What do you find attractive about Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner’s sectors/departments and which area(s) are you interested in having exposure to in your Training Contract and why? (500)

I am drawn to Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner’s ‘M&A and Corporate Finance’ practice area. I attended insight days at UBS and Ruffer LLP where I gained insight into asset management and equity markets. Additionally, a Herbert Smith Freehills presentation introduced me to M&A transactions and a talk by an associate from Sidley LLP shed light on private equity. These corporate cornerstones interest me because they underpin the existence and functioning of different companies, be that through raising funds or lateral growth and expansion. These in turn uphold modern society by enabling fundamental services like employment, pensions, and real estate.

In 2018, Berwin Leighton Paisner sent ripples through the legal world by announcing its merger with US-based Bryan Cave: strategic mastery as the firm’s respective specialisms, real estate, and finance, combined forming the diversified ‘one-stop-shop’ and financial maverick BCLP is today. Unsurprisingly, the firm holds prestigious ranking in Chambers UK for work in the Alternative Investment Markets (AIM). The advice BCLP provided Trident Resources plc regarding its $20 million share placement on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market is testament to the department’s high quality. 

No analysis of BCLP is complete without the mention of real estate. Legal 500 named BCLP as the ‘Real Estate Firm of the Year’ in 2019 and the department is ranked tier 1 in Legal 500 and Chamber UK rankings. The firm’s real estate projects have also amounted to $75 billion in the past two years, so training at BCLP is synonymous with gaining excellent exposure in the sector. While real estate insight has thus far eluded me, I have been exposed to conveyancing during my parents’ attempted sale of their commercial premises and to the process of setting up a lease specifically for a class E(b) (previously A3) takeaway restaurant property. Real estate is indispensable to daily life, both commercial and personal, so I am keen to gain insight into the sector.

BCLP is an especially good place to do this because, in addition to its accolades, the firm maintains a legal competitive advantage in this multi-disciplinary sector by leveraging its 31 offices to provide clients with a cross-border approach that draws on the firm’s full-service nature. The firm’s work with HGR Liquidating Trust exemplifies this. Three jurisdictions were involved in HGR’s sale of its companies owning “The Cabot” in Canary Wharf: London, Luxembourg, and Hong Kong, but the deal also had corporate, real estate, and tax prerequisites. All obligations were fulfilled by BCLP Partners and Associates because of the firm’s full-service and international nature; the client needn’t have looked elsewhere. 

Finally, the firm’s Lex 100 award for International Secondments (2018/2019) bolsters all its sectors. The underlying guarantee of providing trainees with unmatched international experience is alluring. I travelled to the UAE and China in the past two years to complete a leadership and Mandarin course respectively. In addition, I completed my Erasmus exchange in the Netherlands last year, so I am enticed by globality, and find working in international teams stimulating.

Please detail any academic awards, positions of responsibilities and/or any interests or hobbies outside of academics and work experience (please list in bullet points). (300)

In 2017 I founded Penryn campus’ Law Society and became its co-President. Penryn Campus is far detached from commercial nexuses like London meaning students erstwhile were disconnected from legal networking and career advice. In my first full year as President, I used my entrepreneurial spirit to partner with Herbert Smith Freehills and Allen & Overy to remedy students’ lack of engagement with the commercial world. Both firms invited us to their firm presentations in Exeter and following my negotiation, sponsored our travel from Cornwall to the city. The sponsorships exceeded £1000 in value. Additionally, with news of Penryn campus housing a new Law School from 2019, I pushed for close collaboration before leaving for my study abroad. We became constitutionally bound which among other things, facilitated mooting support for future committees and secured extra capital. 

·In 2017 I became the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Regional Ambassador for London. In my role, I was responsible for raising awareness of the Holocaust’s contemporary legacy. I delivered six assemblies in five days to year 7-13 cohorts on memorialising Auschwitz’s victims and the danger of Holocaust denial. Additionally, I gave a speech to around 200 students centred on speaking out against anti-Semitism. By reciting this sensitive period of history through confident and persuasive public speaking, I contributed to inspiring the next generation of witnesses.

·I received a place on Study China 2018 following a competitive application process. I was tasked with an intensive three-week Mandarin language program, complemented by culture exploration in Shanghai and Hangzhou. I felt significant culture shock being in China for the first time, however, I remained positive and enthusiastic which arguably resulted in my interview with a Chinese news outlet later being published. My drive also facilitated my distinction in the language course.  

In your first 3 months as a trainee at BCLP, who would you seek to build relationships with, and what strategies would you implement to ensure that these relationships are long lasting? (300)

Trainees are allocated an Associate Supervisor and a Partner Mentor at BCLP. As Jonathan Hall pointed out during a recent Exeter employer presentation, your Partner Mentor will not necessarily be in your team during your seat, so while it is still important to build rapport with them, making sure you click with your Supervisor is particularly essential because they will be a relatively readily accessible person, who most likely will already share knowledge on to the ins-and-outs of your problem. To strategize a positive relationship, I would prioritise going to them only with complex tasks, as not to waste their time with trivial questions, to which I would seek answers elsewhere. I would make every attempt to pre-empt the answer through research so that our problem-solving discussion is guided as opposed to erratic.

Building a sense of team spirit with your fellow trainees is also vital. BCLP is a collaborative place where trainees foster camaraderie and help one another by spreading out workload – the ‘if you are there for them, they will be there for you’ outlook certainly seems applicable. I would ensure to be proactive in my approach, expressing my ability to help whenever possible, without unproductively overloading myself. Plus, I have always enjoyed meeting colleagues in a social context after work because it helps in bond-building; during my training contract, I would think I would do the same. Finally, I would apply this type of relationship building and strategy with my assigned PA who, as pointed out by Jonathan, is immensely helpful.

Imagine you are a trainee at BCLP and you have been working on a task for an associate in the Finance department. The associate is away and a partner in the department urgently wants a summary note of the research to send to a client and has asked you to send it to them by tomorrow morning. How would you react? (300)

I would first make sure I am properly briefed. It is all well and good to send the Partner a summary note that is not up to scratch, hoping it will make a good impression. If you are inadequately aware of the requirements of this task and the wider deal, then the final product will not satisfy the client, meaning both the Partner and the firm will come off badly. This would be counterintuitive to the advice we need to be providing. Assuming I deem myself to be insufficiently briefed, I will check with the Associate when they will be back. If it is soon, and we will still have time to put together the note, I will wait for their return. 

If waiting is not an option, I will be open about my unreadiness with the Partner. I will ask how they want to move forward making my level of awareness and prior involvement on this deal clearly known. If after evaluating my standing, the partner notwithstanding gives me the green light to proceed, I will utilise my knowledge on writing legal advice notes I gained from a talk on ‘legal drafting’ given by a lawyer from Herbert Smith Freehills. I will also use research skills gained from my history degree to compose a concise note comprising: 1) an executive summary 2) background and relevant problems 3) the relevant law 4) how the law applies to the facts and 5) a conclusion. I will use diagrams to help the client with visualisation. If, however, the partner opts to look elsewhere for the note, I will not take this personally. I will ask to see the note once it is finalised so I know what would be expected from me should this predicament arise a second time.