Commercial Law Notes - Bright Network
This document has been created by
Gurupma Singh
Feel free to connect with me on Linked In
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gurupma-singh-0494a5193/
Love to connect with new people!
Follow me on insta too :)
https://www.instagram.com/gurupma/
If you’re looking to connect with more people who are looking to help each other please
check out Networking Ninjas on instagram or LinkedIn
https://linktr.ee/TheNetworkingNinjas
If you want to help me out I’d really appreciate it if you could check out a project my friend
and I are working on called Happier Souls which is all about helping people to build
happiness in their own life :)
https://www.instagram.com/happiersouls_/
Introduction
Your hosts
Kirsten Barnes - Commercial Director
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsten-barnes-52450848/
Ben Carter - Growth and innovation manager
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-carter-6395962b/
Priyanka Patel - Operations executive
https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyanka-patel-b5b888158/
Phil Yarrow - Member experience manager
https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-y-b514445a/
Aims
- Provide all student with access to work experience opportunities during this time of
uncertainty
- Create genuine value for all participants and support them in their future career
endeavours
- Spotlight potential career paths for students from a wide variety of backgrounds
Post on socials using the hashtags #BrightInternUK and #Internfromhome
Tech issues
If you’re having technical issues then use FireFox or Chrome
Always refresh if you have any tech issues
Can have 20-50 second delay
If lagging a lot choose a lower quality stream using settings on video
Main things that you need to do to get the certificate are complete and peer mark one piece
of work!
Slaughter and May - Robert Byk
Speaker
Robert Byk - https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-byk-0787481/
Bristol University
Scored a 2:2
Been their his whole life
2 years training
Been a partner for 9 years
Thursday at 1pm for hints and tips
Done a lot of cool stuff
Has a standing desk
Helped advise on COVID funding
Helped Red Cross
Done a 2am hearing for Thomas Cook
Favourite transaction - not about size or scale or deal
It’s about having an idea, being enthusiastic and curious enough to be a take on anything
Tips
Key question - why?
Take on 80-85 people per year
The job is difficult
Lots of benefits
Use this time to work through ‘marketing gloss’
Do your best to be as professional as possible
Find out how firms work and the culture
“We are individual responsible for our actions and our inaction” - Rene Richardson
Appreciate them talking about racism and increasing diversity as a first step.
Most important advice
Don’t make decisions in your life trying to impress employers.
Find out what you enjoy and love that, then this will show through in interviews
Networking - J. Kelly Hoey
How you listen are and how you observe - key for both lawyers and networking
Eyes and ears are better networkers than your mouths
Importance
The relations you build at the start of your career will be in decision making positions 7-8
years down the line
The people you build relationships now can last for a very long time
3 P’s for networking
1. People
2. People
3. People
Whatever medium you decide to use to network you need to think about the person on the
other side
3 key networks
This can evolve and change over time with difference circumstances
1. Peers
- The most important
- Friends who will be doing similar things
- People who are going through what you will go through soon
- Also goes for client relationships - need to be of your level
- Things go out of date quickly so peers are often most up to date
- Relevant insights and tips
- Share contacts and insights
2. Existing network
- Need to know what you’re currently doing
- Lecturers
- If they don’t know what you’re doing they can’t help you
- Be active and shout about what you’re doing
- Even if they might not directly know what it is you’re doing but they might know
someone who does
- We bring our own networks to the table when we meet new people too
3. New connections
- Speakers like Kelly, takes time to build trust
- This is going to take a while
- Plant the seed and work on it overtime
For Law firms
- Follow their social media
- Subscribe to their newsletters
- Go find what training courses that they’re promoting
- Get on their mailing list
- What are their aims and focus and goals
Questions and Answers
1. Is there such a thing as oversharing on LinkedIn?
Yes there is
Decide on:
What you want to share
How often you want to share it
The tone and voice that you want to share
You want to educate and inform your network
Typically aim for a post during the week
Do 1 post a day
2. How to make new connections and maintain conversations?
Use #’s
- Developed on twitter to filter information
- Look for hashtags
- #PelletonLawyer - idk what this is
(My personal tip is to also use location filters and find people near you or at particular
events)
Use the chat function
Are you creating real conversations?
Use platforms as a way to connect with new people
Use it to introduce yourself
Utilise the platform
3. How to make good first impressions?
Made by how people talk about you
Show up for your network EVERY day
Need to be a positive person
What is your public profile online and how does it present you?
