First-hand experiences

“I wanted a firm with the reputation and expertise to offer me top-class work, where I was close to clients and the commercial drivers behind a deal, knowing my role had real purpose. Research told me that Taylor Wessing was best placed to offer quality work and responsibility from the word go. And while many firms make a lot of their ‘open door policy’, it’s not just talk here – I’ve always felt totally comfortable discussing work with associates and partners alike.

“My training contract has been incredibly varied, but it’s not just what we do that makes us stand out. I believe it’s also how we approach legal work. We are more proactive, more commercial. Far from just reacting to or highlighting problems, we aim to pre-empt them and provide pragmatic solutions before they arise. That’s certainly been my experience in my seats in Real Estate, Finance, Private Equity and Intellectual Property (IP). I also spent three months on secondment at Burberry during my IP seat. Being exposed to legal work ranging from property leases to e-commerce and commercial agreements, and gaining an insight into the practical concerns of clients, was a great learning curve.

“Burberry is just one big-name client I’ve worked with. I was also fortunate enough to work on Project Ranger, the deal which saw Ross Brawn and his management team sell the Brawn Grand Prix team, not long after their management buy-out from Honda. It was a high-profile deal that had to remain confidential. We were acting as the sellers for the transaction and my main role was to ensure the disclosure exercise ran smoothly, which involved, amongst other things, helping to manage the data room documentation and working on the disclosure letter. It was fantastic seeing the deal at every stage through to completion.”