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Jonny Perera

Corporate finance

“You’re really in at the deep end, aren’t you?” was the question asked of me repeatedly when I told people I would be spending my first seat in Corporate.

Doing my best to ignore the ubiquitous horror-stories of late nights, early mornings and toilet-stall breakdowns (in that order), I walked into the investment funds team as a blank slate.

Four months on, I am happy to report that the reality - at least at NR - is something of a departure from the gossip doing the rounds in law faculty common rooms. Initial concerns that everything I knew about investment funds could be recorded on the back of a postage stamp were soon allayed by a series of training sessions, some specific to the funds team, and some concerned with Corporate Finance more generally. The sessions were easy to follow, and equipped me to start my seat with an understanding of the work being undertaken by my team.

Associates and Partners were quick to welcome me, and always happy to field any questions, whether relating to the details of a transaction, or how to print to headed paper. Most importantly, everyone I worked with went out of their way to explain the nature of each transaction, and put my contribution in the context of the deal as a whole. It’s amazing how much more you learn when you hear two lawyers talk about work and you actually understand what is being said.

As for being thrown in at the deep end - I was doing important work for the team, and given significant responsibility at an early stage, but at no point did I feel out of my depth or that the tasks asked of me were beyond my capabilities as a first-seat trainee.

I departed the seat having gained considerable insight into the work undertaken by the Corporate Finance Department, and familiarised myself with the firm’s standard procedures. Also, in dispelling the myth that corporate trainees don’t see daylight, there is a valuable lesson to be leaned: lose the preconceptions, the predeterminations of which seats are for you and which are not, and go into every department with an open mind.