Allen & Overy

Bas Dixon

Alone amongst magic circle law firms Allen & Overy offers the opportunity to spend some time working in a Private Client department. This allows trainees to benefit from being exposed not only to the usual finance and corporate orientated seats and the experiences derived from them but also to the unique challenges and breadth of work which come from dealing with private individuals.

A natural consequence of dealing with such individuals is that the department deals with many different issues and questions, each of which is unique to the particular client and requires an unique solution; this means that trainees are exposed to a very large variety of work which makes for an extremely interesting and varied time! The small size of the department and its willingness to involve trainees also means that trainees often have a large amount of client contact and responsibility which is great experience.

No day is ever the same and whilst a morning can be spent doing work which is more akin to that found in one of the corporate teams, the afternoon can be spent helping to manage the estate of a wealthy individual.

As the department often provides advice on commercial trust structures a trainee's time can, in this respect, be spent doing anything from analysing or drafting partnership deeds to arranging a "corporate" style completion. The work definitely allows trainees to practise their drafting skills as well as requiring them to be efficient and organised.

Away from the more corporate side of things, many clients use the department to help them with their tax planning; this has become a particularly important area with the recent changes to taxation made by the government. Trainees are often required to research and give opinions on issues of personal taxation; this can involve dealing with some complicated issues but, although this can be challenging, the department is very supportive and there is always someone on hand happy to help.

The nature of the department's clients also means that the department often has high-profile matters to work on; during my time in the department I assisted on one high-profile will dispute which made the national papers. The partner and associate were very happy to involve me as much as possible, including taking me to meetings and even to mediation sessions. Finally, there can often be an international flavour to the department's work. I liaised with foreign counsel (from Liechtenstein, Switzerland and even St Vincent and the Grenadines) to effect the sale of a well known individual's house in the West Indies, which was great fun and also assisted on a very long-running piece of litigation involving a foreign dignitary. The latter involved dealing both with interesting legal issues in the context of a rich historical and political background.

My time in Private Client was thoroughly enjoyable; it was very interesting in its own right and gave me not only a different perspective on law and the city but also many transferable skills which I will take with me throughout my training contract and beyond.