The Culture

Vicky praises the culture at A&O, explaining how “the firm has this truly open environment where everyone is a team. There are no sharp elbows or competitive, selfish people. Everyone’s just open to help each other do the best work that we can. Law school was a pretty cutthroat place so it’s just really refreshing that there’s none of that here.”

When speaking about how the firm treats its employees she states, “A&O has always been open with everyone, including its most junior employees in terms of the firm’s strategy, finances, or where the firm wants to go.” 

Recently, the trainees even talked to a partner about how the annual partnership works and how it makes its money. It included firm strategies as well as the partners’ concerns: trainees are respected enough to be informed on topics that are usually kept private in law firms. 

Working amongst some of the best lawyers in the industry is bound to be intimidating at times. But, it is encouraging to hear that even such a large, prestigious firm can facilitate a genuinely collaborative and friendly culture that respects staff on all levels.

Trainee support at the firm

Trainees are assigned supervisors – known as trainers – in each seat. They are usually a senior associate or partner at the department and are the first port of call for any questions. They also assign most of the workload. 

Although they are there to provide a lot of practical guidance, “the firm requires trainers to have at least weekly catch-up calls with their trainee, not about work, but to talk holistically about [their] career, or just about life.” She also said that if you get on with your trainer well, you usually end up forming longer-term relationships with them, which can make the workplace feel more like a community.

Not only is pastoral support prioritised, but the resources available to employees are exceptional. Vicky speaks of “the bridge [which] is a massive 24/7 team of people in the Bishop Square office that do the mundane, admin things that I previously assumed the trainees would do. Things like proofreading, binding, etc. are done by them. I’ve never done any proofreading in my training contract at all. You can even send them a black and white barebone structure of a PowerPoint presentation and they make it presentable.”

Diversity Networks

Established within the firm are internal diversity networks such as A&Out, Faith at A&O, and the Race and Ethnicity Network. They aim to support their members by guiding them in terms of career development, hosting diversity-focused events, and being a source of community.

There are also a few smaller, more niche networks that have been set up within these groups. An example of this is the South East Asian Lawyers (SEAL). Its members have East Asian heritage, connections, or are just interested in the area and are supported in various ways. Their recent activities have included discussions where members can talk through ideas about how the firm can support the Stop Asian Hate movement, and events on Chinese business culture, and how to approach East Asian clients.

For Vicky, who is a part of SEAL, “it’s been great as [she has] been able to speak with a lot of lawyers from different departments, and it’s given [her] contacts with senior associates and partners that [she] wouldn’t otherwise have. Also, on the committee [she is] able to voice [her] thoughts and ideas with other partners and senior associates.”

Like most big-city law firms, A&O has a way to go in terms of diversity and inclusion, but these networks are making steps in the right direction. In line with a collective desire for accelerated change, A&O has also set various targets such as having 15% of its partnership from an ethnic minority by 2025. 

Verdict

It is fair to conclude that this firm not only excels in its service to clients but also in its effort to provide a great working environment for employees. Though we often hear about gifted bottles of champagne and celebrity guest speakers at prestigious law firms, Vicky reveals that employees at A&O are supported by more than just a paycheque for their hard work.

To keep up with the latest legal news, click on legal to get your daily dose.

The post A holistic overview of working at Allen & Overy appeared first on Relawding.

1. Can you explain what it is and what services Wealthyhood offers?

Simply put, we believe that long-term wealth-building can only be achieved by having a robust plan and consistently investing your money in a well-balanced portfolio every month. A portfolio that matches your needs and risk appetite, so that you can commit to it.

This is the experience that we aim to offer and the mindset we want our users to develop through Wealthyhood. Hence, we focus on 3 main pillars that create this brand-new investing experience for younger investors.

First, we offer smarter tools to develop, finetune and automatically maintain your investing strategy and wealth-building mentality. I think everyone’s time is invaluable, so we take care of all the simple details for you to focus on growing your wealth efficiently.

Second, we offer personalised insights to invest your way, focus on what matters to you and achieve your individual goals. Every investor is different and so have to be their investment portfolios.

