Sonia read law at the London School of Economics
I come from a family of lawyers
By the age of 14 I knew law was the career for me, too. By 17 I was doing work experience with the property team in a law firm. There was an advertisement on the school notice board to join a global graduates group, and I joined. Two out of 50 of us were chosen for a week's work experience at a magic circle law firm. I was one of the two lucky ones. So at 18, just before I started at university, I spent one week in a magic circle law firm as part of a banking team.
While at university I attended open days, receptions and seminars
At every opportunity I attended anything hosted by the magic circle firms. In the end I decided to apply to four firms to take part in their vacation schemes, and I was accepted on two. One was a vacation scheme in Dubai working with a capital markets team for two weeks. I like the Middle East, so I jumped at the chance and had a great time.
The second vacation scheme was with Freshfields
This time I joined the dispute resolution team. The atmosphere was great and the people were friendly - more so than the people I had met in the other firms. My mind was made up, Freshfields was the only firm I really wanted.
I applied for a training contract in my second year
The interview was challenging, I had to think on my feet. I thought I was prepared but as I look back now I realise how much I didn't know. But I can't have been that bad, because they said 'yes'.
The LPC was very different from my degree work
You learn a lot about how companies operate and work - which you don't learn when you study law at university. After the LPC I took a year off and went back to the Middle East to Bahrain and Dubai.
My first seat was with dispute resolution
I joined the financial institutions group and immediately I could put what I had learned on the LPC to good use. The first dispute involved the alleged mis-selling of personal protection insurance and I had to research the finer points in the rules and regulations laid down by the FSA. I had to find cases - not the obvious ones - but ones where the rules had been interpreted differently and where a judgement had been challenged. We discussed how the court had interpreted things and how it might in our client's case. The work is all about analytical thinking, and thinking differently.
Next came six months in corporate
I joined the capital markets team. Here the work is deadline driven, business-related, and more commercial. It's exciting to see a whole transaction through from beginning to end. I have worked on the prospectus for bond issues and have been given the opportunity to draft some amendments to standard sections of a prospectus. You have to think about the information that investors need in order to decide whether to invest. Sometimes the company's environmental policies are crucial, at other times they will not be so significant. You have to look at everything through the eyes of an investor.
A finance seat comes next
I'd like to join either the banking team or the structured and asset finance team, and I'm looking forward to learning all about debt finance and different types of loan. And after that I'm keen to do a seat in real estate. Property was another part of the LPC that I enjoyed. And lastly, I'm hoping for an office secondment, either to Dubai or Hong Kong.