Go use a friend and ask them to check and give you honest feedback
Reflect on what makes good first impressions when you meet more people
Even if you have bad first impressions then it’s not the end of the world
Managing you - Ben Carter
Ben’s linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-carter-6395962b/
12 million working days lost to work related mental health conditions - please guys if you’re
struggling with anything then feel free to drop me a message, even if you’re struggling you
don’t need to struggle alone! https://www.instagram.com/gurupma/
72% of people said work life balance is more important than a high salary which is good :)
Can find work life balance even as a lawyer, not always just 9-5 but still possible.
Self management skills
Organisation
Managing your own workload and repsonsibility
Find out what works best for you - easiest way to see what you're doing
Could use excel, canband or give yourself concentration times
Team management tools:
Trello
Monday
Github
Gantt Chart
Pomodoro technique? - Set a timer for approximately 45 minutes as we can’t focus for too
long
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=deep+work+-+cal+newport&adgrpid=60154452904&gclid=Cj
wKCAjwr7X4BRA4EiwAUXjbt1EyHkck5SINFDrISCTrIKQDdChmT6jr57Go3VFRFAmFimp_V
i-BFhoCchsQAvD_BwE&hvadid=259072197533&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9046771&hvnetw=g&
hvqmt=e&hvrand=3748032918266291997&hvtargid=kwd-445787283326&hydadcr=18490_1
772480&tag=googhydr-21&ref=pd_sl_1sizcaq4cj_e
Initiative
● This is trying to figure it out yourself first before you ask for help
● It's fine to ask questions but apply yourself first - be resourceful (use google!)
● Best way to separate yourself from others
● Show your employer what it is you're capable
● Work ethic, doesn't mean working long hours, it means having the best output and
being fully committed - NEEDED for law
● If you’re interested in this then you’ll naturally have a good work ethic
● Need to build a reputation of getting things done
● Leave your ego at the door - just another human being who is there to work at what
you're doing
Emotional intelligence
Can you put yourself in other people's shoes? - empathy
Can you hold yourself accountable?
Be very self-reflective
How can you fix things?
Effective communication
Make sure people are aware of the expectations that you have
If you don't communicate properly people will jump to conclusions
Therefore it’s best to over communicate
Wellbeing at work
Bend but don't break
Push yourself to learn but don't let yourself burn out
Need to be able to enjoy yourself
Create clear boundaries
● set out from the get go
● Know when to switch off
● Be able to stretch yourself but in manageable chunks
● Have a boundary of work and play, sit at a desk/working space
● Learn to say no
Ask for help
● You will need help at some point
● People are there to help you out!
● No one is expecting you not to
● Always be willing to help others out when you can
Strike a work life balance
● Switch off every now and then
● Fill your life with other positive good things
● Build your network outside of work too
● Don't let work become your life
Health and fitness
● Sitting down all day
● Not drinking water, thinking about what you eat
● Mental wellbeing is very linked to physical wellbeing
Managing stakeholders
Managing upwards
● Not just a one way relationship
● Be yourself
● Build human connections
● Understand how to give feedback
Internal & External stakeholders
● People you network with
● Make sure your professional and on time
● Communicate well, understand what each group needs to know
● Know them personally and who the different groups are
People management
● Learn from each other
● Leader not manager
● Delegate empathetically
● Being a good listener
Key takeaways
● Work hard on self-management
● Prioritise your wellbeing
● Speaker up
● Know who your stakeholders are
● Be open to giving and receiving feedback
The Go Giver book - Recommended by Ben Carter
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Go-Giver-Little-Story-Powerful-Business/dp/0241976278/ref=sr_1
