Sarah Murphy, London Partner

The work that our US team does means our lawyers need to be comfortable and excited about being placed in new and challenging situations; of all the firm’s practices we’re probably the most international. We act for businesses of every description from every part of the world looking to gain access to the US market. As a result, new jurisdictions and different business cultures are the norm for us. The challenge we face – and enjoy – is to bring consistently exceptional standards to the work we do in all the cultures in which we operate, while at the same time adapting our approach so we are most effective in the particular environment.

There’s no doubt about it: we push our people pretty hard to meet these standards, but always with the understanding that people work better if they’re happy and in a supportive atmosphere. That’s why we put lots of emphasis on helping each other rather than jostling for position. It’s about teamwork; recognising that the client’s interest should always be your goal and that your own desire and talent can take you a long way, but not the whole way, you need the team. It’s a group effort.

One other thing needs to be mentioned. There’s a phrase that we use in our literature that says an awful lot about life at Freshfields: “We take our work seriously, but not ourselves”. We work too hard not to have fun.