firm websites were non-existent. Today, there is so much more information available that we do expect students to have some knowledge of the firm they are applying to join.
They should know about the size of the firm, what its strengths are in terms of areas of legal practice, and any recent developments at the firm. That said, I do not expect students to arrive at interviews having made up their mind what part of the firm they want to practise in.
Such a decision should be arrived at during the course of the two-year training period, as they are exposed to the various fields. During my training, I sat in areas such as property, tax and commercial, and it was by being exposed to a variety of the firm’s work areas that I realised that my skills and interests suited commercial work.
Many things have changed since my days as a trainee. When I joined Slaughter and May the intake amounted to around 15-20 trainees a year. Today, we take in about 100 graduates. Formal training programmes were unheard of in most City firms. Our trainees today spend around 300 hours receiving additional legal and business training during their two-year contract.
As a trainee, my peers were all white and all were male except one. This has changed for the better too. Our intake now is approximately 50:50 between men and women, and we have a great mix of nationalities and races working in the firm at all levels.
As I embarked on my career, I was relieved to find the work even more interesting than I expected. I had had a niggling feeling that perhaps moving from a subject such as history, which I thoroughly enjoyed, to law, might be dry and disappointing. Happily, I found things to the contrary. I enjoyed the mix that a City law firm had to offer.
I found myself working with (and I still work with) highly able and intelligent people, both among my colleagues in the firm and among my clients who regularly throw up interesting ideas. The work remains varied and challenging; it requires a combination of intellect, knowledge of the law, negotiating and people skills, drafting and the ability to think creatively.
It was also exciting and reassuring to have deals I was involved in appear in the national newspapers, and still is. For example, I recently led the team that advised Marks & Spencer on its defence against a hostile bid from the entrepreneur, Philip Green. I also advised Arsenal Football Club on the development of a new stadium at Ashburton Grove.
As a trainee, a significant part of my work involved research projects as part of a larger matter, and this is still the case for trainees today. This enables them to hone their legal skills. In addition, trainees are expected to undertake some drafting, attend meetings and participate in some correspondence with clients.
As trainees progress, they also undertake some negotiation. Throughout all this, they are developing administrative skills and learning to prioritise.
At first, all this can seem very daunting. I know I had moments early in my career when I just thought, "I can’t do all of this!". However, you find you can do bits of it, and slowly the different components slot into place. Then one day you realise there is a lot more that you can do than you had imagined.
On qualification as a solicitor, there is a gradual progression in the work. I found myself being in charge of small parts of large matters, and then of large parts of small matters, until one day I was charged with large parts of a large matter.
I started to give advice that no-one was checking in advance, went to my first meeting without anyone to back me up. With greater experience and seniority came the responsibility of supervising other people’s work. However, through all this I was working alongside able and supportive colleagues with whom I could share knowledge and experiences.
On becoming a partner, my work evolved further. I now spend more time supervising and reviewing the work of younger lawyers. I spend more time in meetings with clients and in negotiations. I believe that a partner should be able to do every single job significantly better than the people he or she has delegated to, but I do not see this as a reason for doing the job myself. As a partner, it is my responsibility to bring on the younger lawyers of the firm by giving them the space to develop.
I also undertake significant amounts of travel as do many of our lawyers. Our clients at Slaughter and May are international businesses, and this often requires us to meet with and advise clients in their home countries, which can be almost anywhere in the world.
If I were to offer today’s students any advice, it would be to keep your options open and not specialise too early. Think carefully about where your interests lie and ask the right questions at interview, so you can judge whether the firm you are thinking of joining is the right place for you.
Ask how many practice areas you are likely to sit in, what the retention rate is on qualification, and what the training programme entails. It is also worth enquiring whether the firm interviewing you sets annual targets for the number of hours of client work undertaken by each lawyer. This can create a competitive working environment in which some people thrive and others do not.
At Slaughter and May, we do not set such targets, our view being that this works against a collegiate and mutually supportive working environment. Students should, therefore, consider in which environment they will most enjoy working.
Ultimately, law firms are looking for a person who has the intelligence to reach the right answer with the right training, and a temperament that can handle difficult situations and make people want to work with them.
It is all about selling yourself as a person and coming across as someone who would be good, dynamic, and ambitious in a sensible way, and who wants to achieve something for themselves and other people.