Associate - Private Equity - Dhruti Gore

Careers in Law can be very different depending on the type you practice and the size of the firm you join. Solicitors tend to be the first port of call for legal matters whether personal or corporate and they liaise with clients to try and resolve their problems or provide a legal framework for something they want to achieve.

Barristers are called in by solicitors for their expertise in a particular area of the law or to argue a case in court. That said, the distinction between the two is narrowing slightly due to the increasing scope for solicitors to conduct their own litigation.

Like many of the professions, law offers a great deal of flexibility in terms of where you practice so you don’t have to be in the centre of a large city to have a successful career. You can practice in large firms servicing business, within the businesses themselves as an in-house lawyer or at a high street practice overseeing the matters of private individuals.

It’s worth bearing in mind that the type of firm and specialty of law you practice will have a huge impact on what your daily life is like. A private equity solicitor in a magic circle firm is going to be spending a lot more time in the office than a high street solicitor. Commercial barristers were one of the biggest shocks to us. We hadn’t quite grasped just how individual the job is and the huge hours it demands. A 6 day working week appears very standard.

Law is well known as a lucrative industry and many firms seem to have coped with the credit crunch well. As a guide, if you’re a solicitor in a top 50 city firm then on your first rotation expect a salary in the £35-40,000 range. Newly qualified's will be in the sixties and three year post qualified can be anywhere from £80-110K. Salaries in the smaller high-street firms are quite a bit lower. Barristers are self-employed so their income can vary hugely but the industry stars could give David Beckham a run for his money.

Who are you and what do you do?

Hello I’m an associate in the corporate department at Nabarro.

What is The Law?

If you don’t know that much about the law, what you’d think it was, was what you see on TV, so the house of commons, creating the laws, bills getting passed things like that. In practice its very different. What you’ve got to think is that you have a set of rules and you have to manipulate or apply those rules to a certain circumstance and that’s what I’d say, being a lawyer is, what the law is in this context.

What attracted you to this career?

I think I wanted to be a lawyer like some kids watching things on TV, that’s very different to law as it is now, but I think that’s where the initial interest came from. Then I did some work experience when I was about 16 in a high street law firm which was quite property-based as a lot of the high street law firms tend to be. I really enjoyed what they did, I found it quite varied, quite challenging and so then at university I decided to do a law degree, but without having necessarily deciding that law was my absolute chosen profession because I think its a good degree to do, to feed into lots of different careers.

What does your job involve?

I qualified about four months ago into the corporate department. On a typical day, I will get emails from clients, other people around the firm, people higher than me, partners, different associates, just responding to different queries. My work is quite transaction based and what that means is that quite often there are two different companies wanting to achieve something together and we put that into place, drafting documents etc.

What do you do on a typical day?

I think it can be quite different depending on what’s going on at the time so if you are working on a big deal then it’s incredibly varied so you will definitely be emailing all day, different parties. So you might be emailing the accountants, the client, the lawyers who are acting for any other parties within the transaction as well. But during big transactions you have a lot more meetings than you would at any other time. I work in a department called private equity and what that means is, we deal with private companies so not ones that are on the stock market, not ones that are listed, private companies, not necessarily smaller but they tend to be a bit smaller than the very big companies that are on the stock market. I would say that I primarily do things like buy and sell companies, buy and sell shares in a company or buy and sell the assets that the company has, so it’s building, machinery, any other assets it might have, stock, different products it produces. That’s what my team primarily does and we do that on behalf of these companies. They come together and decide they want to do this, one wants to buy the shares of another, one wants to buy the entire company and they come to us and ask us how to put this into practice.

What are the speicialisms within your industry?

I’ve qualified into the corporate department. Corporate is quite a broad field so I’m in private equity which deals with private companies, we also have a public equity department which deals with companies which are listed on the stock exchange, so the London stock exchange or the alternative investment market which is another list. Property is another discipline which you can go into and then there is litigation and within litigation there are quite a few different areas – commercial, construction, intellectual property – another very popular litigation section.

How did you decide between becoming a solicitor or a barrister?

To be honest, I always wanted to work within an organisation and I always saw beeing a barrister as something quite isolated because they work on a case by themselves, perhaps just them and a clerk and I wanted to work in a bigger environment so I didn’t ever really think that being a barrister would suit me.

How did you choose which law firm to go to?

I quite liked the medium sized firms because I just think working in a massive organisation like one of the magic circle firms just didn’t suit me and I didn’t really want to be somewhere small so the medium tier looked like a really good place to start. To be honest I did quite a lot of applications so I wouldn't say at that stage that I had necessarily singled Nabarro out and I think that’s the way you should do it, be quite broad, pick quite a few. The way I picked them from within that medium tier, because within that tier there are a lot of firms, is just by looking at the legal magazines, word of mouth is good so if you’ve got friends in years above who have done different placements or you know of anyone who’s doing a training contract somewhere, that’s always the best way to talk. I knew someone who’d done a vacation placement at Nabarro and they’d really enjoyed it so I think that helped me in making my decision.

