Davis Polk

- Just an outpost?
- M&A, credit, tax, antitrust
- Optional 6 months in NYC
- US firm

Sullivan Cromwell
- Trumpy
- M&A, finance, and restructuring
- Secondments to Hong Kong and NYC
- Outpost
- Bad work/life balance
- V high pay
- US firm

Akin gump
- Growing office
- Lots of hands on learning
- V high pay
- Bad work life balance
- US firm

Kirkland Ellis
- Biggest baddest MFers in M&A
- US firm
- 05 Jan

Cleary Gottlieb
- High pay
- Flexible work
- Lots of international work/trips
- Client secondments
- Capital markets, M&A, finance, dispute resolution, financial regulation
- US firm
- Interesting
- 31 Jan

Debevoise Plimpton
- Finance, M&A, PE, insurance, tax
- Large litigation/arbitration practice?
- Bad work life balance
- US firm
- 05 Jan

Gibson Dunn
- Corporate, finance, tax, employment, dispute resolution, competition, funds
- Bad work life balance
- Growing office
 - Pro bono work
- US firm
- 01 Feb. Rolling app

Milbank
- High salary, high work
- Corporate law and finance
- Lots of travel, mostly as NQ
- US firm

Ropes Gray
- Long work, high pay
- Approachable partners, not a lot of structure
- US firm

Sidley Austin
- Obamas worked there
- Corporate/M&A work, but other things too
- Long hours
- Approachable partners/close trainees
- US firm
- 31 Jan

Skadden Arps
- Trumpy
- See Kirkland, maybe a bit worse
- US firm

Vinson Elkins
- Energy focused
- High pay v bad hours
- US firm

Weil
- V long hours
- Competitive/intense atmosphere
- PE, transactional, finance
- Small teams/great quality of work
- US firm

Baker McKensie
- One of the biggest law firms
- International/client secondments
- Biggest office is in London
- US firm

Covington Burling
- Long hours
 - Partners not always approachable
- Secondments only in Brussels
- Big in pharma and tech
- Covington

Latham Watkins
- Kirkland
- Cutthroat
- US firm

Shearman Sterling
- Large London training program for US firm
- Tough hours but in the norm
- Secondments to NY, Singapore, Abu Dhabi
- US firm
- 19 Jan

Dechert
- Good working hours
- International trade, white collar crime, finance
- Secondments to Dublin, Singapore
- US firm
- 31 Jan

Shearman Sterling
- M&A and PE
- Long hours
- Competitive
- US firm

Jones Day
- Trumpy
- US firm

White Case
- Big US law firm
- Big cohort/office
- All trainees have an international secondment opportunity
- US firm

Orrick
- Tech, infrastructure and energy, finance
- US firm

Hogan Lovells
- All areas of law
- Good atmosphere
- International secondments
 - Pro bono work
- 5 Jan

Simmons & Simmons

- Not great
- B+ ?

Mishcon de Reya
- Lots of work for not the best pay
- Private client/corporate work
- Good teaching and quality work
- 15 Jan

Bird & Bird

- Okay pay for good hours
- Tech focused, moving into more classic finance
- Client and international secondments

Please explain why you have decided to pursue a career as a solicitor and what has attracted
you to Debevoise?

Being a solicitor is about much more than law. It is about working with the best, interacting
with clients who are world leaders, pushing yourself when others are relying on you, and
being part of the profession shaping our world through the effects of our cases.
I want to work at Shearman & Sterling because when you want to achieve all the things
above you go to the people with the greatest expertise. The incredible experience your firm
has in M&A, finance, and arbitration marks you out as leaders in the biggest and most
dynamic sectors of law. With a large and growing London office, I believe your firm will be
a the perfect place for me to grow into my professional life, while giving me the greatest
chance to maximize the capabilities and skills that you are known for and which will serve
me in every part of my life.
I am drawn to your training culture, emphasizing on-the-job. I believe this suited to my
working style, where I look to find concrete examples in order to apply lessons learned. I
hope to develop my ability to work in a team and rely on my coworkers through this training.
Finally, the culture of your firm, where you emphasize the group instead of the individuals,
and the opportunities you offer your lawyers to work on pro bono cases is what makes me
think that your firm a place where I will be able to work but also make friends.

