If you wanted to do litigation, there was no better place than Herbert Smith. I have no idea why but it was always going to be litigation. It was all I saw on TV and in books, there were no books written about M&A lawyers.
Suddenly the City just couldn’t get enough lawyers – if you had a pulse you could get a job in those days.
US firms started opening here and the idea of working in an American firm became very appealing. McDermott [Will & Emery] was a blank page. It wasn’t particularly well known here but had a clear vision. That plan changed and White & Case called me several times and eventually got me on the right day.
It’s bloody tough, much tougher now than it ever was. British, American, big or small law firm, it is tough. My job is to make sure people are recording their time properly and people realise that being busy is what we are supposed to do. But it actually also needs to be the opposite and telling people to go home.
If you are one of 25 junior lawyers on a team, it can be soul destroying. I see it all the time. Some associates get sucked into huge miserable cases that go on for years, others find cases that suit them which gives them an opportunity to shine. Right time and right place is important.
It’s different now in disputes. The guys who were at Herbert Smith when I joined were real ground-breakers. You look now and think where are those people now? Those guys who to me were giants? I don’t think the world of litigation is that way now. It is much more developed. People don’t make the impact they did then.
Sometimes it is nice to have a clash with the lawyers on the other side. If it gets nasty, you need to get difficult with people on the other side.
My highest profile case? Northern Rock attracted the most press and still does. When the Bank of England minutes were published, or every time there is a bit of news, it reflects on what people did or didn’t know at that time.
Things have to be taken seriously. If a junior associate fails to serve a document on time, that’s a terrible mistake – it’s quite right that they should have sleepless nights fretting about it. We all make mistakes and we all become better people and better lawyers through our mistakes. You are not doing your job properly if every little defeat or setback isn’t felt.
My lowest moment? I felt I’d been out-manoeuvred and let the client down. I got home about 10pm and was very low. My wife ran a hot bath and poured me a glass of whisky. It made me realise why people become alcoholics because with just one glass waves of positivity came back. I have not taken refuge in whisky that way since. That was a warning sign, but I realised things are not that bad.
Good litigators need clarity of thought. The most important thing is to be able to cut through, and not necessarily see what the answer is, but what the problem is.
More clients now will choose English law as opposed to New York law then they did 15-20 years ago. Our system and approach is distinctive. We are constantly looking at ways of improving.
I met Nelson Mandela. It was probably the first time he came to Britain. He was planting a tree in St James’s Park and it was remarkable. He’d walked from Buckingham Palace and it was almost like a religious moment. There was this huge crowd building around him, and I genuinely felt I was in the presence of someone very different. Everyone was filled with warmth and goodwill.
I have a print in my office by Jamie Reid, who did the artwork for the Sex Pistols in the ‘70s. The influence is that you don’t have to conform. I’m not going to turn up wearing safety pins and a leather jacket at the office, but equally you can do your own thing without conforming. It taught me to be independent in your approach and thinking.
The legal profession in the City has become much more faceless. There is such a desire to present a uniform face and think and behave and speak in the same way.
No one gets work/balance right. The best you can hope is that in years to come in their wedding speech or something your daughter doesn’t say: ‘I never saw my father growing up. Who is this man giving me away?’
You have to be mobile – we sell English law but we sell it globally. If you sit in London and look at papers and do video conferencing, you are just not going to get it.
The people I was closest with are retiring now. Tim Parkes – I was his first associate when I joined Herbert Smith, I speak to him regularly. William Charnley works across the road. I saw him in the gym yesterday morning.
In my mind I am still 24 years old so retirement is way off in the future.
The thing I will ultimately look back on and say that was my proudest moment has yet to come.
John Reynolds is head of the London litigation department at White & Case
jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk