Position: Partner, Tax
Education: Law, Oxford University; LPC, Guildford
Joined Clifford Chance: 1998
Joined the partnership: 2007

It seems a long time ago now but all the reasons for which I chose to join Clifford Chance still hold true. I liked the people here, they seemed interesting and interested in me, I liked the quality of the work and I liked the atmosphere.

It seemed collegiate and supportive and now, after thirteen years, it still feels that way. But really it's the people. I've worked with inspirational people throughout my career here and when I was starting out I thought ‘if I could get to be like them, and do a very demanding job, help clients and train people it would be very satisfying' and it has been.

When you're starting out it's easy to see making partner as the end goal but now I'm here I realise that I still have a lot to learn and there are lots of things that I can improve. Of course, your legal knowledge increases as you become more familiar with the work and your judgement gets better. As you learn, though, you take on more challenging tasks and new business and management responsibilities so the role evolves with your experience.

Historically, Clifford Chance was the new kid on the block, out to break the mould and even today we still have that pioneering spirit - this is certainly not an old-school firm. You look at the range of people we have here and even at the most senior levels it's pretty diverse. I think the fact that we were one of the first firms to achieve a global footprint means that we are more used to working globally than other firms. I think our ‘newness' has also had a unifying effect; we're not trying to preserve our way of doing things but constantly looking at better ways of working.

As a Tax lawyer my core work is on corporate transactions - clients buying or selling a business. My role is to help them structure the deal tax efficiently, looking at the risk allocation and looking for opportunities to reduce tax costs. It's a role for people who like solving puzzles - there are many different ways to structure each transaction - I'm looking for the one that best suits my client's needs. Recently I worked on Kraft's takeover of Cadbury which was a fascinating transaction to be involved with.

I'm also responsible for Tax training, know how and education - a lot of which feeds into how we develop our trainees - and I'm a supervisor for an associate. You can't train someone to be a tax lawyer in just six months so for trainees a lot of what we are doing is giving them an insight into what we do and helping them to make an informed decision about where they want to work in the future. I think the best advice I can give is to come and look at the firm. Our international network is very important and it means that you'll be teaming up with people all over the world. The other thing to look out for is the team dynamic. People are here because they like the work and they like the people they work with. Those are two very important building blocks for a rewarding career.