LB Awards Management Partner of the Year: former A&O chief Wim Dejonghe

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LB Awards Management Partner of the Year: former A&O chief Wim Dejonghe

Last Tuesday, former Allen & Overy senior partner Wim Dejonghe was named Management Partner of the Year at the Legal Business Awards, at a glittering ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel.

Dejonghe signed off from a 23-year career at the magic circle firm in May this year after pushing through the long-awaited, transatlantic merger deal with US firm Shearman & Sterling.

In this Life During Law interview, originally published in the run-up to the transformational deal going live, he looks back on his career at A&O, discussing lessons learned from previous merger talks, his future plans and his views on the ‘unhealthy’ levels of money in law.

Continue reading “LB Awards Management Partner of the Year: former A&O chief Wim Dejonghe”

Freshfields’ Mark Sansom on motorsports, email gaffes and competing on the global stage

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Freshfields’ Mark Sansom on motorsports, email gaffes and competing on the global stage

I nearly drowned in a river in Wales when I was four. It had been raining a lot and the boulder my brother and I were standing on beside the river toppled into the water. I fell into the river and was held under by a waterfall. My mother, father and a passerby all dived in and managed to find me and bring me to the surface. I learnt to swim right after that and now I still swim several times a week and it’s an important part of my fitness. Continue reading “Freshfields’ Mark Sansom on motorsports, email gaffes and competing on the global stage”

The Client Profile: Gurdeep Boparai, Coventry Building Society

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The Client Profile: Gurdeep Boparai, Coventry Building Society

From the age of 10 I knew that I wanted to be a lawyer. The first lawyer I ever met was a close family friend. She had just qualified and spoke so passionately about the work she was doing, Being in and out of court sounded so exciting, the work was varied and fast paced and I knew this was something I wanted to be a part of. At that time the profession was heavily male dominated and having a strong female role model, and someone to aspire to was so important. I went on to do my research and did lots of work experience from the age of 16 in different firms, from local high street practices to larger national, commercial firms. Whilst I realised it wasn’t all glamorous – I was hooked! As I continued throughout my education, it became clearer that law fit my natural skillset and when I went on to do my LPC, it was the collaborative and problem-solving element of the work that interested me. Continue reading “The Client Profile: Gurdeep Boparai, Coventry Building Society”

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”

The Client Profile: Christian Keim, Adobe

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The Client Profile: Christian Keim, Adobe

What inspired you to pursue a career in law, and how did you develop an interest in becoming an in-house lawyer?

There are a lot of different elements that came together. One is that I was always interested in mediating when someone was arguing or helping out if I felt like people were not heard or being treated unfairly. What I realised is that I like to create win-win situations, not someone winning and someone losing, but really finding ways that everyone can benefit from the situation. Continue reading “The Client Profile: Christian Keim, Adobe”

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”

The Client Profile: Nigel Paterson, Currys

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The Client Profile: Nigel Paterson, Currys

‘I’m an extrovert and I like to get out there. An in-house role is much more team orientated than private practice,’ notes Nigel Paterson, the general counsel (GC) of British electricals retailer Currys, on his decision to go in-house some 25 years ago.

And it soon becomes apparent that, so illustrious has been his career, somehow none of the gravitas is lost through Paterson drinking from his daughter’s Little Miss Naughty mug throughout the interview with LB. Continue reading “The Client Profile: Nigel Paterson, Currys”

Infrastructure profile: Sara Pickersgill – ‘Pick something you love doing and do it only for as long as you love it’

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Infrastructure profile: Sara Pickersgill – ‘Pick something you love doing and do it only for as long as you love it’

Kirkland & Ellis’ Sara Pickersgill on switching track from opera singer to infrastructure lawyer and why The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe offers salient lessons for a career in the City

Why did you want to be a lawyer and why infrastructure in particular? Has it delivered what you expected?

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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”