Position: Trainee
Education: BA History, University of Nottingham; GDL, BPP Law School, Waterloo; LPC, College of Law, Moorgate
Joined Clifford Chance: February 2011

After my LPC, I took eight months off before I started at Clifford Chance to go travelling, and now I am sitting in the Private Equity Team, part of the Corporate Finance practice.I wanted somewhere with an international focus and the chance to work abroad, so Clifford Chance was an obvious choice. It's truly global and my colleagues are leaders in their field. It has given me a fantastic opportunity, to learn and be around people who are not only really talented, but approachable with it.

I've had a great experience so far, working with a lot of different people on a variety of deals. At the moment, I'm helping to set up a charitable foundation for one of our clients, which has been an exciting project, involving lots of client interaction and drafting. I've also been coordinating the AGM for a client, preparing all the documents. There's quite a bit of transaction management too. For example, I have been involved since my first week with the takeover of Brit Insurance by private equity houses Apollo and CVC.

What I really like is that you are very rarely micro-managed. You are given responsibility and client contact and I think that's the best training - it is constant development.

There are frequently new challenges in front of you - sometimes quite a few in one day! You definitely get more confident as you go along; certain tasks come around for the second or third time and you start to feel more comfortable about your performance.

I'm working quite hard! It takes some getting used to, particularly in a transactional seat, but you know what you are getting yourself into. I like this type of work and I'd rather be very busy on something I enjoy than ticking along on something I find boring. Life is made easier because we have amazing support staff; my secretary, Rach, is an absolute superstar, as are all the people in the night support team.

I know where I'm going for my second and fourth seats. My next seat will be General Banking, another transactional seat. I've asked to be put into the acquisition finance side, which is basically the lending side of what I'm doing now. I'll be able to see another aspect of the kinds of transactions I've been working on, so in terms of learning and development, that should give me a chance to see the bigger picture.

My third seat is unconfirmed, but I know my fourth seat will be in Dubai to do Corporate again. I'm really looking forward to it and I think Dubai will be an exciting place to be seconded to.