Category: Interviews

Growing up, I didn’t plan to become a lawyer. I considered many paths, studying history and astrophysics in college. I briefly explored a political career after high school, working on a campaign and interning in a senator’s office. While it wasn’t the right path for me, I found politics interesting in many of the ways I now find the law interesting – particularly the shaping of laws and how this affects the way we think and live.

When I arrived at law school, I felt like everyone else already knew how the process worked and what was expected. In my second week, I was told that I had “missed the train,” and my odds of becoming a transactional lawyer in a big international firm were minimal. That energized me. If the train was already running, then I was going to run harder to catch up. I took a course on derivatives, led by two inspirational professors, and just followed my passion. Now, I’m glad that I didn’t have all that baggage going in.

On day one at your firm, you don’t know what your clients need, and you don’t understand the larger context. It’s intimidating, and the learning curve can be long and difficult. But as you get some experience and grow more confident in what you’ve learned, you’ll find that you can pick up the phone when a client calls and answer questions without stopping to get help. That’s when you know that your time and effort are paying off.

My biggest accomplishment so far has been expanding a client relationship. I went from handling an occasional assignment to being a key point of contact. We have progressed to daily phone calls, and more work streams are coming from this relationship. I’ve also met more casually with my contacts, away from the office, which has allowed me to learn about their values. As my own knowledge and confidence have grown, so has our relationship as a firm with this client. It’s been very rewarding to be part of that process.

I like setting goals. Outside work, I am training to compete in my first half marathon. If I’m working on something difficult, then I’ll challenge myself to learn it by the end of the month, or I’ll sign up for a demanding race just to push myself. I find my balance by staying very organized: I write down my goals and try to stick to them.

I think it’s a good idea to keep your horizon broad and become a well-rounded person before narrowing down to a career path. My firm supports that, especially with the pool system, which allows me to follow my interests and be authentic. Rather than obsessing about the future, I tell myself: relax, you’ll get there.

The law appeals to me because it’s like a language. Much of lawyering involves interpreting the language of the law and speaking up for your clients. As a lifelong stutterer and an immigrant who moved to the States during high school without speaking much English, I understand personally the frustration of not being heard. That is why I have always felt uniquely equipped to be an effective interpreter and a zealous advocate for our clients.

My initial thought was to become a public interest lawyer. Before law school, I worked for the Korean Ministry of Gender Equality as a translator. During the post-bar period, I took up a fellowship to do research on business and human rights for the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and work with the United Nations High Commissioners for Refugees in Malaysia.

However, during law school I also began to appreciate the value of private sector practice. Big Law provides the best training platform, including exposure to a variety of industries, clients and lawyers specializing in different areas; this is a rite of passage I believe all lawyers should go through. You acquire skills that help you stay flexible and work with anyone, and the long hours help you develop discipline and organizational skills, as well as good stamina. So I took a different direction and joined the firm after graduation.

I remain committed to public interest, and I am happy that my firm supports pro bono work. It has helped me stay current on issues I care about – refugees and gender crimes – and I have been working on cases referred by the firm’s partner NGOs, such as the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) and My Sisters’ Place. Pro bono work also gives me litigation experience not otherwise available to a transactional lawyer, and enables me to manage an entire matter directly with a client.

Above all, I love my practice; it’s been very rewarding so far. Last year, I worked on a CRE CLO transaction where we helped the client raise funds in the capital markets. During that six-month period, I took on more responsibilities, worked almost non-stop and developed a deep sense of ownership. Our client is a successful emerging company run by a group of brilliant market veterans. As a first-time issuer, however, the company was also considered an underdog, just like me – in a sense, we learned and grew together. The deal closed successfully; the client raised the needed funds and, more importantly, is now a credible player in the market, working with major US banks. Several months later, the client invited our team to dinner and made a point of thanking me in person, which I really appreciated.

I have recently gotten back into hip hop dance – something I was quite serious about during college. I’m normally a very shy person, so being on stage helped to build my confidence. It is so different from work, which is refreshing and recharging. By Monday morning, I am ready for the new week.