_1?crid=1WIO6IKJW3PV5&dchild=1&keywords=the+go+giver&qid=1594031267&sprefix=th
e+go+g%2Caps%2C271&sr=8-1
Key takeaways
- Work hard on self-management
- Priorise your wellbeing
- Speak up
- Know who your stakeholders are
- Be open to giving and receiving feedback
Questions and Answers
1. Advice to someone who takes on too much
Communicate clearly that you can’t
Manage your time well
2. What do you do if you make a mistake?
Learn from your mistakes
Mistakes are natural
Understand the risk of your mistakes
Clyde & Co - Sector 101 - Mark Wing & Georgia Kymam
Introduction
Mark - qualified from being a trainer in 2008
Georgia - qualified in august
International Law firm
1800 lawyers
Regional resources centre
Core Legal skills
Advising on commercial agreements
- Advising on all types of commercial and drafting appropriate provisions for clients
across standard form and bespoke agreements and contracts within the public and
private sectors including outsourcing arrangements, standard terms and conditions,
construction contracts, distributing and franchising agreements, real-estate
agreements, emplotment, e-commerce and data protections
Corporate
- Providing practical, commercially focused advice including <&A, acquisitions and
disposals of business, strategic alliances, joint ventures, market entry, capital raising,
corporate governance and compliance
Litigation
- Advising clients on disputes avoidance and providing contentious advice globally
once a dispute has ensured, including traditional litigation, arbitration, mediations and
adjudications (for construction contracts)
Georgia
Just because you’re not in England you might still be governed by English Law
Great to get involved on things abroad
Regional resources centre helps ensure that all different legal issues are considered from
different countries
Liaison with banks and renegotiating terms so the
Source code - if banks were bust then they would still be able to continue and wouldn’t go
bust
Data retention and privacy, IP and any new things that were added
Liaison with the stock exchange when in Tanzanir
Clients and Sectors
Aviation - AirFrance
Casualty & Healthcare - GSK
Energy & Natural resources - Petro-Canada
Insurance and Reinsurance - Lloyd’s of London
Marine, trade & commodities -Sea Trucks Group
When working with clients you really learn about their concerns
Costane? - works on very small margins
Might have to work with different teams and try and bring them together which can be
interesting
The future of the Legal Industry
Climate change risk practice & Resilience hub
- We review long-term strategic objectives and identify areas of current and future risks
to incorporate assessments of climate risk and business resilienc into corporate
strategies. This forms part of our broader Resllience Hub initiative, including our
climate change liability risk conference
Clyde Code
- Unique off-the-shelf connected parametric insurance contract for use by insurerrs;
automating the performance of the policy by receiving weather data, calculating
potential claims obligations and producing an exportable report of insurance
premiums or losses
Data Lab
- We bring together together and the Lab’s artificial intelligence expertise to:
Improve our legal services and the way we deliver them; and
Potentially develop new legal products or services
We also assist in preparing our legal practices to take commercial advantage of their
data and technology-driven automations
Don’t need to be a coder to work with tech and law!
Translating real life questions into simple data questions
Legal geek conference
We are conference
Let lawyers work on their strengths
Costance - where Georgia first got involved in the data lab
As you become more data reliant then need to be more careful on the privacy
Hackathon
Role of a partner
2 year process of training and this is changing with time and COVID
Client and business development
- Building practice
- Key client responsibilities
Advising clients on legal and commercial issues
- Liaising with clients
- Supervising the team
- Running litigation
Firm development and management
- Data lab
- Liaison e.g. HR/Business support/IT/Finance
Day in the life of a trainee
Time Task
08:00 Log on and Plan day
09:00 Call with third party technology provider for
australia and UK Cyber Team
10:00 Investigating and researching US Data
Breach and Cyber Insurance Litigation to
11:00 collage a Dataset
12:00 Lunch break or Internal/External Training
13:00 Tokenising Data to identify possible Client
purport topics
14:00 Preparing Post-Testing Feedback and
suggesting amendments to the Data Breach
Tool
15:00 Liaising with our Insurance team to build a
Low-Code COVID-19 Response tool and
16:00 provisioning spreadsheet Data Regarding a
Post-COVID Regulator test case
17:00
18:00 Close down fo the day
What to look for in a graduate
- Curiosity - initiative
- Attention to detail
- Collaboration and teamwork
- Commercial awareness
- Curiosity and passion for learning
- Great communication skills
- Innovation and thought leadership
- Leadership
- Personal effectiveness ( effective questioning, identifying solutions & issues, and
clarity of thinking)
- Project management
- Technical excellence
Questions and Answers
1. How did you find the opportunities for international opportunities?
Need to write a business case - don’t suck up but have real conversations
Aligning with your interested
Learned different languages when she went to a different countries
All are bi-lingual so don’t need to learn
2. If you haven’t studied a certain sector what happens?
If you have an interest in any sector then it massively helps
Don’t need to have any particular experience
They’ll teach you as long as you’re curious
3. Do you need tech skills to get the job?
Asked herself why certain things weren’t happening a lot
The datalab wanted a trainee in the lab to help the teams communicate
Did an online harvard course in coding
Tech is really important and getting bigger but not necessarily needed for everything
Fundamental legal skills are 90-95% of what makes up the company
4. What is the single biggest challenge in the industry?
Clients, understanding and anticipating what the client needs is the key to what the business
does.
