“Linklaters is a very warm and open kind of firm. Our Projects team, for instance, is made up of a free-standing team which sits together in the same department. It comprises 17 partners, about 50 lawyers and a support team of dedicated know-how, marketing, HR and finance professionals. In my opinion, this equates to a fairly intimate group. You work closely with all these business professionals and develop close working relationships with them. This mix of people injects more life onto the floor and makes the projects team feel like a stand-alone business rather than a small part of a large firm.

“The mix of work is also a major sell for us – our Projects practice works on the whole transaction. Most firms split the project contracts side of projects deals from the financing. Here we want people to be ambidextrous, so you get to see the whole deal and understand the whole picture. From the people we meet at interview or on deals, we know how unusual this is.

“The range of deals is also very different from what most people experience elsewhere. In other firms lawyers tend to specialise in industry areas. Not here. Right now, I’m involved in renewables, and doing some of the most difficult deals in this sector, such as solar plants and multi-jurisdictional wind farm portfolios. But I also get involved in some of the world’s biggest financing deals in the oil and gas, power, telecoms, infrastructure and mining sectors. Or you could be involved in major infrastructure projects, such as roads, airports and railways. The international nature of the work means that one day you could be doing a gold mining deal in Mali, the next an airport project in Bolivia.

“In my view, exposure to different industry sectors, countries and financing options not only gives you a more rewarding experience, it also makes you a better projects lawyer. When you face a particularly challenging deal, a new road in Portugal or a telecoms financing in Tunisia, for example, you can draw on your experience in other industry sectors to find solutions – you just don’t get this anywhere else.”