Please indicate if there is a preferred practice area that interests you.

What I look forward to the most is experiencing everything that I have not yet. I have never
worked in private equity, nor do I have any experience in insurance or funds. I am interested
and stay up to date to the developments in these fields, but that is nothing compared to the
experience just a couple of days observing and helping the professionals who actually work
in these areas will give me. I look forward to discovering areas of law that I hadn’t thought
would interest me, and seeing the same situations from different points of view.
If I have to choose one area in which I have no experience to be interest in, I would say
international arbitration. It represents for me one of the most important and ascending areas
of law. Working at your firm with the team that secured the largest ever investor-state
settlement and keeps on setting the global standard for excellence in arbitration would be an
honor.
I could say that years of experience at the highest level of Model UN and debating through
university have made me more aware of international topics and conflicts, but none of that
experience would translate meaningfully to the work done at Debevoise. The skills developed
in written and oral argumentation are no doubt valuable, but all I can say is that I aim to learn
from your teams and hopefully be able to point to real experience in this area in a couple
years time.

Please detail any extra-curricular activities and leisure interests, including any relevant
responsibilities and achievements.

Working with your friends on a beach 12 hours a day is not exactly purgatory. For the past 4
summers I have been a sailing instructor in Brittany, but I have struggled to grow into the
instructor I am today. I grew up in Washington DC, New York, and Paris, far away from my
sailboats and the sea life. In contrast, almost all the instructors I’ve worked with live and
breathe sailing every day. I have struggled to make sure I could perform at the same level
they do and to create a sense of a belonging in a community that I am only a part of 2 months
out of the year.
Over time I realized that by teaching I learned more in a couple weeks than I did in my first
10 years of sailing. Being part of a team that only wants the best for me and being forced to
explain the basics of the sport that I hadn’t thought through since I took my first classes when
I was 7 made me grow as a sailor and created real and lasting bonds with the community that
I had thought closed to me.
Teaching has been the most enriching part of my summers. I have found real joy in
transmitting knowledge. I hope that I will find someway to keep on transmitting the
knowledge I will gain at my next workplace, though I suspect I will not be doing so on the
beach.

Please tell us about a difficult or demanding achievement that you are particularly proud of,
with focus on why it was challenging and the contribution you made towards achieving the
end goal.

I very quickly realized that adjusting my teaching style to students ranging from 8 years old
to adults decades my senior as a sailing instructor was one of the most challenging parts of
my summer job. Learning to adapt has taught me to better relate to my students as well as
gain a better understanding of the material taught.
Anyone who has taught different age groups will realize that if you don’t tailor your classes
to your audience you will end up frustrated and unsuccessful. It is especially hard to get the
tone right as a sailing instructor as all your students are on vacation and no one wants to be
lectured to.
One of the first things I noticed was that my priority should be enjoyment rather than
performance. By listening to my students and hearing what their goals, questions, and fears
were, I could shape lessons to their expectations. I learned how to be as calm and assured as
possible with kids for whom it was stressful to simply be away from their parents; how to
look into their eyes, tell them to take deep breaths, and trust themselves to have the correct
instincts that I knew they had. With time, I was able to inspire confidence in adults who were
my senior in every way on land but for whom I was responsible at sea.
I am incredibly proud that my students often ask to come back for another week of classes,
their desire to continue a testament to my success.

Please tell us something that not many people know about you.

Because I have moved around so many times growing up, I have gotten used to making new
friends, and I would consider myself lucky to have always found a group of wonderful people
wherever I have ended up. What has been harder for me than making friends has been
creating a sense of belonging that takes years to develop.
When I moved to Paris at the start of 11th grade, within days I had found my friends. These
are people that I still see every opportunity I have and that I expect will remain some of my
best friends for life. It was still painful to know that though they accept me as I am and
without reserve, I cannot have what they do as a result of being friends since primary school.
Coming to Kings College London has been similarly been difficult, because even if everyone
is arriving to university for the first time there is a degree of common experience that I do not
share with my British friends and a communion with your national tribe that my international
friends have but I lack as a result of my having moved around so much.
I am in no way a sad person. As I said I have been blessed with more wonderful friends than
anyone deserves. What I have learned is that you should cherish every friend you have, and
cherish all the shared experiences that unite you.

