Allen & Overy

Paul Sephton

Introducing......Paul Sephton

Good day to you all. I'm Paul Sephton, a two year qualified associate in A&O's Global Loans department and this is my first attempt at writing a blog so please bear with me.

“I would expect that we will be playing a key role in events as they unfold”

Ankles, weak

Well it's the end of the British summertime and I guess that you, like me, are left feeling rather short changed once more by Mr Sun's attempts to put his hat on - it certainly hasn't been as rosy as that annoying cider advert would have us believe. Foolishly I decided to fill the gaps between the drizzle with frequent trips to the hospital after breaking my ankle (in three places no less, but lets not make a big deal of it - I'm hard as nails) playing a friendly (!) game of football with the department (we play five aside every Wednesday lunchtime). So I've spent the best part of the summer hobbling around on crutches and more recently with a rather fetching moon boot on (incidentally, why is it that when a lady is injured in such a way everyone is really concerned but when it happens to a chap it is overwhelmingly regarded as being "hilarious"?). Its going to be a little while before I getting my shooting boots on but my thoughts are really with the team. How will they cope without their Fernando Torres?

California Dreaming

Fortunately I managed to escape the summer without a moon tan by heading off to Arnieland (or California as it was once known) for my jollies which was absolutely brilliant. We started our trip in LA which was pretty cool, particularly going to see the LA Angels v NY Yankees baseball game - I didn't have a clue what the rules were but who cares when you can get nacho hats, hotdogs fired out of cannons, people shouting "hell yeah" and "you suck" and beers by the litre. The sport of kings. After LA we drove up the coast stopping at Santa Barbara which was very pretty, Santa Cruz where I spent a dangerous amount of money on surfing goods and we went on the fair which is featured in The Lost Boys (which is the best film of the 1980s by a country mile.....aside from the Karate Kid....and the Goonies now I think about it). The final leg of our tour took us to San Francisco which is possibly the best City in the world and A&O should definitely look into opening an office there. Sadly I didn't get to share a stoogie with Governor Arnold but it was still the best holiday ever, highly recommended!

Sephton to the rescue

Whilst I was on holiday (and almost definitely because of it) the finance markets in which we operate took something of a turn south landing us in essentially unchartered territory. The downfall of Lehman Brothers and the subsequent round of mergers between various financial institutions really has changed the goal posts and it makes for very interesting times. Never before has the work that our department does been more relevant to the global economy (or newsworthy!). I'm currently on secondment so am spending my days working on site at one of our favourite clients, Barclays Bank where it has been fascinating to see the reaction to the turbulence from inside one of the world's largest banks. That said, everyone here has been really interested to see A&O's take on events. As you would expect, A&O have been uber quick in reacting and have been providing a vast range of clients with advice as to how the latest market contortions impact on them and their business. I would expect that we will be playing a key role in events as they unfold. Fascinating times.

Anyway, until next time.

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