Profile

I joined Lovells as a trainee in 1993, then qualified into the London banking group in 1995, specialising in acquisition finance. Since qualification, I have spent the majority of my time advising on the financing by senior and mezzanine lenders of acquisition finance and other leveraged finance transactions, including take-privates of listed companies, leveraged recapitalisations and domestic and cross-border leveraged buy-outs.

I spent two years on secondment to a South African law firm from 1998 to 2000 and then returned to the London acquisition finance practice, following which I was elected to the Partnership in May 2002.

Whilst I am Lovells "born and bred", my dealings with other law firms both in the UK and South Africa have given me an insight into the differences between law firms, and in particular the difference that people can make to the culture of a firm. As a law student, I was first attracted to Lovells by their approach to university road shows — the people I met were clearly excellent lawyers, yet down-to-earth and fun. This was backed-up by the summer vacation scheme I did at Lovells, and further reinforced when I was interviewing for Lovells and other firms. During my years at Lovells, these first impressions have proved true and, for me, it is still one of the most important factors that fuels my enthusiasm for Lovells and my job; the firm adopts a true "open door" policy, encouraging trainees and junior lawyers to seek partners' advice, and this non-hierarchical structure promotes an ethos of supportive teamwork. The atmosphere is professional but also fun, which is essential in my line of work, where deal timetables can involve many late nights in the office, made bearable by being surrounded by a great team. Many firms may claim this, but I believe Lovells is one of the few that actually delivers this.

The other main differentiating factor that separates Lovells from other firms is its breadth of practice; unlike most other major City firms, Lovells has a highly regarded and successful dispute resolution practice, plus leading practices in a wide range of more specialist areas, such as intellectual property, employment and competition law. The advantages of this are two-fold; firstly, as a trainee there is a much wider choice of departments within which to qualify, and most specialist areas have a stand-alone practice with their own client base, as opposed to being simply a "corporate support" department as is more typical in other City firms. Secondly, it also means that Lovells' corporate and finance lawyers have a whole host of recognised experts who can advise on any issues that crop up on M&A deals, thus delivering high quality transactional advice to our clients.

In summary, when considering potential firms to apply to for a training contract, I consider the most important factors to be the firm's culture, the opportunities on qualification and the training offered by that firm. I believe Lovells offers a compelling package on each of these counts, so apply today and you can quiz us in person on these points!