Describe the process of your work?

If we are approached by a company and they want to buy the shares of another company, then we’ll be asked to put in place an agreement that will govern that purchase. So, I would be involved in the first, second or third draft of that agreement. Like in most law firms, we have a precedent, I would go to that precedent, but then I would also look at the terms that the parties had agreed between them, so things like the price, when they were going to buy it, how much they were going to buy it for and I will tailor our precedent to fit their specific criteria.

What's the difference between litigious and transactional areas of Law?

When deciding what team to qualify into, there are several factors to take into account and one big one is choosing whether you seat a more litigious area or you like to work in a more transactional area and I think, this is not definite, but for most people they know whether they want to work in a litigation environment where you act completely for the best interests of your client and they have obviously got a problem with somebody else and in a way, it’s a bit of a battle and you’ve got to put your case forward, they put theirs and probably come to some sort of compromise but you are at odds with somebody else. Or whether you want to work in a more transactional environment where you are working with your client, your client wants to achieve something with another company or another person and both sets of lawyers are working towards a common goal. I suited transactional work, I like working with somebody else to achieve something but for everybody it’s different and they are definitely one of the things you have to think about. You are either more suited towards one than the other.

What are the best bits about your job?

It’s very challenging and because of the type of law firm that we are, we are in the financial hub of the country, the deals are quite exciting and they can be quite large, a lot can be at stake, they can be widely reported everywhere so it’s quite nice to be part of that process. You often do work very hard, I worked on a deal which had lasted 5 years, and it’s quite satisfying coming to the end of something like that.

What are the worst bits about your job?

Just like with every job there are going to be tasks that are more mundane, there are going to be times when it’s a lot more quiet and there isn’t a big deal like that to work on. You just appreciate those times for what they are. I’ve only had to work really late into the night to complete a deal once and that’s not bad for 2.5 years of being here, so I would say that’s an exception rather than the rule, but because of the type of firm we are at, we are used to being quite busy for the majority of the day. You can get a bit bored if there’s not much going on but we’re quite lucky as that doesn’t often happen to us as I think it doesn’t for most firms in the city.

What has been your greatest achievement?

I think coming to the end of the training contract and actually deciding what I wanted to do and finding something that I felt really suited me, I think that’s probably quite an achievement, but is probably one that quite a lot of people achieve. For me, it can be quite a jump going from a trainee to a qualified solicitor and I think it’s gone quite well since I have so I think that in itself is one of my achievements.

Any regrets?

I don’t think I would do anything differently but I think I would tell somebody else, don’t be afraid to take time out, or don’t be afraid to try something and then go to law if you’re not sure, because law firms are incredibly diverse and they like diverse people and you don’t have to follow the university training contract. We take 50% people who don’t have a law degree but have another degree.

What is the pay like and are there any perks?

The pay is pretty transparent throughout the city, so at newly qualified level it’s pretty average, everyone gets the same. But it’s hard to say what that is because things can move as an entire market. Right now, we’re heading towards an economic downturn so you can’t guarantee that in two years time all newly qualified solicitors will be getting paid the same as they are now but you can pretty much be sure that your peers within your band will pay an equal amount. We have got a pension scheme set up which you can join pretty much as soon as you start. We get private health insurance which is quite a good perk – we have a doctor who comes on site so you can see him, and there’s lots of networking events, lots of opportunity to experience things that maybe you wouldn’t if you weren’t working here.

How long is a working day and do you have to work out of hours?

I’ve never been called on a weekend so maybe I’m lucky but I don’t know many people who have worked weekends. I have a Blackberry but here it’s optional, you don’t have to have one. I just find it’s quite useful, if you’re waiting for something you can leave because you will be able to see it. In terms of working hours I would say a steady day is 9.30 to about 6.30, 6.45 and I haven’t done, especially recently much more than that but then on a big deal sometimes you are working late but I would say that’s the exception rather than the norm.

Is there much in the way of travel?

Nabarro isn’t an international law firm so there are not that many opportunities to go abroad and so really you would travel perhaps to a client, if they’re not in the city. That doesn’t happen that often because of email and telephone, but the opportunity is there. It just depends on what sort of transaction you are working on at the time.

Do you have to be based anywhere in particular?

You can definitely do it in the regions. I think you could probably do it just as well in the regions. There are firms we deal with on a daily basis. If a company is a smaller company they will probably use a firm in the regions, it's a bit cheaper. It’s just as good. I think they probably don’t come across the same type of work that we do necessarily on the scale that we do, but in terms of how good it would be I think it would be just as good.

