University: Durham University
Degree: Politics
Year of qualification: 2023
Position: Associate
Department: Litigation/dispute resolution
Pronouns: He/his

What attracted you to a career in law?

I’ve always been quite academic, excelling in school and university, particularly in essay-based subjects that required extensive reading and writing. I enjoyed these aspects, so I wanted to continue using the research and writing skills that I’d developed during my degree in my career. While a career in politics wasn’t something that I wanted to pursue, the skills I’d developed during my politics degree were highly transferable to the field of law, especially in terms of research and making arguments. This allowed me to continue doing something I enjoyed, but in a different career path with more development opportunities.

How did you decide which firms to apply to?

I knew that I wanted to train at a law firm with a small trainee intake, so my immediate attention was on US law firms. I was also looking for a full-service firm, rather than one that was heavily weighted towards finance or corporate deals. I was particularly attracted to Morgan, Lewis & Bockius UK LLP and its antitrust and litigation practises. Essentially, I wanted to experience a full-service law firm with a small trainee intake that would allow me to gain significant responsibility from an early stage, and Morgan Lewis was the perfect match.

How much work experience had you had? Why is it so important?

In terms of my professional experience, I spent a summer at the Scottish Parliament and completed two internship weeks at different law firms. I secured these internships through emails and contacts, reaching out to people I knew or was introduced to, and asking if I could gain some experience.

Of course, there were many times where my emails to law firms didn’t result in securing experience but I found that reaching out and asking was worthwhile. I believe it was important for me to get a sense of what it’s like to sit in a law firm and understand the work that lawyers do. It’s especially beneficial for interviews as you have some real experience to talk about.

That’s not to say that my non-legal experience wasn’t beneficial too. I worked in various bars and even created a makeshift bar one summer, selling drinks over the course of five weeks. This unique experience was interesting to talk about in interviews and made me a memorable candidate.

Please discuss a specific deal/case that you were involved with, outlining your role in the matter.

During my training contract, I was involved in a case where shareholder litigations were brought against two publicly listed UK companies. My role involved meticulously reviewing the emails and documents that had been exchanged among senior management, analysing the numbers in these documents and comparing them and looking for leads.

Please outline your area of expertise. What might you do in a typical day?

In litigation, companies often have disputes with other companies, such as claims of fraud or breaches of contract. Our job is to manage the process of taking them through whatever dispute resolution service they’re using, be it the courts, arbitration, mediation, or negotiation, to try and get the outcome they want.

On a typical day, you’re usually writing some kind of correspondence with the other side’s lawyers. You spend a lot of time writing, getting comments on what you’ve written from the rest of the team and from barristers, and then revising it. You also spend quite a lot of time dealing with documents, reviewing evidence and trying to develop a case and make good arguments. In addition, a significant amount of time goes into writing evidence to be filed at court, such as writing witness statements or making official requests for information from the other side (the company you’re suing).

What do you most/least enjoy about your career and why?

What I least enjoy about my career is the potential for feeling anxiety. The cases are always big, involving dozens of documents and you often have an incomplete picture of the evidence. When trying to work out what the approach to the case should be, you spend a lot of the time considering problems that may arise that you're not aware of yet.

On the flip side of that, which is the most enjoyable part, is that you get to work on real problems. Clients come to big law firm litigation departments when they have genuine problems that they can’t solve themselves. So, the work that we do tends to be genuinely interesting and meaningful to those we help. It’s motivating and rewarding to work on such cases, especially when we achieve the desired outcome for our clients.

What makes your firm stand out from the rest?

What really stands out about Morgan Lewis is that its people are genuinely very nice. Everyone is generous with their time and supportive when you have questions. Morgan Lewis is also a full-service law firm that’s not dominated by finance or corporate deals, which makes it stand out from most other US law firms in the London market. Another standout for me is the high-quality work available at the firm. For example, my team was noted by a key legal publication, The Lawyer, as being involved in two of the top 20 UK cases in the past year.

What’s been the highlight of the last month at the firm?

Recently, a charity reached out to us because another organisation had copied their website and all the research they had built up over decades, which is considered a breach of their copyright. We conducted extensive research into the charity’s rights and wrote letters to both the other organisation and the web developer that had helped build the infringing website. After some back and forth, we successfully convinced the web developer to take the website down, which was a significant victory. Unfortunately, the website was relaunched very recently, so the fight continues.

What’s the biggest opportunity you’ve been given since joining the firm?

The biggest opportunity I’ve been given since joining Morgan Lewis was my secondment in Dubai. Professionally, the experience provided me with increased responsibility in managing cases and clients and significantly improved my problem-solving skills and my ability to think independently. Personally, it was incredible to explore that part of the world as well as places like Lebanon, Georgia and India – destinations I might not have visited otherwise.

Where’s your dream holiday destination?

I’d love to go back to Lebanon.