I joined Herbert Smith in 1995 as a trainee. I am a partner in the real estate division and the graduate recruitment partner. I was the first person in my family to go to university. Prior to that I went to a comprehensive school and I went to university at Clare College, Cambridge.
I qualified in 1997, and worked my way up as an associate, with an increasing amount of responsibility; very early on at Herbert Smith you get responsibility and client contact. I became a partner in 2005, and it was a chance to take things onto the next level, to be in charge of your own business, and for someone who has entrepreneurial spirit that’s something that really appealed.
Then in recent years, I’ve become the graduate recruitment partner, which is a whole new level of challenges. The role provides the opportunity to influence the next stage of the firms’ development, and the people I’m recruiting now hopefully will go on to become the partners of the future.
The training
Herbert Smith is a fantastic place to train, we have a unique focus on corporate and litigation, and that’s something that no other firm in the city offers. They are the twin engines that drive our practice. It gives us a very balanced offer, both for clients but also for trainees. You have a much broader range of choice in your seats, in those areas and also in some other specialist areas that we operate in. More recently our focus has been on the emerging markets and we have strong practices in Russia, India, and in China as well.
What we're looking for
We’re looking for clever, driven and rounded people. Clever: because you need to be intellectually able to do this job. The law that we practice is very complex. We’re operating right on the margin of the law. Driven: this is a hard job. We work hard for our clients and we deliver a fantastic service. You need to be ambitious, you need to be keen and you need to be driven to do this job. And rounded: we don’t want someone who is just intellectually able, we want someone who can offer a full package to our clients. We will only win work if we can go out there and relate to clients personally.
The culture
Because of the unique range of areas we focus on, we have a very broad collection of individuals. There’s no Herbert Smith ‘type’, we have a really non-hierarchical approach here. As a trainee you’ll spend time sitting in an office either with a senior associate or a partner, and you’ll find that they’re very open and engaging with you. We’re also a meritocracy. We place great emphasis on ability, and we want you to progress in your career. It doesn’t matter where you come from or where you went to school you went to. We just want the best people to make Herbert Smith the firm we want it to be in the future.