Charity Trelease, London Associate

If one event characterised my time at Freshfields it would be my ten week secondment to Hong Kong – there’s a small US corporate team in the offices there which many of us from the US team in London and Frankfurt pass through on rotation. When I arrived in Hong Kong, the partner who heads the team had just gone on holiday. I had to supervise their team and run the ongoing projects. It was pretty stressful at the time, but I learnt an enormous amount.

As an experience, it says two important things. Firstly, the sense of hierarchy here doesn’t feel as fixed as American firms: there are no private offices, partners are approachable and helpful; the whole place feels unstuffy. And secondly, it highlights the amazing opportunities there are to work abroad: if you want to travel with Freshfields, there’s a very good chance that you will. Since I joined the firm in 2007, I’ve made 11 trips to Russia, 3 to Israel and spent those ten weeks in Hong Kong. London makes a fantastic base: not only are you living in what is, arguably, the centre of world finance, but you get to enjoy one the word’s great cultural centres.

But it’s not just the fact that you get to travel for your work; it’s the calibre of deal you work on in the first place. Every deal I’ve been involved in has been reported on the front page of the Financial Times. It’s amazing to read about your work over your morning coffee.