Ulrich Zanconato (the Commercium Colloquium's Research Director, GDL 2012/3) reviews the 05/11/2012 visit of Robert Sutton, former senior partner of Macfarlanes LLP:
Robert Sutton, senior adviser and former senior partner at Macfarlanes, was the guest of the second Commercium Colloquium event held this year, and over fifty students came filling up the room to hear him talking about commercial awareness.
The incipit was a strong statement, "commercial awareness is not as important as people say". Mr Sutton went on explaining to the quite baffled students that as a lawyer you do not get paid for your commercial awareness, but for your knowledge of the law. An exhortation, thus, to focus on the law and to study hard in order to acquire the best possible knowledge of the law. "Black letter law is the start, commercial awareness is the cherry on the cake. There is no point in having the cherry without the cake," summarised Mr Sutton.
This cherry on top of the cake can, however, by no means be disregarded. In the last 25 years lawyers have come to occupy a much more central position in transactions. Lawyer are now regarded as a very important part of the client's advisory team. Hence, they must make sure to understand not only the legal structure but also the economic rationale of the transaction. This is particularly important because lawyers, by spending increasingly more time with clients, need to speak their same language and be proactive in understanding what the clients' needs are, from a business point of view.
Commercial awareness is very important to City law firms and therefore applicants must show their commercial acumen in the interview. Since all applicants will have baked a delicious cake, it is the cherry on top that can prove decisive.
How should a student become more commercially aware? Mr Sutton gave three key pieces of advice: research the firm you apply for; read the Financial Times; speak to your friends in business.
During the final Q&A session, Mr Sutton compared the degrees of commercial awareness in the US and the UK and argued that US lawyers are more commercially aware, which is a factor, together with the relevance of litigation, for their stronger domestic influence and importance, if compared with the UK.
Furthermore, Mr Sutton advised students who will have a gap year before starting their training contract to go abroad, intern in foreign law firms and improve legal and language skills. To go to Bejing and to come back fluent in Mandarin would be very enriching, both from a personal and professional point of view.
On a question whether macroeconomic trends should determine the fields students specialise in, Mr Sutton expressed the view that, although by way of example M&A and private equity are very unlikely to return to their pre-crisis level, students should not look at macroeconomic trends but only at their passions when deciding their field. Law firms are still hiring people in their M&A and private equity departments, while other departments like financial investigation and financial litigation are comparatively increasing in importance.
The insights given by Mr Sutton were very helpful and appreciated by the attending students, as shown by the many questions they posed. Apart from these valuable insights, Mr Sutton left the students also with a positive note: the international importance of UK law is not waning and overall we can all be optimistic about the future of London as a legal hub.
Robert Sutton, senior adviser and former senior partner at Macfarlanes, was the guest of the second Commercium Colloquium event held this year, and over fifty students came filling up the room to hear him talking about commercial awareness.
The incipit was a strong statement, "commercial awareness is not as important as people say". Mr Sutton went on explaining to the quite baffled students that as a lawyer you do not get paid for your commercial awareness, but for your knowledge of the law. An exhortation, thus, to focus on the law and to study hard in order to acquire the best possible knowledge of the law. "Black letter law is the start, commercial awareness is the cherry on the cake. There is no point in having the cherry without the cake," summarised Mr Sutton.
This cherry on top of the cake can, however, by no means be disregarded. In the last 25 years lawyers have come to occupy a much more central position in transactions. Lawyer are now regarded as a very important part of the client's advisory team. Hence, they must make sure to understand not only the legal structure but also the economic rationale of the transaction. This is particularly important because lawyers, by spending increasingly more time with clients, need to speak their same language and be proactive in understanding what the clients' needs are, from a business point of view.
Commercial awareness is very important to City law firms and therefore applicants must show their commercial acumen in the interview. Since all applicants will have baked a delicious cake, it is the cherry on top that can prove decisive.
How should a student become more commercially aware? Mr Sutton gave three key pieces of advice: research the firm you apply for; read the Financial Times; speak to your friends in business.
During the final Q&A session, Mr Sutton compared the degrees of commercial awareness in the US and the UK and argued that US lawyers are more commercially aware, which is a factor, together with the relevance of litigation, for their stronger domestic influence and importance, if compared with the UK.
Furthermore, Mr Sutton advised students who will have a gap year before starting their training contract to go abroad, intern in foreign law firms and improve legal and language skills. To go to Bejing and to come back fluent in Mandarin would be very enriching, both from a personal and professional point of view.
On a question whether macroeconomic trends should determine the fields students specialise in, Mr Sutton expressed the view that, although by way of example M&A and private equity are very unlikely to return to their pre-crisis level, students should not look at macroeconomic trends but only at their passions when deciding their field. Law firms are still hiring people in their M&A and private equity departments, while other departments like financial investigation and financial litigation are comparatively increasing in importance.
The insights given by Mr Sutton were very helpful and appreciated by the attending students, as shown by the many questions they posed. Apart from these valuable insights, Mr Sutton left the students also with a positive note: the international importance of UK law is not waning and overall we can all be optimistic about the future of London as a legal hub.