Please tell us about a recent commercial deal that has captured your interest. If you could
represent a side, which would it be and why? (300)

As a long-time fan of cars, I have followed the Renault/FCA/PSA saga very closely. The
timing for Renault did not seem right, with the company having barely emerged from the
Carlos Ghosn scandal and the Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance more frayed than ever.
Furthermore, the marriage as equals proposition seemed too advantageous for FCA, a
company that has struggled in Europe, has not captured a substantial part of the vital Chinese
market, and is very far behind in the ongoing electric transition.
Representing PSA, the outlook is much more positive. With a market capitalization of €24
billion for PSA versus less than €20 billion for FCA before the announcement, PSA was
coming in as the natural leader for the new group. FCA offers the French company a unique
opportunity to return to the American market which it left in disgrace decades ago and to
implant itself in Brazil, where Fiat is already a leader. It would have been much harder for
Renault to pierce the American market because of the large market share Nissan has.
Furthermore, Carlos Tavares has proven his effectiveness in the past 5 years with the share
price in PSA doubling during his tenure and a highly successful purchase of Opel-Vauxhall,
which was profitable last year for the first time since 1999. PSA is almost certainly at the
zenith of its profitability with the maximum amount of cash on hand, making it the perfect
time to enter merger negotiations.
In advising PSA, I would have to point out that FCA will not help the French group in its
efforts to grow its Chinese sales, which is by far the most profitable market in the world.
Despite that sizeable blind spot, I still believe that the merger offers large upsides for PSA.

What do you hope to get out of a career at a Firm like ours?

Your firm would be my first serious professional experience. I am looking to learn so much
in my years working for you, growing as a person as well as a lawyer, leaving a more
rounded and much more competent individual.
I am looking forward to gaining skills as a solicitor that will help me through my legal career
and which will transferable into whatever may do later in my life. By training at your firm I
will be learning with teams that write the book on their areas of practice, and I hope that I
will one day be able to say that I am a leader in my sector because I have been trained by the
best.
I hope that the international nature of your work will broaden my horizons and help me grow
into a more international person. I have already experienced both sides of the Atlantic, but at
your firm I will be able to think more globally and pursue a career that can take me to new
countries and continents.
Mostly, the people I will meet by working in your offices, whether they been coworkers,
peers, or clients, will be persons which will not only be invaluable contacts but also be
enlightening acquaintances and hopefully friends. I hope that I will be able to call the
members of my team my partners, and that I will learn from them as they will from me.

Sailing professional experience

I am responsible for teaching classes to both children and adults, as well as taking care of
administrative tasks and overseeing rentals.
As an instructor, I teach classes of up to 20 students. This includes theory sessions on land as
well as leading all the students at sea. When not teaching classes, I can be in charge of
renters, equipping them with life jackets and giving them instructions about the sailing area
and their watercraft.
The administrative tasks that I perform include taking care of the reception as well as
accounting the income and expenses of the club. At other times I am often at the security post
at the top of the beach, surveilling the entire beach and making sure all the boats in our
navigation area are safe.

Rappaport Hocquet Schor professional experience

Intern at a small litigation firm in Paris specializing in aeronautical crashes. I shadowed a

partner, helping them with their daily tasks. My assignments included administrative tasks
and translating documents relating to cases with parallel litigation in the UK. I drafted
documents for clients that needed guidance on the application of the new GDPR regulations
and how it affected their handling of employee information, collating information from the
European Commission and the French data protection agency.
During my internship, I worked on cases relating to military plane crashes, art fraud, and
family law matters. Because of the firm’s involvement in the Paris-Rio plane crash, I helped
draft the press release on behalf of our client relating to the publication of the prosecutor’s
report which came out during my internship.

