Legal Business

Deals Yearbook 2022: Claire Coppel, Allen & Overy – partner since 2020

Why did you decide to become an M&A lawyer? Was there anyone in particular who inspired you early on in your career?
I loved the buzz and fast pace of corporate finance and M&A on my vacation scheme and during my training contract. I was particularly inspired as a trainee and junior associate by the managing partners of the London M&A team at the time – Andrew Ballheimer and Richard Browne – and my supervisor in corporate – Richard Hough: they had a tangible sense of ambition to grow the profile of the A&O corporate team so that we would be mentioned in the same breath as our UK-based rivals and I wanted to be a part of that.