MOTIVATION Flashcards
1
Q
Why commercial law?
A
Drawn for three reasons:
1) Interest in business through a legal lens
- Enjoyed delivering content on commercial topics, including financing, securitisation and derivatives, at FCL, WD and as Com Director within Law Soc
- Through these experiences I became drawn to the role of a commercial lawyer in how they mitigate risks and capitalise on opportunities for their corporate and institutional clients
- Accordingly, I look forward to framing legal advice within the broader context of clients businesses to enable them to achieve their commercial objectives
2) Seeking a client-oriented career
- Enjoyed cultivating lasting relationships with clients built on trust and consistency as a painter and decorator
- Find it equally rewarding to advise members at Propertymark on their pressing issues
- Commercial law provides a comparably exciting opportunity to build and maintain robust relationships with corporate clients, getting them from A to B and assisting them to maximise their profits and remain competitive
3) Enable to grasp commercial reality from a high-level and challenging perspective
- It was stimulating being a part of due diligence process for a note offering during one of my internships as it underscored just how much of the career involved high-level skills, such as problem-solving, analysis and intellectual rigour
- I too want to be seen as a strong problem solver, an adept analyst and a competent practitioner to bolster not only my reputation but that of the firm’s to embed Slaughter and May as clients primary advisor on future mandates
2
Q
Why Slaughter and May?
A
Slaughter and May’s multi-specialist approach, corporate strengths and international capabilities have drawn me to apply.
1) Multi-specialist approach
- Given that it will guarantee me a broader exposure to different transactions and client matters within a typical six-month seat
- For instance in corporate, rather than just advise on the ECM side of an IPO, I might also be acting for a buyer or seller or even a board on a new share allotment
- Accordingly, training at S&M will not only provide me with more diverse experiences but practical skills that make a practitioner more well-rounded
- In doing so, I can be a part of S&M’s legacy culture of talent, providing that broader strategic vantage that the firm offers to improve the client experience
2) Corporate strengths
- During an internship, I found it interesting to explore the valuable role a lawyer plays in providing strategic advice to clients through strategies such as sweet equity and lock-in agreements
- S&M is one the leading UK corporate advisors, ranked second for the first half of this year for deal volume and value
- S&M also boasts the most amount of FTSE 100 clients and regularly advises them on complex, big-ticket transactions, such as Aviva (who has been a client of the firm for over 25 years), Legal & General and Aviva
- Moreover, the firm is home to prominent transactional lawyers with considerable experience in disposals, equity raises and takeovers, such as Sally Wokes and Richard Smith
- I want to be a part of that team. I want to learn and work alongside these market-leading lawyers on high-profile transactions to develop my understanding of this practice
3) International capabilities
- I enjoyed working in Egypt as it provided me with this unique opportunity to explore a different working environment and new customer base
- Training at S&M will also provide me with this, given that a large majority of the firm’s work has an international element through its best friends network
- One notable example of this network is Kosmos’ refinancing of debt facilities secured against oil and gas reserves in Ghana and Equatorial Guinea
- Moreover, S&M offer its trainees the opportunity to spend 6 months overseas in one of its offices or partner firms
- Accordingly, training at S&M will provide the optimal environment to grow into a global-minded lawyer to continue providing exceptional service to S&M’s clients
3
Q
What deals has Sally Wokes been a part?
A
- According to Chambers and Legal 500, Sally Wakes has a growing reputation among FTSE100 companies, described as a ‘rising star’ and ‘down to earth’, delivering ‘pragmatic and commercial advice’.
- Currently advising Diageo plc - leading distributor of alcoholic beverages - on its sale of a majority stake (58%) in Guinness Nigeria
- As part of the disposal, Diageo will partner with Guinness Nigeria and Tolaram under long-term licenses and royalty agreements to continue operating the Guinness brand in Nigera
- Involves working with local counsel in Nigeria - through Aluko & Oyebode - and Diageo’s in house legal team
- She had also advised Segro - property investment and development company based in UK - on an equity raise of £900mn for 9% of is share capital, listed on LSE and Euronext Paris
- Involved work with US firm Cravath on matters of US law and Bredin Prat on matters of French law
4
Q
What deals has Richard Smith been a part of?
A
Richard Smith is the co-head of Slaughter and May’s Corporate and M&A group
- Richard Smith had advised Fortress during the takeover battle between Fortress, Apollo and CD&R on its £6.3bn offer
- Also worked on Aviva’s disposal of its remaining interest in Singlife
5
Q
Where else have you applied?