Your letter should be addressed to Graduate Recruitment and include why you want to be a
lawyer, what skills you can bring to the role of a trainee solicitor, and why you are applying
for the vacation scheme at Kirkland & Ellis

To graduate recruitment,
Being a solicitor is about much more than law. It is about working with the best, interacting
with clients who are world leaders, pushing yourself when others are relying on you, and
being part of the profession shaping our world through the effects of our cases.
I want to work at Kirkland & Ellis because when you want to achieve all the things above
you go to the people with the greatest expertise. The incredible experience your firm has in
private equity and funds marks you out as leaders in the biggest and most dynamic sectors of
law. With a large and growing London office, I believe your firm will be a the perfect place
for me to grow into my professional life, while giving me the greatest chance to maximize the
capabilities and skills that you are known for and which will serve me in every part of my
life.
I am drawn to the culture of your firm which emphasizes on-the-job training. I believe this
suited to my working style, where I look to find concrete examples in order to apply lessons
learned. I hope to develop my ability to work in a team and rely on my coworkers through
this training. I look forward to being able to show initiative in my work, getting to know the
ins and outs of the deal at hand by working in small teams and seeing my work reflected in
the end result.
The leadership your firm has built over the past decades in private equity is legendary.
Joining your corporate team and working on the biggest deals in the world would be the
highlight of career, forcing me to rise to the opportunity of working with the very best from
every part of the economy. Training at Kirkland & Ellis is a window into the ways our
economy is being shaped and a chance to say I am the best because I learned from the gold
standard in corporate law.
As a Frenchman, I was excited to hear your firm opened an office in Paris last year. I am
excited to work at a firm which is developing its European presence and at which there is an
interest in the French market. I have grown up on both sides of the Atlantic and I believe I
would be able to grown into an international professional at your firm thanks to the nature of
the trans-jurisdictional work you do.
I look to learning so much in my years working for you, growing as a person as well as a
lawyer, leaving a more rounded and much more competent individual. Mostly, I look forward
to calling the members of your teams my partners and my fellow trainees my friends.

Thank you for your consideration,

Oscar de Miranda

Please tell us what is your proudest achievement and why. This can be from any aspect of
your life. (400 words max)

For the last 4 summers I have been a sailing instructor in Brittany. I very quickly realized that
adjusting my teaching style to students ranging from 8 years old to adults decades my senior
as a was one of the most challenging parts of my summer job. Learning to adapt has taught
me to better relate to my students as well as gain a better understanding of the material that I
teach.
Anyone who has taught different age groups will realize that if you don’t tailor your classes
to your audience you will end up frustrated and unsuccessful. It is especially hard to get the
tone right as a sailing instructor as all your students are on vacation and no one wants to be
lectured to. It is very easy to sound both condescending and appear unprepared when you are
only a teenager and are trying to gain respect while attempting to ensure everyone is having
fun.
One of the first things I noticed was that my priority should be enjoyment rather than
performance. While it had seemed natural to me to try and make my students progress
technically as much as possible, it became clear that was not the case for my students. By
listening to them and hearing what their goals, questions, and fears were, I could shape
lessons to their expectations. I learned how to be as calm and assured as possible with kids
for whom it was stressful to simply be away from their parents; how to look into their eyes,
tell them to take deep breaths, and trust themselves to have the correct instincts that I knew
they had. With time, I was able to inspire confidence in adults who were my senior in every
way on land but for whom I was responsible at sea.
There are few things more enjoyable than watching someone who I was basically pushing out
to sea on a Monday run to their boat on Friday. I am incredibly proud that my students often
come to me at the end of their week of lessons and ask to come back again. Their desire to
continue their sailing journey is more approval than I deserve.