When you interview at various law firms, a lot of buzzwords get thrown around – it’s “collegial,” people are “friendly” and so on. I feel fortunate to be at a firm where it’s genuine; people come by just to say hi, and there’s a willingness to listen and change.

Before I started, junior associates rotated among our primary practice areas, spending six months in each. It wasn’t an ideal system, but it was the norm, and change is rare in Big Law. I was impressed that the firm was willing to try a new approach based on associate feedback. As a member of the first class working in the Transactional Pool, I found that it offered a wider range of opportunities – we have a dedicated assignments coordinator who really gets to know us, and the work is allocated in a mindful way that can be refined as our interests take shape.

Being open to new ideas can lead to both incremental and large-scale improvements. When I first arrived, we used desktop computers, but today everyone has laptops and the flexibility they offer. Small changes like that can have a larger cultural impact. If your senior colleagues can trust you to produce high-quality work on deadline, then you can take work home at night – or go offline to get to that workout class or take care of a personal obligation – as long as you remain generally available and accountable. It’s a sign that your personal life is valued, too.

Mindsets have changed about career expectations and how and where work gets done – even among clients, who are increasingly happy to save costs by having conference calls instead of in-person meetings. For my part, I’ve been focused on putting my head down and doing my best work. Nothing we do for our clients is mundane, and I love the complexity of cross-border deals, but it’s important to keep things in perspective. Once the work is done, I want to go home, hang out with my friends and spend time with family.

Having personal connections at the office is so important, especially in a profession where you work long hours. I’ve found a deeper sense of belonging by getting involved with the firm at an organizational level. Recently, I’ve been helping to plan events and initiatives for our Women’s Diversity Subcommittee with the goal of providing a platform for discussions of issues that include professional and personal growth, the need for female mentorship, diversity in client networking, and overcoming gender bias and creating organizational change.

I’ve also gotten more involved in pro bono work this past year – something the firm really supports and even credits toward our annual hours assessment. Once I began making the time for pro bono, I felt greater personal satisfaction in all the work I was doing.

I studied Arabic in college and spent time in various Middle Eastern countries, particularly in Syria, where I completed a Fulbright scholarship in Damascus. That was a great experience – the people are amazing, and the place is amazing. But I also saw a repressive society where the rule of law is not respected. I’m under no illusion that, simply through the practice of law, one person can address the structural problems of politics or human rights. But witnessing the complete lack of a stable legal framework, or even a sense of predictability in dealings with the government, got me thinking about what might be done. That’s what inspired me to start thinking about a legal career.

A good academic background prepares you well to think like a lawyer, but, in practice, it’s all on-the-job training and you really hit the ground running. Having a great formal induction was important when I joined the firm, but just as useful was the informal orientation that came from working on my first deal and being immediately involved in the work, even at the most basic level. It’s important to work with people who take the time to explain the context and really help you along the learning curve, which admittedly is very steep at first.

Everybody remembers their first big transaction. Mine was a wind project in Mexico. It was completely new territory for me. The deal involved a complex refinancing of a project that had been delayed for a long time. Of course, we had to get it right, but there was also a lot of pressure to close it – and close it quickly. We dealt with environmental and social issues, and challenges popped up at the last minute. It was tough, but we closed it successfully and everyone was very happy. One person was literally overwhelmed with emotion to finally get there after years of working on the project. When you’re in those last few months of a deal, it seems like it’s never going to end, but everyone has the same goal in mind – and that’s a good feeling.

What I’ve learned so far is that it’s essential to seek out people with specialized knowledge and build good relationships with your senior teammates. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Your colleagues are your best resources, and you need a network that you can go to for advice.

When it comes to a high-pressure deadline or challenge, it’s helpful to pause, take a step back and think it through. When your team needs you to finish something, or you have client deadlines and just have a million things to do, it can be tempting to rush through your work. But take a second and clear your mind. It sounds simple, but in those moments, it can make all the difference.