Third, we have fewer fees. Every £ you don’t pay in fees today can grow exponentially to its full potential in your portfolio. £1 not paid in fees can be £50 in a few years, due to compounding and proper investing.

It’s not only how our tools guide our users to invest the right way, but also how we help them develop the right wealth-building mindset. You don’t have to be a millionaire nor an expert to have a successful and pleasant investing journey.

2. What is the value proposition of Wealthyhood?

We’re building the first DIY wealth-building app for today’s long-term investors in Europe. We guide long-term investors to build their wealth over time, by intelligently investing their money, the way they want, with fewer fees.

Wealth creation is more of a marathon than a sprint, and we want to help everyone run that race, through a very accommodative experience. We want to make smart and personalised investing accessible to our generation so that everyone can grow their money in a way that corresponds to their values and personality.

3. How does the “Millennial investor” behave?

Millennials or the “Re-wired” investors have very different preferences, when it comes to investing, especially compared to the previous generations. I would describe their main characteristics as follows:

• Just me – wants a personalised experience.
• In control – wants full control of his/her investment process.
• Holistic approach – wants a service that solves the problem and not be part of it.
• DIY – wants to have active participation in the process.
• Digital & Personal – wants digital access from everywhere, anytime.
• Sceptical of Authority – doesn’t trust traditional institutions.
• The first-class investor – wants top-class service, even with a lower investment budget available.

As for Wealthyhood, we focus on investors who do NOT have extensive investing, and do not want to day-trade – they want to build their wealth over time.

4. How do you think Wealthyhood contributes to driving the future of finance?

As mentioned, we want to make it easy for anyone to get started with investing. You don’t have to be an expert nor a millionaire to have access to quality investing strategies. This is what we contribute to the future of finance. A hands-on, digitally guided experience that helps more people to participate in the investing journey. We believe investment education should be at the core of our product and our users should grow as investors alongside their money.

5. How do you think the implementation of digital functionalities will impact the traditional business model in a company?

We can see huge tech disruptions taking place across all industries. Financial services were the last to onboard on this trend, but it’s happening now. We’re moving towards more efficient operational models, cheaper services and gradual democratisation of traditionally fragmented segments of the market.

6. How has the current crisis caused by Covid affected the development/growth of your business?

Over the past year, the number of retail investors has skyrocketed. There is a booming new generation of retail investors, mainly Millennials. A few stats can showcase that. In 2020:

• Total retail investor accounts were up 275%, globally.
• Funded accounts closed the year up 277%.
• 77% of new retail accounts were opened by investors under the age of 40. 46% under the age of 30!
• 23% of under-35s with savings but not investment products say they are likely to start investing in the next 12 months, compared to 11% overall.

When it comes to investment platforms, like Wealthyhood, I have to admit that the effect of Covid-19 was positive. As for us, we’re still early to grasp this explosion, but I think we’ll continue to see this trend expanding further.

7. Do you think that the current situation can be used as an opportunity to promote digital innovation?

I think that we all realized that we had previously underestimated how many things can be done from home, leveraging the power of technology. Our life has changed to a more digital version of it. And when it comes to digital, that’s a call for innovation, along every potential aspect, be it work-from-home tools, to better communication channels, like Clubhouse.

8. How would you convince investors to trust the fintech sector at such a sensitive time for the economy?

Well, as hard as it would be to convince investors a year ago that easy it is today. Everyone expects the global economies to recover, sooner or later, so investors are positioning to gain from that recovery. Apart from that, financial markets weren’t hit as hard as someone would expect, compared to the overall economy. Most indices, like the S&P 500 are way up year over year, having by far recovered from last year’s pandemic-driven crash. This disassociation has kept the markets calmer than expected.

Every market has opportunities, however, long-term investors, focusing on wealth-building shouldn’t get very distracted from short-term ups and downs. Having a long-term plan and sticking to it is more effective than even predicting the bottoms of the market!

Systematically investing in one’s portfolio every month, can weather every short-term storm, by simply buying at different price levels.

