[Music] my name is Simon Davis I'm a litigation partner at clipper chance I've been with the firm since dinosaurs walked the earth and we watched black-and-white television in 1982 my father grandfather and great-grandfather were all in the military though I may not sound like an example of session mobility if it hadn't been for the British taxpayer I would have followed my soldier father around the world to change his schools every two to three years and my education standard would have suffered when I told one of my two to see University that I had received offers
from three major firms it's all which one are you choosing and I said clipper turnip which was then ranked probably at six or seven under in the top not in the top and I'd been offered places by two in the top and I said I'm choosing Clifford Turner and there was a silence and he looked at me and said you're either incredibly stupid or you know something no one else does and it was neither I had been so impressed by the first interview which I which was by a massive margin the most merit-based the toughest
the most effective professional grilling that I received in any of the other interviews which which were by and large rather soft and gentle the best question I was asked was that you started at the firm and two friends of yours from University contact you and they want to set up a restaurant together as they embark on this business journey together what kind of questions do you think they should be asking each other the best interview question I think I've probably ever heard because the answer requires you to think about everything such as should they be
corporation should there be a partnership what marketing have they done what are their business plans how they're gonna raise finance so they thought about health and safety or the employment position is gonna be it has everything in it when I joined the firm I had very little to expect other than that I thought I was not going to be very good at it because in those days I've quite at low and self-esteem and quite a high sense of impostor syndrome and and failure went into the corporate department and the real estate department hated both with
equal passion and then a miracle happened but I found that what I have is an exclusively destructive brain I am a natural-born litigator my talent is if you give me a contract I will find you a helmet so I just very lucky that I was in a firm which was moving me around waitingwaiting said this guy he's got to be good at something and they found it and I found it and I was very lucky when people work with me that they find that I talked in terms which regularly seem emotional that I do talk
about love a great deal I do talk about the people at the client and have a personal warm way I think lawyers were including me to talk a little bit too much but I'd like to think certainly at this firm that we are trying to focus every word in a way which is relevant to the particular point we're trying to make and is actually adding value to the client what has most surprised me about clipper chants are from the beginning was that rather imagined when I joined it was going to be a ferociously competitive place
and instead I found throughout my career that literally everybody I have come across at every stage once me and must be around to succeed the hallmark of clipper chance if you walk into a meet room and say okay does what you're watching there who's the partner who's the assistant who's the trainee he won't be able to tell who's the partner by the way they're treating each other our attitude has always been that we want partners and associates and trainees paralegals everybody else to be coming up with ideas to drive the business forward and to make
sure that your clients are being very well looked after and that's the most important thing what's not important is he was actually doing it there are those out there who say oh I'd never applied to a city firm because I won't get in we can rule that that out because the reality of life is that city firms are for more places and anybody else have a much higher percentage chance of getting into a city firm the second is there are those who say well if I join a city firm I'm going to be a small
cog in a big wheel and won't be able to make an impression and to that I say the reality of any large firm is your small firms within firms the difference between a deliverer chances someone else is that if you don't like one area like me you can move into another so much more flexibility I regularly advise those who are contemplating coming into either a career or law firm go spend time in it and if you don't hear a lot of laughter I suspect you should go somewhere else do be careful about over analyzing yourself
and finding your own flaws because often talented people in my experience are extremely good at self analysis and self-criticism the kind of person that used working clear chance is somebody who takes their work very seriously and not themselves you find an extraordinary range of all kinds of schooling and class and race and religion and gender and sexuality this is a real people business come into it if you really like people if anybody's been listening to my answers earlier on they would have said Simon the chances of you thinking when you joined the firm that one
day be the present the lost SATA being there whales are less than zero so it has come over the years as a very pleasant surprise and what I feel about it it's it's fabulous I think the 70 girls Simon would be astonished and would think wow you must have you must have flipped your way through that and I'd be very proud the best thing about being a lawyer is that you are able to sort out all appeals problems and that is actually an extraordinary privilege I'm trying to think of a way which doesn't sound it
as if I wear my heart on my sleeve I do wear my heart on my sleeve I'm in love with the firm quite a lot of the time it doesn't feel like work but keep that between us [Music]