Please tell us about a recent commercial article or event that has attracted your attention.
Please explain why it interested you, give your opinion on the opportunities and challenges
that it might present to a law firm such as Kirkland & Ellis. (400 words max)

As a long-time fan of cars, I have followed the Renault/FCA/PSA saga very closely. From
the beginning, the union did not seem right for Renault. With the company having barely
emerged from the Carlos Ghosn scandal and the Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance more frayed than
ever, merging at this time would add enormous pressure to an already stressed management
team and would have made FCA the natural leaders of the new group.
Furthermore, the marriage as equals proposition seemed too advantageous for FCA, a
company that has struggled in Europe, has not captured a substantial part of the vital Chinese
market, and is very far behind in the ongoing electric transition. FCA would essentially be
gaining control of a company who was distressed because of a corporate scandal but was
nonetheless much more prepared for the current and future challenges facing the auto
industry.
For PSA, the outlook is much more positive. With a market capitalization of €24 billion
versus less than €20 billion for FCA before the announcement, PSA was coming in as the
natural leader for the new group. FCA offers the French company a unique opportunity to
return to the American market which it left in disgrace decades ago and to implant itself in
Brazil, where Fiat is already a leader. It would have been much harder for Renault to pierce
the American market because of Nissan’s large market share and the conflict that would pose
in its alliance.
Furthermore, Carlos Tavares has proven his effectiveness in the past 5 years. The share price
in PSA has doubled during his tenure and he has masterminded a highly successful purchase
of Opel-Vauxhall, which was profitable last year for the first time since 1999. PSA is almost
certainly at the zenith of its profitability with the maximum amount of cash on hand, making
it the perfect time to enter merger negotiations. FCA will not help the French group in its
efforts to grow its Chinese sales, which is by far the most profitable market in the world.
Despite that sizeable blind spot, the merger offers large upsides for PSA.
A deal like this, though not a private equity deal, would offer opportunities for many of your
teams, from the mergers and acquisitions to antitrust and competition. It would be an
opportunity to work on one of the largest mergers in years, providing work for offices around
the globe.

Why do you want to be a trainee solicitor in a transactional focused firm? (400 words max)
What I look forward to the most as a trainee is experiencing everything that I have not yet. I
have never worked in private equity, nor do I have any experience in funds or finance. I am
interested and stay up to date to the developments in these fields, but that is nothing
compared to the experience just a couple of days observing and helping the professionals who
actually work in these sectors will give me. I look forward to discovering areas of law that I
hadn’t thought would interest me, and seeing the same situations from different points of
view.
Though I have no experience in commercial transactions, I can tell you that I am intensely
interested in the way that the private sector moves. The process of founding a company,
finding investors, growing it for years, and selling it is incredibly interesting because it shows
the entire process of building a highly complex structure from start to finish. Conversely,
advising a fund in selecting, vetting, and managing an acquisition or investment is interesting
because of the intrinsic gamble in investment, and the job of solicitors in minimizing the
chance of loss in the process.
I could say that years of experience at the highest level of Model UN and debating through
high school and university have made me more aware of international topics both public and
private, but none of that experience would translate meaningfully to the work done at
Kirkland & Ellis. I have studied the ways in which companies are managed and sold in my
Principles of Corporate Governance module, but there is still so much that I don’t know. The
skills I have developed in written and oral argumentation, both in my extracurriculars and in
my classes, are no doubt valuable, but I haven’t written professionally about a transactional
deal. All I can say is that I aim to learn from your teams and hopefully be able to point to real
experience in this area in a couple years time.

Mishcon looks for 'Shapers' as demonstrated in our Graduate Brochure. Could you tell us
about a time when you have positively influenced a person or process to achieve success?
(150 words max)

Helping students to get over their fears is one of the hardest and most rewarding experiences
of being a sailing instructor. One week, a student named Damien was particularly scared,
crying and hiding behind his mother as we were heading down the beach for our first lesson.
It was very hard to get Damien to even speak to me, let alone to convince him to go out onto
the water. Since I wasn’t going to convince him to get in sailboat, I put him on my motorboat
at the start of the lesson. This showed Damien not only that there was nothing to fear, but also
how much fun the other kids were having.
There are few things more enjoyable than watching someone who I was basically pushing out
to sea on a Monday run to their boat on Friday. His enthusiasm was proof of my success.