9. How will Wealthyhood be able to expand internationally?

Our offering is country-agnostic. We consider ourselves a European investment platform, regardless of starting from the UK, where we are based. Thankfully, in today’s environment, it’s easier than ever before to offer your services in different jurisdictions, while keeping your operations lean, as a startup requires!

This mindset led us to work early on to develop a community of Wealthyhood Ambassadors from all around Europe, to be closer to local investing communities and leverage their power to expand abroad, faster and easier.

10. What challenges does Wealthyhood face in the sector?

Well, as you know when it comes to competing for people’s investments and money, it’s becoming a quite crowded space. No matter how differentiated we are and confident of the superior experience that our product offers, when it comes to attracting new customers, better-capitalized companies have an advantage.

This is what we need to overcome, by taking a completely different approach: a user-friendly long-term wealth-building experience for investors that are not financial experts or traders.

The post Interview with Wealthyhood’s Co-founder appeared first on Relawding.

We know that working there is a lifestyle you have to dedicate yourself (and especially your time) to and that it is rewarded with the most reputable clients and exciting cases along with perks such as on-site badminton courts and fancy bottles of champagne – but what is it like working there? Trainee solicitors, Emily at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Vicky Chen at Allen & Overy have given us a glimpse into life at a Magic Circle firm.

A typical day

Emily – “My day varies significantly depending on which of my matters is top of my agenda for that day. I am sat in disputes at the moment, so my day usually involves some legal research and typing a note on findings, maybe some document review, drafting sections in pleadings, drafting correspondence, and attending calls with the Freshfields matter team and the client. In my first seat (general corporate), I did more contract drafting, contractual analysis, due diligence and liaising with other Freshfields offices (and local counsel where required) for international aspects of the deal.

Across most seats, you tend to have one or two calls/meetings a day (either internal with the Freshfields team, or external with a client) where overall progress or team business is discussed. I usually then have a few diversity, pro bono or graduate recruitment things a week to get involved with, so things can get busy!”

Vicky – “Something really common is just reading emails…sometimes you’d even get like 200 emails in a day. As a trainee, you’ll be spending a lot of your time doing deal management work, so it’s really important to keep on top of everything.

I also spend time updating a workstream tracker based on the calls I listen on, revising how different tasks have progressed. It’s actually a nice way of speaking to lots of different people on the team and even gets a lot of client contact – you’re regularly asking them about where things are progressing with them and stuff like that. It does change day-to-day, but you do have an opportunity to get used to things too.”

One of the main advantages of working at a Magic Circle firm is the resources that are offered. As a trainee, you won’t be asked to do any work that doesn’t require the legal knowledge you’ve acquired, which often means you’re more involved in the exciting parts of cases.

Clients

Much of the prestige of working at the Magic Circle comes from the magnitude of the work, which plays a pivotal role in UK business and the world economy. They’re “doing front page of the Financial Times work”.

A standout case for Vicky was an award-winning restructuring deal of Virgin Atlantic.

Vicky – “Given that they have a lot of aircraft leases, maintenance obligations, fees on storage and so on, Virgin Atlantic as an airline was struggling during COVID… I worked for one of the shareholders.
Because Virgin Atlantic and the shareholder have different priorities, we weren’t allowed to say anything to our colleagues about what we were doing, and they couldn’t say anything to us, which was funny because we’re all in the same department in the same law firm.

We were involved in trying to find new money to put into Virgin Atlantic to help it stay afloat until all this craziness ends.

We got a really good result for everyone and it was really interesting to see the different considerations that the stakeholder has compared to the actual company in distress.”

But fee-paying clients aren’t the only focus of these firms.

Emily – “Fee earners of all levels, including trainees, are encouraged to take part in pro bono opportunities. Since joining the firm last year, I have worked on both one-off opportunities and long-running pro bono matters. We don’t have targets as trainees, but pro bono client hours are counted the same as fee-paying clients when considering associate targets.

