CASPAR & LOWRI
LOWRI
Eversheds offers a lot of secondments. We have a lot of opportunities to work in-house for six months or even two years. I know, for example, that there are several partners in corporate who worked on the Takeover Panel and AIM, the alternative investment market, and there’s many opportunities, not just working partner practice.
CASPAR
Yeah, there’s certainly someone in the corporate department who recently has just switched their role from being a full-time fee earner to getting involved more in the marketing/business development side of things. As Lowri said, I’m very focused on becoming a partner; that was a main reason why I chose Eversheds. The previous firm I was at had a bottleneck at the partnership level. Eversheds, rapidly expanding, had a good position there for me.
LOWRI
I just think the volume of people that you have to manage – even as a trainee, you’re not really experienced in dealing with people – but it gives you that opportunity to practise those skills, and you’re coordinating and liaising with different heads of department in different departments in order to bring together a corporate deal.
CASPAR
One of the things was certainly not being used to business development, something that I didn’t do at my previous firm. So finding yourself thrust into pitches with the clients, meeting them with no background to try to understand their needs, that is quite testing.
LOWRI
I have been involved in some very exciting completion meetings after a long haul of several weeks of long hours, and then you just reach the end date and everything’s agreed, everyone signs everything, so you get to open a bottle of champagne and just think, it is over! But it feels really good because you think yeah, I really contributed, I really worked with the team and it is finally done.
CASPAR
The high profile deals that you do get involved in, that does give you a bit of a buzz when you open the newspapers the next morning and there they are. And the other thing is just the sheer variety of work that comes across my desk; certainly a greater variety than I’ve ever had before at a previous firm.
LOWRI
I personally really enjoy the open door policy. I think as a trainee it’s important to be able to go into a supervisor’s office, like an associate or partner or anybody, and just be able to ask a question; and at Eversheds they always have the doors open and everyone’s always willing to answer your questions.
CASPAR
Yeah, that genuinely is the case. It is a very friendly place to work. I’m not saying it is the only friendly law firm in the country, but it’s really struck me since I have been here. I would say the two things that really strike me are: one is, Eversheds is very accommodating to what you want to achieve from your career, which you certainly can’t say of all other firms; and the other thing is, Eversheds seems to be much more proactive than the other firms I’ve been at, in terms of getting people from a very junior level to try and win work from clients, bring in clients, generally get involved in the business development side of things.