Ivana Stjepovic – Senior associate

I think I'm probably a good reflection of what makes Freshfields international. I qualified in Canada and England, did a Master's at Cambridge in England, worked in London, and now I live in Italy. I also speak Italian and Croatian, which comes in handy when I'm working on deals such as privatising a Croatian company or advising a UK company that's buying or selling a business in Italy.

In Milan, everyone knows everyone and we often work with the same people. We build up good relationships and use first names to address our colleagues - something that is still unusual in Italian firms. Freshfields understands that people working together work more effectively when they've got to know each other. Therefore, I get the chance to go to conferences and seminars abroad and building these personal relationships helps me feel more comfortable with my colleagues from around the world.

There is no great divide between associates and partners and my supervising partner encourages me to work on high-profile transactions, helping me to grow and become recognised in my own right.

I have a varied workload, specialising in equity capital markets and private acquisition work. What's always the same is the service we offer to our clients, whether it's a €500m deal for Kingfisher plc or helping businesses recover assets from the fallout of the Lehman bankruptcy. We think very carefully about the advice we're giving to clients, making sure it's commercially focused and practical, not just theory. It is a given that we understand the law, but what really matters to the clients is that we have weighed the pros and cons of how our decisions affect their business.