Also, colleague networks are very active at Freshfields, and everyone is encouraged to get involved whether you are a member of that group or not. I am a committee member for the Associated Women’s Network and the Social Mobility Network, both of which organise a range of internal and external events.”

Why the Magic Circle?

Emily – “When considering my applications in my second year of university, I created a list of priorities showing all the things I wanted from my training contract. These points included best quality training, biggest and most complex deals, a social culture, and Freshfields was top of my list for all of those. I also received a lot of support from Aspiring Solicitors, who helped me distil my priorities and, again, Freshfields came out as a great fit for me.”

Vicky – “Something about such an established training program is that it will give you top-notch training and the resources are incredible. That meant a lot to me because I think it’s so important to get a really good start in your career.

Also, it’s so interesting, and the opportunity to work on these top-of-the-market deals is just really exciting. It makes a big difference – especially when you’re working hard and you have long hours – and makes it worthwhile knowing the bigger context of how this affects the market, industry, and people.”

What has surprised you most about working as a trainee?

Emily – “Probably how much responsibility you are given from day one! Trainees at Freshfields are expected to be competent and proactive – if you are willing to step up, the rest of the team will let you take ownership of tasks and workstreams.”

Advice for aspiring Magic Circle lawyers

Emily – “It’s not as scary as it’s sometimes made out to be! After signing my TC, I remember my tutors at university warning me to expect very long hours of really hard work. Being a trainee can indeed be difficult, but there are some great parts of the job that are overlooked – the work is super interesting, and I’ve met some of my favourite people ever in my intake.”

Vicky – “Really throw yourself into every experience you have and learn from them. Even travelling or your hobbies or whatever it is, if you’re able to, really take away lessons from those experiences. Then if you can translate that into skills and knowledge and show that you can offer something that makes you different from everyone else applying, that will put you in really good stead.”

Ready to take on the challenge?

Magic Circle firms have many similarities, but they are also individual firms with their own cultures, priorities and expertise. So, don’t get blinded by the prestige and make sure you do your research to find the right environment for you.

To keep up with the latest legal news, click on legal to get your daily dose.

The post Life of a Trainee at a Magic Circle Law Firm appeared first on Relawding.

The answer is not cost alone but rather that the rapidly changing consumer environment has begun to leave the legal services profession behind. Many people are now accustomed to living their lives online and have subsequently come to expect easy access to detailed information and multiple options before making any significant decision. By contrast, the current legal market can seem opaque to the uninitiated causing some modern consumers to put off seeking legal advice until it is too late.

 It’s easy to understand why; the average client is often in a highly stressful period of their life and might never have sought legal help before. Many of these potential clients will seek out the services of a firm, but there remains a large untapped section of this population who simply never consult a legal professional or who hesitate how to choose their lawyer. These potential clients are caught in a stressful cycle of knowing that they would benefit from legal help but lacking the knowledge or means to make that desire a reality. 

LexSnap was created to efficiently connect these individuals with the legal assistance they require. Our technology seamlessly combines the accessibility and efficiency of 21st-century technology and the reliability and expertise of traditional practice:

Quality – Above all, LexSnap prioritizes providing a quality service and only uses the work product of the legal professionals who are consistent with our high standards of practice.

Connect – LexSnap allows lawyers to expand their client far beyond the hierarchical confines of the traditional workplace.

Efficiency- There’s no need to wade through unnecessary requests or get bogged down by repetitive administrative tasks–our sophisticated technology handles all client requests and shares them with those professionals who would be best suited to respond only when the technology can no longer answer the query.  

Innovate- The Legal profession is currently wrestling with how best to adapt to the proliferation of technology into every aspect of modern-day life. Working with LexSnap, allows lawyers to be at the forefront of innovation within the profession.

Specialize- The unprecedented access and control over their clients that LexSnap provides, allows lawyers to build a particular niche speciality at a rapid rate. 

“We are passionate about our Natural Language Processing tool and want to help law firms and in-house lawyers to find the best way to harness the possibilities that come from using our technology. We work with our clients, side by side, to design a customised product – a bot or search bar – using our AI-powered search engine and our clients’ proprietary data, which accelerates revenue growth for their business by optimising their labour costs and improving their customer journey.”

