Nicola Smith - Trainee Solicitor
So, why Freshfields?
That’s a big question! It’s Magic Circle, obviously, so the training is superb and the secondment opportunities are excellent. But on top of that, it’s the combination of the informal, the friendly and the innovative. It suits my temperament. You get the feeling the firm changes when it needs to but not just for the sake of it.
How has the work been? Has it lived up to your expectations?
Before I started I was worried I was going to be lumped with a lot of photocopying but in my first seat, it was hands on, right away. In Corporate there’s a huge range of different deals in terms of scale, sector and complexity. That gives you the exposure you need on the big transactions and the responsibility on the smaller ones. At the end of my six months there, I ran my own deal, an inter-company refinancing for a big retail group. I never thought that would happen so quickly.
What about the hours? People say it can be tough.
They’re right! But the thing is you’re working with your team and with the client, the deals are interesting and so it’s really pretty exciting. I worked on one transaction where we were advising a private equity group on the acquisition of an IT company. There was a leak to the press and the share price was going crazy. We had to move much faster than expected. There was a 36-hour marathon to get the documentation done and get the deal closed. It’s extraordinary how you keep going but everyone’s there and you just do.
Now you’ve just moved to Real Estate. How are you finding that?
It’s a nice change. It requires a totally different mind set – you’re juggling lots of different tasks rather than managing one big one. You go into more detail and the pace is different. Yesterday I was working on a hospital acquisition. It sounds straightforward but there are 17 different bits of land involved, each registered under a separate title number. We had the plans out and were trying to work out how it all fits together. It’s a long way from a legal text book but it’s great. I wasn’t expecting that kind of variety.
Nicola Smith
Trainee Solicitor
Law at Selwyn College, Cambridge
LPC at BPP Law School, London
Seats: Real Estate, Corporate
Joined February 2008