Brodies’ Nick Scott on family commitments, returning to university, and building Scotland’s first £100m firm

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Brodies’ Nick Scott on family commitments, returning to university, and building Scotland’s first £100m firm

I’m the only one in my immediate family who isn’t a scientist – they’re all biologists and engineers. My grandfather, though, was a lawyer in a small market town in Fife so I’d always been interested in law as a career. He was a traditional high street lawyer – doing very little corporate work – so training at Clifford Chance (CC) was a completely different professional life from his. But from him I saw someone who was regarded as an upright person in the community.

I began my career at CC which, at the time, was the biggest firm in the world. I came to London to follow my then girlfriend who was a professional violinist, but we’d split up by the time I got there! I wanted the experience and challenge of working in a huge organisation. Continue reading “Brodies’ Nick Scott on family commitments, returning to university, and building Scotland’s first £100m firm”

Life During Law: Scott Hopkins

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Life During Law: Scott Hopkins

When I was 18 I left Vancouver to play ice hockey in university in Japan. That got me off on kind of an adventurous track. I grew up dreaming of nothing more than becoming a hockey player. When you try to do that in Canada, you work your way up through the junior leagues. And the junior leagues are tough. You leave home and you go live in a small town, and the hockey team is sort of the centre of life in those towns. You become a minor celebrity. But it’s tough. Not many people make it. There are three levels of junior hockey in Canada, and when you get to the very top level you can be classed as a professional, which means you’re ineligible for university scholarships. I got up close to that level and I had a good look at it and I wasn’t convinced that I was going to make it. I didn’t want to take the risk of dedicating my life to that. So I decided to go for a university education, to at least get something out of all that time playing hockey.

I decided to become a lawyer so I would have more control over my working life than I would have had if I had gone into foreign relations. I did politics as an undergraduate in London. I came to the UK in 1994. As far as I got down the politics line was interning for the Member of the European Parliament who was the special rapporteur for EU-Japan economic relations. I got to spend some time in the circus that is the EU, moving that circus back and forth between Brussels and Strasbourg. It was interesting, certainly. But I just didn’t feel that I could make an impact in that world.

Continue reading “Life During Law: Scott Hopkins”

A&O’s Wim Dejonghe on mergers, money and his plans for life after law

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A&O’s Wim Dejonghe on mergers, money and his plans for life after law

I wanted to go into sports. I was a sailing instructor, close to professional. But then I had knee issues, so I needed to change my plans last minute. I still do a lot of exercise, but I hate the gym. That’s how I relax, reflect, enjoy myself, and get energy. I do a lot of sport with my sons, who are all into sailing, biking, jogging, and skiing. I can still keep up with them on the bike, but in skiing I have no chance!

I never planned to be a lawyer. When I started my law course I focused on international public law – the United Nations, NATO and international treaties. I wanted to be a diplomat but there are two issues with being a diplomat in Belgium: one is that you need political connections, and the other is that you’re not so relevant in the international diplomatic community. I worked as an assistant professor at a university but found it a bit too quiet. So, I decided to do a trainee internship as a lawyer, and never stopped. At the time I went into law, we were still obliged to do military service. I did six months in a law firm while I was waiting to get called up, then I went back to the firm after my time in the army, and technically I haven’t changed firms since. It wasn’t by design – it was more the elimination of other options.

Continue reading “A&O’s Wim Dejonghe on mergers, money and his plans for life after law”

Life During Law: Richard Lever

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Life During Law: Richard Lever

The Godfather is a great film. Tom Hagen was a bit of an inspiration. There’s that scene where he turns up at the hospital where the Godfather is staying with all these private detectives, and he deals with the police. Then there’s another part where he says: ‘I have a special practice. I handle one client. Now you have my number. I’ll wait for your call.’ That kind of power, that kind of control was inspiring.

I quit studying law after a year. I switched to history and politics because there were a lot of hours in the classroom doing law. After university, I travelled and taught English abroad. My girlfriend at the time wanted to come back to the UK as she had a job lined up as an accountant, so I came back with her. I would have been happy staying a teacher. One of the things I applied for was law school and I ended up doing the conversion course. The rest is history. Continue reading “Life During Law: Richard Lever”

Life During Law: Natasha Luther-Jones

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Life During Law: Natasha Luther-Jones

When I was 12, I was a competitive swimmer, and I used to swim every morning before school. If you’re swimming that much, your swimsuits get see-through, so for training, sometimes you’d have to wear double swimsuits, and that’s a bit of a drag when you’re in a competition. I’d asked my mum for a new swimsuit, but she said I would have to wait till the end of the month. I asked her how I could become rich to be able to afford a new one. She said: ‘You can become a solicitor, or you can marry someone rich.’ So, from then on, my decision was made to become a lawyer.