If we were to invite you to interview what is the issue that you would most like to talk about?
And why? This should be an issue that you would happily discuss with your friends and
should be something you genuinely feel passionate about. No 'Brexit' related issues please!
(150 words max)

A question that has defined my life, and which will become relevant for an ever-growing
number of people, is about identity.
I was born in Paris with French, Canadian, and Portuguese citizenships, but I moved to the
US when I was 1. I lived in Washington DC and New York until I was 16, when I moved to
Paris for two years, before coming to London for university. The question of where I am from
has never been easy to answer, as I have never felt like I belonged in any of the places I’ve
lived.
I believe this is true for an increasingly globalized population. Identity will become harder to
define based on nationality as we decentralize ourselves from our roots, and finding yourself
will become an existential question for individuals and groups such as Mishcon who seek to
find their tribe in an international society.

As one of only a handful of global elite law firms, how do you think Shearman & Sterling
LLP maintains its competitive advantage?

It is true in most things that the moment you stop moving forward, the world goes on without
you. I believe this is especially true for law firms, and that the ability to anticipate and react
to the changing needs of clients is what enables a firm like Shearman & Sterling to prepare its
150th anniversary.
Shearman has proven its ability to adapt, grow, and meet the changing needs of its clients
through its existence. Evolving from a New York firm advising financial institutions and
corporations on investments and litigation into a global multi-departmental law practice has
ensured that Shearman is on the bleeding edge of providing every service to a full range of
clients. The growth of the firm in Texas showcases this ongoing effort to capitalize on high-
growth markets. With a GDP that would place it among the top 10 world economies, the state
of Texas offers huge opportunities for multiple departments, from mergers and acquisitions to
antitrust.
Shearman & Sterling is also where it is because of its expertise in the most important sectors
of law. The proficiency of your teams in international arbitration, finance, and M&A mark
you out as leaders in the most dynamic and important fields in law today. By continuing to
build on your strengths while developing in the markets showing the most promise, Shearman
will be able to maintain its position in the market and press its advantages to grow even more.

Please state your non-academic activities and interests indicating any positions of responsibility held
and any particular achievements you would like to mention.

Working with your friends on a beach 12 hours a day is not exactly purgatory. For the past 4
summers I have been a sailing instructor in Brittany, but I have struggled to grow into the
instructor I am today. I grew up in Washington DC, New York, and Paris, far away from my
sailboats and the sea life. In contrast, almost all the instructors I’ve worked with live and
breathe sailing every day. I have struggled to make sure I could perform at the same level
they do and to create a sense of a belonging in a community that I am only a part of 2 months
out of the year.
Over time I realized that by teaching I learned more in a couple weeks than I did in my first
10 years of sailing. Being part of a team that only wants the best for me and being forced to
explain the basics of the sport that I hadn’t thought through since I took my first classes when
I was 7 made me grow as a sailor and created real and lasting bonds with the community that
I had thought closed to me.
Teaching has been the most enriching part of my summers, and I was able to transfer the
lessons learned on the beach to the classroom when I arrived at my new school in Paris. I was
the chair of the debating club, coaching students in British parliamentary style debating as
well as Model UN.
I very quickly realized that adjusting my teaching style would be a difficult transition. If I
didn’t tailor my classes to my audience, I ended up frustrated and unsuccessful. Through trial
and error, I was able to build a rapport to student who were my age or just a year younger,
appearing confident and authoritative while not berating people who were my peers.
Arriving at a new school in 11th grade was difficult, with most students having already known
each other for years. Coaching our Model UN team helped me to feel like a part of the
school, leading it to half a dozen awards at Harvard Model UN. I am incredibly proud that the
students in my debating class have become friends, their appreciation of my classes the
testament of my success and my belonging.

