- within Corporate/Commercial Law, Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Environment topic(s)
- in United Kingdom
Tell us about your career highlights to date?
My career at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer is in its infancy. Trainees in the London office undergo four six-month rotations across our firm's divisions. I began in our Commercial Disputes practice in a team specialising in energy, tech and class actions. I then sat in our Energy and Infrastructure Finance team. My current rotation is in our Real Estate division.
My key career highlight to date involves assisting on the merger of NEO Energy and Repsol's UK upstream business into NEO NEXT Energy, forming the second-largest oil and gas producer on the UK Continental Shelf. I worked as part of a lean HSF Kramer deal team as we acted for a large syndicate of lenders. Part of my role entailed liaising directly with these lenders as we progressed toward the closure of the transaction. The opportunity to step up and serve as an integral part of my team, learning best practices on transaction management in the process, was a key highlight.
What are you most excited about for the remaining months of 2025 and what are your goals in the coming months?
In parallel with our client's industries, our firm's transactional practices get incredibly busy in the period before Christmas. My Real Estate team will follow this trend. We advise private capital clients on the acquisition, disposal and asset management of real estate assets in their portfolios. As a trainee, I look forward to playing a key role in the negotiation and completion of the leasing, property alteration and other agreements that our clients will look to finalise ahead of the new year. The lead up to Christmas promises to be busy. In doing so, it will offer opportunities for my growth and development as a transactional lawyer.
What is the best and most honest advice ever given to you?
Focus on enjoying the process of becoming rather than fixating on the end goal.
The process of securing a training contract often felt like a journey to the summit of Mount Everest. The process was filled with endless setbacks and, overall, a lot of work each day for little reward in the short term. What kept me resilient was a focus on the end goal of securing a job offer at a firm like HSF Kramer. I convinced myself that the success of securing the training contract would offer this cathartic sense of happiness; that I would experience unending satisfaction.
When the initial joy of securing the training contract faded, I realised that what had brought me true satisfaction was the process of improving every day in the pursuit of a big, ambitious goal. This was confirmed by a mentor who lamented on their own career journey – that in fixating on an end goal, their day-to-day life was filled with dissatisfaction as they had objectively not yet attained the goal that they defined as success. After each "win" in their career, they would shift focus to the next goal and not feel satisfaction until they achieved that lofty objective.
In focusing on the process, I can find satisfaction in the ups, downs and mundane moments that come in the pursuit of a big ambitious goal. I find that I can live more happily in the short term because I am not postponing my contentment until I secure my long-term goal.
Who are your dream dinner guests and why?
Lionel Messi and Masayoshi Son.
As a lifetime Barcelona fan, having Messi to dinner would entail trying to compose my inner fanboy to ask him questions about his perspective on the goals, titles and accolades that are now core memories for me. My foray into building commercial awareness was punctuated by reading news articles that involved companies that were either owned or in some way affiliated with Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Group. At one point, I concluded that all roads in commerce somehow led back to SoftBank.
A dinner with Son and Messi would offer an insight to what it entails to be at the pinnacle of one's field.
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