To keep up to date with the latest legal news, click on legal to get your daily dose.

The post Meet LexSnap- AI Platform for Legal Advice appeared first on Relawding.

Pandora Mather-Lees is a proud owner of a business training company, Pandora Art Education and artonsuperyachts.com. Both companies aim to bring awareness to the value and importance of preservation towards aspects such as art objects to superyacht crew and towards those in household management or to those who work on behalf of art collectors.

Ms Mather-Lees goes on to explain that is it very important to appreciate art as well as enjoying and understanding the concept. She believes it is very important that art collectors know art preservation and practical care.

Opening horizons and appreciating art…

Usually consisting of morning or afternoon session, which are a minimum of four hours. The workshops offer art appreciation training, preparing crews for specific objects- the art market, placement of art, conversation as well as logistics and so much more. Consultancy appointments are also offered where onboard assessments take place, researching and identifying the gaps and risks of the environment. This is usually between the art collector and the captain of the yacht. Alternatively, workshops for the captain can also be offered, with inclusivity of export sanctions risks being taught too.

Excelling within the industry…

To excel within this given industry, Pandora feels that collaborating with respected professionals in the field have helped her immensely. She was lucky enough to be assisted by an ex-stewardess (now an art conservator), as well as networking with the Yacht Art Management in Hamburg. She has also formed close associations with others in the industry such as the Arts and Yachts Management at Rosemont Family Office, alongside the VIP Service School in Palma.

Considering the factors that have helped Pandora excel in this industry- she finds it a pleasure to work with people of professional mannerisms and with those of which you can share and develop ideas. Giving the tell-all on some very exciting news, Ms Mather-less informs us at Relawding that she has some new upcoming collaborations in the pipeline as she has partnered with people beyond the yachting arena such as Art In Offices to assist with training and art appreciation for those who wish to have new art programmes put into their offices.

Tips from the professional to help you succeed in your business…

“Public speaking!… Speaking at conferences gets you in front of a lot of people as an expert and helps you to clarify your way of thinking and ideas”. With all encouragement, Pandora believes that public speaking can take you to many great places!

Seek attention and get yourself noticed- once you get noticed, you become a reliable source. “This helps with raising your profile and also for social media content”, Mather-Lees continues.

“Often it is the unusual or sensationalist aspects that can generate exposure- sometimes even the most unusual combinations. I have often been approached for jobs or projects because of a mix of skills, ranging from commercial experience to being an art historian”.

Predicting the role of art in society, alongside the rapid growth of technology and AI…

It is not possible to substitute for the real tactile presence of art, although there are some pieces of art which have been made deliberately as a digital medium.

“AI, VR and all types of digital art are a new, exciting way to enjoy and learn- they are vital for trading too”.

Pandora informs us of one of her clients who use technology within their business- Arius Technology. The ground-breaking technology company uses a method of deep scanning in 3D, which is used for recreating exact replicas of the work but also to inform the condition of the work before the human eye sees any deterioration- meaning technology can be used to preserve cultural heritage thousands of years old.

Ready to launch your own business?

If you’re a young entrepreneur who is ready to launch their initial business, Pandora advises that you keep your end goal clearly in mind at all times, keep your focus, believe in yourself, seek a mentoring coach, know your milestones and never give up!

Although the pandemic has prevented a lot of businesses from soaring high, Pandora has told us here at Relawding, that the pandemic and aftermath should not prevent those with ideas to continue as there is so much to engage and learn with. As long as you remember your priorities and continue to learn- this can help the post-pandemic technology and business world.

We would like to thank Pandora Mather-Lees for her time and we wish Pandora Art Services and ArtOnSuperYachts all the best in the future.

————————————————————————————————-

To keep up to date with the latest interviews, click on interviews to hear the latest news in the commercial and legal world

The post A Conversation With Pandora Mather-Lees – Director Of Pandora Art Services appeared first on Relawding.