Dechert is frequently retained to work on the most challenging matters, and prides itself on its
ability to deliver premium legal services and sound business judgment to its clients. In your
opinion, other than the above, what are the three key reasons why our clients instruct us?
One of the main reasons your clients come to you is because you are able to offer your full
range of services through 26 offices and 13 jurisdictions. This global reach means that you
are perfectly suited the multinational and trans-jurisdictional reality your clients live every
day. Your constellation of offices allows you to respond dynamically to the demands of an
international deal, which is becoming an ever more important part of your business.
Your ability to think outside the box has been proved time and again, and is a major draw for
clients looking for solutions to their complex problems. Your ability to deliver when others
can’t, especially by devising new methods to get around regulations. For example, the tax
structure built for Fannie Mae credit-linked securities was commended by the Financial
Times in 2019.
The pro bono that you do marks you out as a firm with a social conscience, making both your
employees and clients proud of working with and for Dechert. The record settlement you
obtained over the new year in Philadelphia shows you involvement in your community and
the seriousness of your commitment to the work you do.

Why does a career in a city law firm interest you? (250 words max)

Being a solicitor is about much more than law. It is about working with the best, interacting
with clients who are world leaders, pushing yourself when others are relying on you, and
being part of the profession shaping our world through the effects of our cases.

What I look forward to the most as a trainee is experiencing everything that I have not yet. I
have never worked in private equity, nor do I have any experience in funds or finance. I am
interested and stay up to date to the developments in these fields, but that is nothing
compared to the experience just a couple of days observing and helping the professionals who
actually work in these sectors will give me. I look forward to discovering areas of law that I
hadn’t thought would interest me, and seeing the same situations from different points of
view.

I want to work at Sidley Austin because when you want to achieve all the things above you
go to the people with the greatest expertise. I want to work at a firm where on the job
training, rewarding creativity and reinforcing the importance of the team, is at the forefront.
Finally, I want to work at a firm that will stimulate me intellectually and allows me to call my
teammates my partners and my fellow trainees my friends.

Describe a current commercial issue that has interested you and explain why it interested
you? (250 words max)

As a fan of cars, I followed the Renault/FCA/PSA saga very closely. The timing for Renault
did not seem right, with the company having barely emerged from the Carlos Ghosn scandal
and the Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance more frayed than ever. A ‘marriage as equals’ seemed too
advantageous for FCA, a company that has struggled in Europe, has not pierced the vital
Chinese market, and is very far behind in the ongoing electric transition.
For PSA, the outlook is much more positive. With a market capitalization of €24 billion
versus less than €20 billion for FCA before the announcement, PSA is coming in as the
natural leader for the new group. FCA offers the French company a unique opportunity to
return to the American market and to implant itself in Brazil, where Fiat is already a leader. It
would have been much harder for Renault to pierce the American market because of the large
market share Nissan has there.
Furthermore, Carlos Tavares has proven his effectiveness at PSA, doubling the share price
and managing a highly successful purchase of Opel-Vauxhall, which was profitable last year
for the first time since 1999. PSA is almost certainly at the zenith of its profitability, making
it the perfect time to enter merger negotiations.
While FCA will not help Mr. Tavares’ group in its efforts to grow its Chinese sales, which is
by far the most profitable market in the world, the merger still offers large upsides for PSA.

In your view which personal qualities make a successful lawyer?

I believe that to be a lawyer requires a large variety of personal skills. The bread and butter of
a solicitor is the interaction they have every day, from talking with colleagues to meetings
with clients. A lawyer must be simultaneously professional and personal, able to inspire
confidence in their work while collaborating with colleagues and building business
partnerships in a friendly manner.
You must be able to talk clearly and concisely of your work. Being able to converse equally
competently to fellow lawyers as well as to clients who do not have legal training is
indispensable. Communicating your ideas in person as well as in writing must be done in a
professional manner that translates the importance and quality of the work done at Sidley
Austin.
The personal connection to clients and coworkers cannot be neglected either. Clients must
feel safe and confident enough in you to trust their most sensitive matters to your care, and
being able to talk socially and confidently about non-legal matters is vital to acquiring and
retaining clients. You also need a strong team built through friendly relations to deliver the
results that a firm like yours has made its standard.
Without these soft skills a lawyer is unable to work at any level, let alone operate at the
sharpest end of the legal profession like Sidley does.