When we think of Corporate Law, we probably picture the hit legal dramas. My own intial fascination with Law began with Suits, as I’m sure it has for many aspiring lawyers. But there comes a point when most of us realise that Suits amy have slight overexaggerated some aspects of Corporate Law. The fast-paced deals, the dramatic confronatations, the glamorous offices (okay, maybe that one is true) makes for comeppling television, but it isn’t quite reality.
Over the summer, I was privileged to visit Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer as part of a PRIME Internship with the Social Mobility Foundation. This gave me first-hand exposure to the legal profession in a way no TV show ever could.
During this week, I began to understand what commercial law actually looks like beyond the TV-drama caricuature. For starters, it is much slower, deeper and more analytical, and far more collaborative than the ruthless image that Suits gives it.
I spent a day of my work experience with the Financial Sponsors team, shadowing Aqeel Asif, where I learned how complex the financing behind major infrastructure deals can be, as well as how private equity structures itself to buy companies.
What suprised me most was how willing everyone was to teach. Solicitors at the firm talked me through their day to day life, the struggles and succeses that they faced, partners spent time explaining how they got to their position, and my mentor explained to me the wide and wacky world of corporate law. What this did was make the environment feel a lot less intimdating and more, human.
The other striking part was how much of the job relied on communication. Not the sharp, one-liner arguments of TV scripts but careful, precise conversations that keep the conversation moving. Everything done was done with purpose and clarity, and that is a prinicple I wish to apply to my everyday life.
By the end of the week, I realised that what drew me to commercial law wasn’t what TV shows had sold me, it was the reality. The problem solving, the complexity, the collaboration and the responsibility that comes with deals that affect entire sectors. It was a world where the smallest detail could shift millions of pounds, and the thoughtful insight of humans mattered more than theatrics.