A
My application strategy has been to focus on firms with strong corporate practices. Accordingly, I have applied to:
- Freshfields, Travers Smith, White & Case, Clifford Chance, Sullivan & Cromwell, Macfarlanes
6
Q
Why do you want to train in London?
A
Two main reasons:
1) London is a commercial hub
- The City is one of the leading financial centres and boasts a large concentration of major financial institutions and
- Accordingly, as a trainee it is one of the best places to start my career to get exposure to high-calibre and groundbreaking work and the most notable clients in the world - I won’t get this exposure elsewhere in the country
- Even more so at S&M given that the firm boasts more FTSE 100 clients than any other firm
2) London is an international hub
- London is one of the most diverse cities across the globe
- As such, I can work with a range of individuals from various backgrounds
- But also I will get to work with a diverse range of clients who are all highly motivated, intelligent and influential bankers, fund managers, CEOs, accountants, and CFOs
- In doing so, this will equip me with a broader perspective on my personal and professional life
7
Q
What do you think about our international strategy?
A
I believe it works well for three main reasons:
1) Requires less capital expenditure
- S&M do not need to spend significant amounts of capital setting up a foreign jurisdiction or acquiring a domestic firm to get exposure to that geographic market
- As such, this frees up capital for investments elsewhere to improve the client experience, such as in technology
2) Less resource intensive
- Alongside this, S&M do not need to allocate as many resources to developing and monitoring de-risking procedures related to compliance and information sharing as other firms with a global model
- As such, this provides for a more streamlined set of operations
3) Fosters flexibility
- Finally, it fosters greater flexibility when handling client matters with an international element
- S&M has the freedom to select the best law firm to deal with a specific jurisdictional matter that arise on a deal or dispute
8
Q
What are the downsides of our international strategy?
A
One potential downside is that relationships and business strategies change.
It requires the maintenance of relationships with partner firms and more importantly, a partner firm does not have any direct influence on the strategic direction of a another partner firm meaning that really there is nothing stopping them from ceasing relations and partnering with another firm or entering that geographic market in time
9
Q
Why solicitor and not barrister?
A
Three main reasons:
1) Teamwork
- Have come to value working alongside like-minded individuals, getting their diverse views on issues we encounter and solving problems as a team
- For instance, in my current role at Propertymark, I enjoy bouncing ideas of our team and using our collective efforts to get to the bottom of a member issue
- A career in the bar does not offer that much scope to work in team environments, so a career as a solicitor more naturally fits my working style
2) Exposure to the commercial world
- Drawn to how commercial lawyers are also instructed as business advisors with an eye on the overall strategy of a client’s business activities, helping them achieve their commercial objectives by identifying all the legal and commercial risks and advising on how best to mitigate those risks
- A barrister on the other hand is typically hired for advocacy or for preparing legal opinions, so a solicitor’s exposure to the commercial world is far greater
3) Client-oriented
- A commercial solicitor provides specialist advice to clients and are typically their first point of contact
- Whereas a barrister represents clients in court by taking instructions from a solicitor when advocacy or a legal opinion is needed
- As such, there is greater scope as a solicitor to build and maintain relationships with clients
10
Q
Why not investment banking?
A
Three main reasons:
1) My interest in business through a legal lens
- I am drawn to how commercial lawyers act as both business and legal advisor, framing legal advice within the broader context of a client’s business by identifying all the risks and advising them on how to mitigate those risks.
- Investment bankers provide this strategic advice purely through a business or financial lens
- Accordingly, a career in commercial law offers me the best of both worlds - the legal and commercial angle on client matters
2) Commercial law will allow me to perform a broad spectrum of work, even more so at S&M
- Investment bankers typically specialise quite early on and whilst the same can be said with commercial lawyers, they specialise within the broad umbrella of transactional or contentious matters
- Even more so with S&M, which encourages its lawyers to have broad range of experience to be more generalist
- Accordingly, a career in commercial law and at S&M will expose me to a broad range of work that investment banking would fail to offer
3) Investment bankers have a different mentality
- Investment bankers are motivated by bonuses so are more risky and aggressive to maximise a client’s upside potential
- However, commercial lawyers are more risk averse and calculated, by carefully mitigating a client’s risk to ensure that upside potential can be realised
- It is not in my nature to be aggressive and risky, I am more calculated and risk averse which makes commercial law naturally suited to my personality
