Early Responsibility
Robin Wallich Associate Finance
in Africa. This gave me the chance to take the lead on various workstreams, including running the process with local counsel and negotiating ancillary documents with the lenders’ lawyers. Working directly with senior colleagues, as well as being given early responsibility made me feel like an integral part of the team and our deals which allowed me to take real ownership of my work. Although the high levels of responsibility can be challenging, colleagues are very supportive and provide all the guidance and support you need. The semi-rotational seats allowed me to gain more than just six months of experience in my practice by the time I qualified. Coupled with early responsibility, I learned new skills and concepts quickly, which in turn allowed me to take on greater levels of responsibility on matters. This makes the transition from trainee to NQ, which some can find daunting, fairly seamless, as by the end of your fourth seat you will be effectively operating at an NQ level already.
Early responsibility is a key feature of a training contract at V&E. From the beginning, I was encouraged to take on as much responsibility as possible. As I developed my skills and gained the trust of colleagues, they gave me more responsibility on matters, allowing me to take the lead on workstreams, and allowing me to gain substantive drafting experience as well as exposure to clients and the opportunity to lead calls with clients or opposing counsel. Teams at V&E are leanly staffed, meaning there are lots of opportunities to work directly with senior lawyers. In my first seat, I worked directly with a senior associate on the refinancing of an agricultural inputs group operating
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