What is the working environment like?

Starting with the dress code it is formal dress Monday to Thursday, so suits and ties for the men. Friday we have a dress-down policy, no jeans but casual trousers and polo shirts, things like that. It’s a very diverse firm, definitely complete equality male/female demographic. We usually have offices of no more than two so either two associates or a trainee and an associate. The partners tend to have their own offices and the secretaries sit in a open-plan section in the middle so that they’re there always quite accessible.

How did you get into your job?

I went to Warwick University where I did a law degree and I got a 2:1. I applied for a Naborro placement right in the middle of my second year and I took that vacation placement right at the end of the second year. I had to come for a day. It was one interview, one written exercise and a group exercise and from that you were offered the vacation placement. Once I arrived at Nabarros and took the vacation placement and then I was offered the job at the end of it so I didn’t have to go through another assessment day so I just had it and accepted the offer.

What's the application process like?

You have to fill out an application form and the majority of people will apply for a vacation placement, so you fill out the form, send it in, you are asked back for this assessment day. If you are successful you come and you spend three weeks here in one department, lots of different activities and assessments while you are here. You have a group exercise that you present to the rest of your intake, there was a telephone interview - it might have changed because I did mine a few years ago but that’s basically what they do and they offer you the job or not, depending on how well it’s gone.

What are the key skills required for your job?

I think you’ve got to be enthusiastic and you’ve got to want to be challenged but in terms of core skills you have to be quite analytical, quite technical, you have to be quite thorough, because detail is quite important so you’ve got to have an eye. You don’t necessarily have to be the best at that, it’s something you will develop but you’ve got to be aware that’s something you always need to address whenever you’re doing anything. You have to be slightly creative as well, think outside the box a bit.

What's your top tip for breaking into your industry?

When filling out an application form I would say really research the firm. It’s a really difficult thing because they all look similar on the outside but they are very different and they want you to let them know that you’ve figured out that they’re different from the person next door. So try and research the firm, look on the websites, Legal Week and things like that because they do report on all of the firms. It’s not necessarily anything really heavy, you don’t have to read about a massive deal they’ve just done but there are things that set our firm apart from other ones. For example, we do six seats during our training contracts, most other firms do four. Now, if you said that’s something you liked that would show you’d gone to the effort of researching our firm and finding out why you liked it, why its different so that’s something that is definitely a big tip.

What's the career progress and how quickly can you move up the career ladder?

For the first two years you’re obviously a trainee but after qualifying I think between 0 and 3 years post training contract you probably will make the most progress in terms of your actual legal knowledge and that’s what they try to focus on so it’s important. They want you to get involved in other things but really they want you to develop your skills, make as much technical progress you can. After that there are different positions that we have, senior associates, managing associates but that is really for a bit further on in your career. At the beginning they want you to develop that side of yourself. As you progress along the career ladder, the type of work is the same but there is more responsibility so for someone who is very qualified they wouldn’t necessarily always need to refer to a partner when they are working on something whereas I would, I would always had someone there supervising me and I think that’s probably the biggest difference. They would probably get involved in marketing, bringing new clients to the firm, cultivating relationships with existing clients because even though someone at my level and perhaps a couple of years more senior will have quite a lot of client contact it might be very occasionally in a social context and quite a lot more in a work context, whereas you notice those lawyers slightly more senior will try to cultivate client relationships, bring more work in.

Where do you see the industry going?

I definitely think that it’s important to know what’s going on so all the credit crunch, the prime stuff, those are questions that they might get asked if they get interviewed because it’s a big deal at the moment so that’s something that I would say. I would tailor that question to perhaps the application that you are making or the type of firm that you are applying to or the type of industry you are going into, so Nabarro is traditionally a property firm, perhaps have a little look at if there’s any new developments in that area and that sort of thing.

Is there scope for movement during or after this career?

There are a few people in the team that I am working in now who have gone off to do secondments at different clients. Because of the skills that you develop and acquire being quite technical, lateral thinking, I think you could definitely apply those in a business context.

What are the industry resources that someone interested in joining must know about?

Legal Week is a very good website, Roll on Friday is a good website – a bit of a joking one – but it definitely lets you know what’s going on, what’s happening with different firms. We get The Lawyer. I don’t know how readily available that is but perhaps some libraries might have that, but just generally they don’t have to read legal magazines, they could read the Financial Times and it would have the same impact. Because we’re a commercial law firm they want you to really know what’s going on in the commercial world as opposed to the legal world. The two kind of fuse together, I wouldn't say that they are separate.

If you weren't in this career, what would you be doing?

I’d definitely think I’d like to work in a company of some sort, something similar, I’ve obviously chosen to work in a corporate team so perhaps another private company or something like that.