I am deeply committed to building a career that is globally focused and intellectually stimulating. This is what led me into the legal profession and to my firm. Its large international reach, in particular, is incredibly appealing to young attorneys like me.

My interest in global issues and law developed early in life. Because of my parents’ work, I grew up in Saudi Arabia and spent a lot of time traveling throughout the Middle East and Europe until age 17, when I moved to Kansas here in the States. In 2012, I started my career in accounting, which I chose as a matter of practicality. That experience was valuable in helping me understand business practices and finance, but I eventually realized that I wanted more of an adventure – so I took my mother’s advice: you’ve always wanted to be a lawyer, listen to your instincts and go do it!

So far, everything I’ve worked on has been really exciting. Yes, you work long hours, but you are dealing with difficult, complex issues, and it’s exciting to figure out the best solution. Our cases often require creative problem solving, and it’s especially great when senior lawyers ask for your views and you can contribute in a meaningful way.

I love talking to people and making friends, which turns out to be useful as a lawyer. Networking allows you to meet interesting people and keeps you up to date on what’s going on in the field. It’s good to connect not just externally, but also within. You spend a lot of time with your colleagues, so it’s natural to be interested in them personally and to care about what’s important to them. People are very accessible here; we have a tight-knit culture.

The firm is focused on integrating technology to create efficiencies for both lawyers and our clients. I can literally plug in my laptop in the Amsterdam office or any other office around the world and just start working. I appreciate that seamlessness, as I think clients do as well. Tech can also significantly reduce the time it takes to complete certain tasks and has adjusted face-time requirements – providing the flexibility to work from home as needed, when circumstances allow.

I think junior lawyers value a sense of opportunity, and I like that there’s some ability to guide your own practice. The first questions I am asked when work is being assigned are: what do you want to work on? and: is there anything you’re particularly interested in? Whether your aspiration is to stay in Big Law for your entire career or to gain experience and transition into another sector, the firm is great about offering diverse exposure to a wide variety of matters and does not require immediate specialization. As a junior lawyer, that’s a nice environment to be in.

So far, I’ve lived more than half of my life in the United States and the rest in South Korea. I was born in Seoul and came to the US for the first time as a kindergartener, when my father took a job as an expat working in New York. We stayed for a few years before returning to Korea, and later, I came back to the States on my own to attend boarding school.

Leaving my family, friends and the life I knew back home at quite a young age was one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced. But on the flip side, I was exposed to different cultures, ethnicities, values and backgrounds, which broadened my perspective. I still enjoy traveling and learning about new people and cultures, so those experiences have truly shaped who I am.

After college, I went back to Seoul to be close to my family. I wasn’t settled on the idea of a legal career, but I did take a gap year to study for and take the LSAT. I still wasn’t sure about taking on the commitment of law school, so I decided against it and started working at a marketing and PR firm. The thing was: I had always thought of myself as “curious,” in the sense that a specialized career might not be for me. But when I thought about my mother, who worked in a specialized field while raising a family, I could also see that her choice has never held her back – and I came back to the idea of being a lawyer.

The law is analytical by nature, and that really appeals to me. I like to be able to see all the steps in a process and make sense of it that way. In law school, I decided to specialize in tax and went on to get my LLM. Tax is a great area for me because it requires you to be rigorous and methodical, but also creative in finding solutions for your clients.

When I started looking at firms, mine stood out because of its vast international reach, with a network of offices all over the world, including Seoul. It was exciting to think about working in the middle of that, and I got an offer to come straight into the tax practice.

Role models have been so important since coming here. My partners are teaching me to think, write and speak like a tax lawyer, and they care about helping junior team members become well-rounded. For my part, if there’s something that I don’t know, or an area that I’m not confident in, I won’t hesitate to go to their offices and ask questions. I think that showing this kind of curiosity demonstrates a genuine interest in the work of your senior colleagues, and that helps you build stronger relationships. I like that we have that openness.

