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Hi Max – please share with us what the current stage of your career is.
I have just finished my GDL and I will be starting the LPC as of September 2020.
I attended Durham University from 2016-2019. I always had the intention of pursuing law and doing the GDL/LPC post my undergraduate degree.
I obtained a training contract at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) after a winter vacation scheme in December 2018. My training contract is due to start in September 2021.
How did you choose what type of law you wanted to go into and were there any experiences that helped you decide?
Law was always a career I had considered when at school. As a profession I felt it struck the perfect balance between academia and commerce and therefore suited my skillset. I got involved with various work experience placements to give me a better idea of which area I’d like to go into.
After shadowing a criminal barrister, I knew fairly quickly that was not what I wanted to go into. I had an internship at a Commercial Law firm in Beijing which I really enjoyed. I felt my character was suited to the transactional side of commercial law and started pursuing various insight schemes and open days at city law firms.
Doing these insight schemes gave me a greater understanding of the type of work commercial law firms do and helped me to gain further experience down the line. I would recommend to anybody at University to try and get involved with these as much as possible; even if you don’t find them that helpful, they look good on the CV!
Why did you apply to Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner? Which seats are you most looking forward to, and why?
I applied to BCLP for a variety of reasons:
Firstly, I was attracted to BCLP as its main specialisms aligned with where I deemed my key interests to be in the legal profession; Real Estate and Corporate.
Secondly, as a motivated and ambitious individual I was attracted to working at such an ambitious firm. I think the ambition and adaptability of BCLP can be exemplified by its transatlantic merger – adapting to global trends in order to capitalise on the market and proving BCLP’s continuous drive to achieve a competitive advantage.
Finally, the firm has a great reputation for training and general trainee happiness. My vacation scheme consolidated my feelings toward the firm, being a friendly and inclusive place to work.
In terms of which seats I am most looking forward to, this is all dependent on which seats I am allocated. I think it is also extremely important to have an open mind towards each rotation. That said, I am particularly excited for a litigation seat as this is something I have not experienced before.
What are you expecting a day in the life of a Corporate Real Estate lawyer to look like?
I am expecting each and every day to be incredibly varied and to provide many new challenges with every bit of work that comes in.
I imagine there to be many different actors within the real estate sector; investors, developers, agents and others – so managing each of their interests will be challenging yet rewarding.
What do you think will be the main changes to the legal landscape after Covid-19?
I am sure that people at the top of these firms could give you a far better and far more informed answer than an LPC student! However, I think the common theme between everybody at this stage is that nobody knows what is going to happen post-Covid because the situation is always changing a lot.
Therefore, personally, I think that firms will have to be incredibly agile and adaptable, being even more responsive to client needs and requirements. I also believe that there will be a change to offices, with the introduction of more flexible, remote working.