I got work experience in a small solicitors’ firm on our high street in Bangor, North Wales, and was focused on doing a law degree. I knew it was very competitive to get a training contract, so I did law and French. Then I got a training contract with Garretts, part of Andersen Legal. Six months into my training contract, DLA took the Leeds office, I transferred, and 23 years later I’m still here! Continue reading “Life During Law: Natasha Luther-Jones”

Life During Law: Sandra Paul

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Life During Law: Sandra Paul

I head up our criminal defence and police investigations team as well as our sexual misconduct in the workplace practice. I am interested in people, and I guess I am a nosey person.

I decided to become a lawyer because I wanted to have my own voice. In my twenties, I was a team leader in a child protection social services team. I would have done an assessment, done the work, known the family, thought I had made good decisions, but then it would get reinterpreted a couple of times for me. The legal department would say ‘this is what you mean’, then the barrister would say ‘this is what the legal department have told me that you mean’. I thought: ‘Actually – maybe I can say what I mean.’ These people were doing a job that I knew was hard, but nowhere near as hard as turning up to these families’ homes and making decisions about their children. So, I decided to do the conversion and see what would happen. I didn’t know if it would be for me, as I am not the usual type of person that becomes a lawyer. Continue reading “Life During Law: Sandra Paul”

Life During Law: Georgia Dawson

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Life During Law: Georgia Dawson

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to be when I was growing up. I went through periods of thinking maybe I’d become an architect. There’s also this amazing magazine in Australia called Gourmet Traveller. It’s about food and travel, and I thought it would be quite nice to be a journalist for them. I still enjoy looking at architecture and I love the built environment, food, and travel.

I had a conversation with the career counsellor at school. She said, if you’re not sure, then law is a great general degree that gives you options for the future. My dad happens to be a lawyer as well, so I had some familiarity with the law. When I started the degree, I still wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do but I really enjoyed it. I loved the problem solving. Continue reading “Life During Law: Georgia Dawson”

Life During Law: Jeroen Ouwehand

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Life During Law: Jeroen Ouwehand

I never thought I would be a lawyer. I’m from Amsterdam, and I did a student traineeship in 1991, which was quite a common thing for Dutch law students back then. It’s like a summer internship at a law firm. I was blown away by Clifford Chance – the dynamism, the people, the quality of the work. I just loved it. I was given the chance to apply for a job to start the year after and I got it. That was quite unusual in those days because the job market wasn’t easy.

If you’d asked me at the age of 23 or 24, I would have said I wanted to go into international relations or business. Before I studied law, I was thinking of going to a university in the US which was strong on international relations, then go and work at an international organisation. My fascination with international relations very much came into force in my former role as senior partner and now as leader of our global ESG board. Continue reading “Life During Law: Jeroen Ouwehand”

Life During Law: Paul Dolman

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Life During Law: Paul Dolman

I certainly didn’t have a burning desire to be a lawyer from the age of five years old. I definitely wasn’t one of those! I wanted to be an architect but you’ve got to be quite good at maths. I wasn’t.

My parents instilled in me a real work ethic from a young age and forced me to do lots of summer jobs where I learned the value of money. The worst one was probably working at Saxby’s pork pie factory. I was in charge of the jelly gun. Thousands of pork pies would come down a long conveyor belt and I had to put my gun in them and fill them with jelly. That was a challenging job to stay motivated in for sure. That probably put me off pork pies for life. Continue reading “Life During Law: Paul Dolman”

Life During Law: Nick Vamos

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Life During Law: Nick Vamos

Did I always want to be a lawyer? No. I didn’t think I wanted to sit behind a desk, so that hasn’t really worked out. I thought I might want to do something outdoors, and that hasn’t worked out either. I wasn’t one of these people that knows from the age of two that they’re going to be a forensic pathologist or a marine biologist. When I was at school and then university, my parents were very supportive and said: ‘You don’t need to decide on a career now. You don’t have to have a grand plan.’

I didn’t read law at university. I read philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge. Partly because it was the degree subject I was most interested in and partly because I didn’t want to study any of my school subjects any further. I converted to law a few years later. I think if I’d studied law at university for three years, I might not have become a lawyer. Continue reading “Life During Law: Nick Vamos”