My interest in corporate law was sparked midway through law school. In my second year, I took an M&A course taught by a professor who had spent most of her career working as a banker. Her unique legal perspective and obvious passion for deal work opened my mind to an area of law unfamiliar to me. Joining my firm’s Transactional Pool was a great fit, because, while I knew what I was generally interested in, the variety of transactional experiences helped me further discover what I was truly passionate about.

The process really began when I was a summer law clerk. I got to spend three weeks working overseas in our Frankfurt office, which was a great opportunity to learn more about the culture and processes of the firm, and see first-hand how international deals progress. This experience not only helped improve my work product and strengthen my transactional interests as I headed back to New York, but also taught me the value of building and maintaining strong, borderless professional relationships.

I was thrilled with the level of responsibility I was afforded at the start of my career. Early on, I worked directly with partners on sophisticated transactions and was given a high level of client contact. For example, I was fortunate enough to attend numerous client meetings, negotiations and closing dinners – all within my first year. The fact that I was trusted to help represent the firm at the highest levels was exceptionally rewarding and helped quash the doubts or fears that occasionally crossed my mind.

My growing confidence is also fuelled by the guidance of several mentors who push me to excel in everything I do – and that creates a cycle that feeds itself. By producing high-quality work and demonstrating an ability to take critical feedback, you earn the confidence of your seniors and partners. Then, they are more likely to provide a stream of challenging assignments that help you continue to grow your skills. Even more, my mentors provide the comfort to take risks, because I know that someone is there to offer advice and correct any missteps. That level of comfort gives you the freedom to ask questions, raise concerns or even challenge ideas.

Finding a mentor who fits your personality and work style may seem difficult, but it really comes down to being proactive, being assertive and casting a wide net. Engaging in the material, asking questions and taking every opportunity to discuss the broader transaction will show your willingness to learn and grow. And working with colleagues this way can lead to friendships as well as compelling mentorships, both of which are necessary to excel in a demanding work setting. Simply knocking on doors and doing the little things can go a long way in shaping your career.

I was inspired to become a lawyer by my father, an attorney who instilled in me the value of mutual respect. This has taken many forms in my career so far – it ties in with the desire to work in an environment that encourages growth and the exchange of ideas.

My own work style is to learn by doing and not be afraid to ask questions. Working in a very busy practice means that I have a lot of opportunities to test my knowledge, and that really works well for me.

Asking questions has played a large role in my growth as an attorney, but I’ve learned that the way I ask questions is even more important to gaining an understanding of the issues. I try to show that I’ve already done some critical thinking by coming prepared with possible answers: “I’ve come across this issue, and I think we can do X, Y and Z – what are your thoughts?” Everyone appreciates that, and it’s a valuable learning experience for me.

Organization is critical. We work on complex deals with many facets and a lot of moving parts. I’m not disorganized by nature, but when first starting out, I wasn’t sure about simple things, even just how to manage my paper and email files. But over time I picked up tips from other associates and figured out what works best for me.

Being organized also helps in balancing work and family time. Sacrifice is part of the game in Big Law, and I was fully aware of what to expect in terms of long hours when I started out. To balance that, if something comes up at work during the weekend, I’ll try to handle it, if possible, when my kids are asleep or involved in an activity. I’ve also reprioritized certain of my own activities, at least temporarily, for the sake of getting face time with my wife and kids. It’s never easy, but we make sure that at some point during every weekend we have family time – just us.

Mentors are very important – having someone to lean on for substantive and career advice, or just to talk to about life. But it also comes down to respect. I think anyone can imagine what it feels like to be a first year working with a partner on a deal and having to admit what you don’t know – even though everyone is expecting that.

