Company/commercial and corporate lawyers advise on complex transactions and work closely with other specialist departments in acting for businesses of all sizes. General company law work involves advising on company directors’ rights, duties and responsibilities, company board meetings, memoranda and articles of association, company secretarial matters and shareholders’ rights.

Corporate transactional work concerns mergers and acquisitions, demergers and restructurings, joint ventures, takeovers, equity financings, privatisations, initial public offerings and new issues of shares and other securities on the international markets.

Jonathan Wood is a partner in the London office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a US firm with international reach. He went to the University of Dundee, after his dreams of becoming a pilot were dashed because of “an allergy to house-dust!”. Dundee offers a combined English and Scottish Law degree, something which appealed to Jonathan’s new life plan: “Law seemed like a good general professional degree, so I toddled off to Dundee to get maximum flexibility. The first two years were very academic and they didn’t really set me on fire, so I took a year out to work for a high street firm in my hometown. It was an amazing year because it clarified two things; first, that I definitely wanted to be a lawyer and second, that I didn’t want to do private client work ever again!” Jonathan returned to university, full of enthusiasm and a desire to pursue corporate law as a career. He chose business and English law subjects to strengthen his position when applying for a training contract in London.

Happily, the training contract dream became a reality and Jonathan was taken on at Lovells. After doing the LPC at The College of Law, Jonathan began his training contact and qualified into the private equity team. Famously, the entire private equity team (bar a partner and a couple of associates) moved across from Lovells to Weil Gotshal in April 2006.

Jonathan discusses his current position as partner is in the corporate (private equity) team: “My work usually involves acting for private equity houses in conjunction with the acquisition or disposal of, or investment in, private or public companies. I am involved right from the early stages of the decision-making process, which is one of the great joys of the job – you become an integral part of the team and a trusted advisor. So although the remit is legal, it extends beyond that into commercial execution and strategy.”

One of Jonathan’s recent deals centred on the sale of clothing brand Fat Face to Advent International: “It was a watershed transaction, because of the competitive environment and the speed with which it happened. Typically, when a business is sold by way of auction, a list of potential purchasers are given an information memorandum and are asked to give an indication of how much they might pay for the business, what the terms might be, and how quickly they could proceed. Any attractive bids would then be invited to a second stage which would involve access to more detailed information about the company. They would then submit a more final offer. We’d also send out a draft sale and purchase agreement, asking them to make changes so that we’d be able to compare prices and terms. With Fat Face, at the first round we had six or seven credible bids! Two of which were ready to enter a binding agreement in 48 hours, and one of which was offering a significant non-refundable deposit to be given preferred access to the management team. The seller deliberated for one day and then it took less than 48 hours to sign a deal. The sellers were very pleased with the terms and the deal was a high watermark in terms of what sellers can hope to achieve.”

Jonathan’s personal career highlights have been making partner and moving across from Lovells, bringing his clients with him: “It meant they were comfortable enough to trust that we were moving to a better home and that their interests were going to be looked after. It was a big vote of confidence from them and testament to the relationship we’ve built. Private equity is very much about individual, personal relationships because as clients, they are the most sophisticated users of legal services, always speaking to lawyers about transactions and doing deals every few months. What that means is that you have to wear the T-shirt and be their guy!”

In addition to client development, Jonathan thinks there are other key skills in this field: “Business acumen, common sense, and a desire and ability to be as technically skilled as possible. There are new developments every day and it’s important to stay on top of that.”

Jonathan stresses the importance of examining the reasons why you’ve chosen law as a career. He looks back at his own path as an example (albeit not necessarily an example to be followed!). He says: “With my CV and patchy decision-making at the time, I was pretty lucky to get in front of a City firm for an interview! So, with hindsight, I think the most important thing is to think about what turns you on and why that is. I interview a lot of people for training contracts and I hear a lot of contrived answers. They say what they think we want to hear, rather than what really gets them going and why. For example, if you say you have an interest in M&A, you ought to have enough of an interest to read some of the business papers. You need to demonstrate an interest and show that it’s genuine. The other thing is to spend time being honest with yourself about what you enjoy and what it is that attracts you to being a lawyer. We’re looking for people with backbone and character and their own ideas.”

And while a gap year is no bad thing, Jonathan has some stern words about people who think having done one will necessarily endear them to an interview panel: “I wouldn’t advocate gap years for everybody, but I think what people should do is take time to think about what they want to do. Just taking a year out to mess around is fine, but it doesn’t necessarily enhance your chances of getting a training contract! And if the reason you’re doing it is because you think you’re going to have to buckle down to a really boring life as a lawyer, then maybe you’re thinking about doing the wrong job!”

If you want to survive as a young corporate lawyer, Jonathan suggests invoking a moment of calm each day: “There’s lots of jargon and moving parts in this environment, and it’s very easy not to be able to see the wood for the trees and get fixated on one thing. Instead, you should take five minutes at the beginning and end of each day to look at the big picture. What are you trying to achieve? It’s important to put things into context – without direction, you don’t get the same sense of reward and you sometimes miss important features because you’ve forgotten why you’re doing it.”

And if you needed an excuse, Jonathan offers more good reasons to spend time socialising with friends and spending hours networking on Facebook. He says: “Without wanting to seem too Machiavellian, it’s good to maintain contacts you’ve made through school and university from the outset of your career. You may find out that as you’ve been developing, your contemporaries have been becoming influential too! And there is the reward of give and take: you might be able to help someone and they might be able to help you. Don’t forget that this is a business like any other – it’s no good just being a skilled tactician if nobody knows you!”