Allen & Overy

A&O's ethos is its keystone

7 August, 2008

This month I find myself pondering the imminent ending of more than one chapter in my A&O life.  I can now see the end of my secondment fast approaching and, with that, the culmination of my training contract.  Two years have gone by so quickly:  I remember in my first seat having to come to grips with even the logistics of working at A&O (and what now seem like relatively minor issues!), such as where to go to get a temporary security card when mine was still in the pocket of the jacket I had been wearing the preceding day!  Thankfully, those issues are no more!  As for work itself?  Well, the training that I have received over the past two years has not only been instrumental in improving my legal knowledge and ability to practice that knowledge, but also my general sense of professionalism and my capacity to feel confident and comfortable in any given situation, because I know that I am trusted to respond intelligently and, possible more importantly, that there is a tower of intellectual support available if needs be, simply because it is acknowledged and acceptable that every day is a learning curve.

In all of my five seats, I have been fortunate enough to have a series of trainers who have pro-actively sought to ensure that I gained as wide an experience as possible.  I feel capable of tackling a broader variety of legal queries than I perhaps imagined would be possible when I started back in September 2006.  Your trainer is always someone exceedingly senior to you; let's face it, as a trainee, almost everyone is senior to you!  But you spend every day (and some nights!) for three or six months sharing a room with them, having coffee and lunch breaks together, sharing anecdotes, jokes and chocolate, going out for drinks at the end of the day ... and you do develop a friendly relationship, as respectful and deferential as it is.  Two of my trainers are no longer at A&O but I am still in touch with them both and, because of the guidance and support that they each spent six months giving me, I value their opinions highly and frequently seek their advice on my career path.

Happily, I have been made an offer of an associate position in C4 (Mergers & Acquisitions, where I spent the first six months of my training contract) in A&O London and, having accepted, will be returning there in mid-October.  A&O gives its trainees six weeks' of unpaid leave upon qualification so rather than go straight back to London from Bangkok in September, I am planning to do a spot of travelling first - India and Malaysia ... and then hopefully Africa ... although I have yet to get organising!  I am currently trying to work out the best way to use the rest of my weekends and annual leave whilst still in Thailand!  I have plans for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in August but there are still many places in Thailand itself that I have yet to see.  Kanchanaburi is one of them and I am hoping to visit it this weekend:  I have heard stories of the idyllic Erawan waterfalls and the sight of the famous bridge over the River Kwai as well as the moving Hellfire Pass and of course the tiger temple.  Talking of temples, last weekend I went on a cycling tour to Ayuthaya (the old capital of Thailand) and Bang Pa In and found the ancient wats in Ayuthaya staggering in both their depth and intricacy - and actually it was purely that juxtaposition which made them so impressionable.  My friend who I went with compared them to Angkor Wat and its historic neighbours in Cambodia and indeed the Khmer influence does live on in Ayuthaya; it will be interesting to draw my own conclusions when I visit Siem Reap next month.

Anyway.  My first blog entry was just under a year ago and so much has changed since then.  Well, although my very first line lamented the cold weather and postured incredulity at winter having come early in September ... and having spent the last five or so months living in a tropical climate, I suspect that my sentiments will be similar this year regardless of whether or not the sun chooses to shine on London!  But on a serious note, much of the change that has occured over the past year has been due to the many positive opportunities that A&O offers its employees.  At recruitment events, many students ask about A&O's six shared values, whether they are really adhered to, whether they mean anything to those of us within the firm.  Looking back over the past two years, I can recognise where each and every one of those core values has been played out be every individual I have worked for or with.  As I said in my video entry to this blog, it really is the people at A&O who make it what it is and those six shared values underlie the character of each individual within the firm and also of the firm as a whole.  And that ethos is the keystone as to why I have enjoyed my training contract so much and also I suspect as to why I am thoroughly looking forward to life as an associate.