Belinda Ampah

“I chose to train at Herbert Smith because of its reputation in competition law - an area that has always interested me.

The firm has a reputation for creating an environment where individuality is encouraged - this was confirmed when I started my training and met many like-minded people, eager for animated conversations about legal and non-legal issues.

My first training seat was in dispute resolution (financial services group); followed by corporate (capital markets work); then EU/competition; and finally a client secondment at Coca-Cola (more EC competition law).

So far my experience has been focused on the behavioural aspects of EC and UK competition law (as opposed to pure transactional merger control work). For example, market investigations by regulators, cartel investigations; and competition litigation. The main highlight has been working on the Virgin Atlantic/British Airways passenger fuel surcharge price-fixing investigation.

There are always opportunities for pro-bono, which is a visible part of the firm's culture. Last year I was involved in two mentoring schemes; this year I hope to get involved with the work of Advocates for International Development (A4ID), a charity which identifies pro bono opportunities to support developing countries and development NGOs.

The firm’s culture is definitely collegial, supportive and diverse - before that became a recruitment buzzword.”