Name: Sarah Greenwood Firm: Mills & Reeve LLP Location: Cambridge University: Nottingham Trent University Undergraduate degree: Law
11:57pm, so all the hard work was worth it and everyone was extremely happy.”
However, there is a flipside to this tech innovation: “Junior lawyers will lose the opportunity to perform certain tasks where often you spot things and learn by asking questions as you go along. It’s all about how to fill that knowledge gap and how to help lawyers coming up through the ranks adapt. We just have to find a new way to give those learning opportunities to juniors as AI takes hold.” Skills to get ahead Perhaps no surprise, Sarah’s view is that as for any transactional lawyer, being organised is key: “Developing your project management skills is essential – there are often so many individual elements and it’s your job to ensure that everything lines up and is in hand. If this is the type of work you’re keen on, then those skills are essential. You also need an eye for detail and an ability to be commercial – finding solutions that work for all parties and that get the deal done are essential.” On that point, being commercially minded and putting yourself in the shoes of your client is also a key skill: “Clients are looking for lawyers who can explain not only the legal position, but also the commercial risks and benefits. They’re not interested in the academic elements of the law. Commerciality is about looking at the wider picture and realising why a client wants to do a deal; if something is particularly important to them, they might be prepared to take a view on what you identify as a key legal issue.” More generally, when thinking about where you might want your career to go, Sarah suggests being alert to what you enjoy doing and where your interests lie – “you are far better working in something that you are passionate about” – and taking some ownership of its direction: “Don’t expect others to do it for you; if you want to get involved with things, ask. It’s your career and it will be what you make it.”
The chance to meet and interact with a wide variety of clients and colleagues as part of her daily working life is one of the most pleasing aspects of the job. “We’re a large firm, with 1,000 people based across six offices, and we often work cross-office, especially if it is a large property portfolio- based transaction,” she describes. “For example, we recently worked on a deal that involved over 100 different properties, so we involved a large cross-office team to deliver the transaction for the client.” As is usual in the legal profession, the fact that the job is far from nine-to-five means that sometimes commitments outside work suffer as a result: “But I work with great people and for great clients, and am passionate about the work itself, so although the hours can sometimes be long, it would only be a hardship if I wasn’t enjoying it!” Banking on Legal Tech Sarah’s view is that one of the biggest developments to hit the profession is artificial intelligence (AI) – with junior lawyers being the most deeply affected by its arrival. “The programmes that I’ve seen replace some work historically undertaken by junior lawyers, doing it much more quickly,” she reflects. “Although there is a way to go, especially with accuracy issues, it’s moving in the right direction and will really help to speed up transactions for clients. For example, if you have a portfolio acquisition financing and you want to establish if the seller has been using the same form of lease consistently across the portfolio, AI can run those sorts of queries quickly, saving hundreds of person- hours. It also frees lawyers up to do more interesting work that actually requires human intervention.”
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