Profile

I studied Natural Sciences at Durham and was always keen to find a career where I could apply my science background in a business context. I did several internships in the science sector, including one at a genetics research lab, but eventually decided to give Law a try, and so accepted a place on a vacation placement at Lovells in the summer before my final year. During the vacation placement I spent a week in the Intellectual Property (IP) team assisting with work involving various technical/scientific patents. This convinced me that a career in law would be an excellent way of applying my interest in science to a "City" job.

After Durham, and having accepted a training contract at Lovells, I went on to do a two-year BA in Law at Cambridge and then the LPC at BPP in London. I joined Lovells as a trainee in September 2004 and spent my first seat in the Capital Markets group. My second seat was back in the IP team where, once again, I found that my science degree came in handy as I spent the majority of my six months in this team working on a large patent litigation case involving anti-cancer drugs.

I then went on secondment to the Corporate team in the New York office which, to my surprise, I enjoyed enormously, not just because of the perks of living in Manhattan! I never thought I would like transactional work but in practice, I found I was better suited to working on deals (which tend to be hectic but relatively quick), than to litigation (which is lengthier). I therefore opted to spend my final seat in the Energy, Power, Utilities & Infrastructure (EPUI) team in the Corporate practice stream back in London. The EPUI team does a mixture of corporate (including deal) work and commercial/regulatory advice, and as a trainee, I found myself involved in a huge range of matters - from acquisitions of wind farms and water companies, to gas trading, oil joint ventures, and advising on government policy and incentives. I enjoyed this variety of work and ultimately decided to quality into the EPUI team.

I am now two years qualified and am very much enjoying my work in Energy, Power, Utilities & Infrastructure. I have been focusing principally on renewable energy and, in addition to various private M&A transactions and commercial matters, I have been heavily involved in tracking the development of UK and European renewable energy and climate change policy.