Dickson read law at Kings College, London. He joined us an associate in 2008
The firm was interested in
me
Freshfields was, and still is, at the very top of the league
tables; and I had also heard that its good training didn't stop
once you were qualified.
At my interview, back in 2008, as well as the typical legal questions, they asked me a lot about my background, my personality and what I liked to do.
And I liked what I'd heard about
the culture
When you join a firm, it's not just about the work - the culture
is also very important. There's no point in coming to work five
days a week and just doing your work - you need to relate to your
peers and colleagues. Wherever you work, you're going to spend a
lot of time there. Here they make a real effort to make sure you
have a personality that will fit in and that you really want to
come to Freshfields.
Junior lawyers are given a lot of
responsibility
The partners encourage you to discover your potential - they don't
spoon-feed you. I personally like that because that
thinking-process allows me to figure things out, which is how I
acquire and develop my skills. But, at the same time, the partners
I work for will always call me and check how things are going, and
that I'm all right and on track.
I've never been asked to do
something repetitive
OK - I do repeat deals in the sense that it's M&A, but the
type of skills involved and the types of issues that come up are
always different, even for IPOs.
