Meet Our Newly Qualified Solicitors
Lara Kuehl
As an associate in the Firm’s dispute resolution practice, no two weeks have ever been the same. The practice handles a diverse range of work, including international arbitration, commercial litigation, defending clients in regulatory investigations and alternative dispute resolution. If I were to amalgamate several weeks into an “average” week, however, it might be as follows.
Monday
Attending an arbitration hearing at the London Court of International Arbitration
The Firm represents a number of high-profile clients in international arbitrations which, although they have a London seat, can often involve foreign law. As a junior associate, my role is to pay extremely close attention to the points raised in the hearing in order to respond to any emergencies and to rebut these when drafting sections of the post-hearing brief.
Tuesday
Representing a client in a mediation or settlement negotiations
As the emphasis in modern litigation is on alternative dispute resolution, it is now very common to settle claims out of court. Negotiating a settlement which is acceptable to both sides involves strong diplomacy skills and good commercial sense.
Wednesday
Making a last-minute application before a Master in the High Court
Our practice encourages you to develop your advocacy skills and there is no shortage of opportunities for you to take on your own High Court advocacy. All the associates in the dispute resolution group have received the Higher Rights of Audience qualification, which allows you to appear in any level of court in the United Kingdom.
Thursday
Reviewing a case from the scratch and then constructing arguments for the first pre-action letter
One of my roles as a junior associate has often been to conduct the initial analysis of the documents relating to a case in order to decide what areas of law and types of arguments are relevant.
Friday
Meeting with pro bono clients
As the Firm strongly encourages pro bono work, I have found that I have had the chance to represent a number of very deserving clients in pro bono cases, which is extremely rewarding on a personal level, and provides the opportunity for a young associate to develop their skills in unusual areas of law. For example, I have handled a professional negligence claim in respect of an endowment policy mis-sold to pensioners.
Adam Topping
I qualified into the Banking & Finance Practice Group in June 2007, having completed seats in the Corporate, Litigation and Banking & Finance Practice Groups, as well as spending six months on secondment at a global investment bank. The actual transition from trainee to newly qualified solicitor in my current group was relatively low key, and did not lead to an immediate change in the work I was doing. After all, a final seat trainee should already be performing at the level of an associate, and have a workload which reflects this.
However, in the time since qualification, I have seen my workload become more varied, and the partners’ confidence in me grow steadily. This has resulted in me receiving a wider range of higher quality work (particularly in the finance, energy and derivatives areas), and, significantly, has given me increasing, high-level exposure to clients. For example, I am now the first point of contact for a number of our UK and international energy clients, who will contact me with a range of contractual, regulatory and other sector-specific questions. If I can, I will deal with these questions on my own. However, where I am in doubt, particularly with the more complex issues, there is always somebody more experienced in the Firm who is willing and able to assist.
In addition to client work, I have also been given the opportunity to work on pro bono matters, as well as having the chance to develop my skills and raise my profile in other ways. So far this has been achieved through writing articles with other partners in the group, attending conferences and participating in client entertainment events.