I’ve come to a great stage in my career, still a junior but with enough experience to also be a mentor. Apart from the reward of helping others, it builds my confidence to explain things, because I also realize just how much or how little I know. Now, associates who are more junior feel comfortable coming to me, and I welcome that. n

Before law school, I lived in Mozambique for two years, working as a volunteer with the Peace Corps. Living abroad and being immersed in another culture – and, more importantly, learning from the people in my community – broadened my perspective. And I became proficient in Portuguese along the way. I also saw how business practices can vary widely from place to place. In Mozambique, for example, business dealings are primarily based on personal relationships – much more so, in that respect, than in the US. By the time I returned to the States, I knew that I wanted a career that was internationally focused.

When I think back on what drew me to my firm, several factors now stand out. Culture was important. I wanted to work at a place where people are open and willing to answer questions, and where there is a strong focus on social awareness and community. And I wanted to be part of a global organization that is truly interconnected, which is different from simply having offices all over the world.

In the beginning, we all take on work assignments with limited knowledge, whether about legal issues or more generally about the client’s business and history with your firm. But as you build professional relationships and ask the right questions, you progress to the point where you fully understand what you’re doing and can start expanding on that. Last year, when our São Paulo office needed help, it was a natural fit to go there on secondment. I already spoke Portuguese and, because we have a large footprint in Latin America, I have gotten a lot of exposure working on transactions in different countries in the region.

Social causes remain a priority in my life. Pro bono work has been extremely rewarding and is something I strongly believe every lawyer should do. That’s especially true for juniors because it enables you to polish your skills and work directly with clients. Outside of the office, I have continued to focus on helping people in Mozambique. During law school, with the help of my basic legal training, I started a 501(c)(3) non-profit called Friends of Mozambique. The organization raises funds to support small, but impactful and sustainable projects in Mozambique, such as teaching girls to write code, promoting food security for poor and vulnerable women living with HIV, and developing training for revenue-generating culinary classes.

Throughout law school, I was also involved with the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), an organization that provides legal advocacy for refugees and displaced people, and after joining the firm, I asked about partnering with IRAP for pro bono work. When IRAP came to our office to give its initial presentation, I was thrilled to see dozens of motivated attorneys and staff in attendance. The benefits were clear – for the firm, the organization and, most importantly, the people who have since become our clients. But for me as a junior lawyer, it was amazing to approach our partners about something personally important to me and come away feeling supported.

The experience of living in Nigeria and going to school in the States shaped my interest in international law. I thought practicing law could be a profound way to change the society you live in. It is the foundation of society. That’s why there’s often an aspirational aspect to the work of lawyers – they want to use the law to make people’s lives better.

My background is in international relations and international development. I also spent some time working for a human rights NGO, and saw how you could use the law to advocate for people whose interests are in some way sidelined. I became a corporate lawyer because I wanted to develop my understanding of the corporate legal landscape. I want to be involved in creating laws and regulations that can promote a society’s economic development. This practice gives you a very strong grasp of how the international global economy works, how capital moves and how business leaders make important decisions.

Prior to joining Clifford Chance, I did not expect that certain aspects of my work would be as interesting as I have found them to be. Almost anything can interest me, so long as it’s plugged into the international economy.

What I personally value is when people invest in me as a junior lawyer. We have a senior associate on one of my teams who I really like working with; not only is he smart and eloquent, but he gives me very good feedback. When he sends comments about my work, he says, “If you want to know why I made these edits, feel free to come by my office,” and he always takes the time to check in about what I’m doing.

The desire for work-life balance is strong in my generation of lawyers. Being able to explore personal interests makes us better lawyers and generally more interesting to work with. It’s stressful sometimes, and you can be consumed by the long hours, but you don’t want to burn out. I try to get to the office super early on busy days, as it’s when I am most productive. I find that getting a jump on my work makes more time in the evening for the other things I want to do.

I’m involved with the firm’s Black and Latino Subcommittee, and it’s been fun working with the other associates in a different context, such as planning our celebration of Black History Month. I also enjoy doing pro bono work because of the skillset, people and organizations it exposes me to. Getting involved can make a big law firm feel smaller. It also means you are making a different kind of investment in your firm.