Building commercial awareness in a competition seat

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This article has been produced in collaboration with Mayer Brown International LLP.

Dale Cornish is a trainee solicitor in the competiton department at Mayer Brown.

What were the main considerations for determining what type of firm you wanted to train at?

I’d already gained significant legal experience through previous paralegal roles, including in-house positions at Warner Music Group and WPP plc. Most of my legal experience has been in intellectual property (IP) law and related areas, such as technology, media and advertising, alongside general commercial and corporate matters. My commercial roles in the not-for-profit sector also gave me exposure to other areas of law, including charity and gambling law.

I saw the significant benefits of training at a renowned full-service firm such as Mayer Brown. I could build on my experience by completing an IP and IT seat as part of my training contract, while also gaining exposure to a broad range of other corporate and commercial disciplines. Mayer Brown is also widely known and respected for its numerous important and high-profile clients. My two seats so far, in competition and pensions, have confirmed the breadth of opportunities available to trainees at the firm.

When considering my other training contract offers, it was Mayer Brown’s emphasis on teamwork and strong internal relationships that really spoke to me. I appreciated the way the firm works with international colleagues as though they’re in the next room. This has reinforced what makes Mayer Brown stand out: the ability to combine genuine breadth of work with close-knit, collaborative teams across offices. Taken together, these factors made Mayer Brown the firm that best matched both my professional experience and the collaborative culture I enjoy.

What does ‘commercial awareness’ mean to you in a competition seat – and how do you apply it day to day?

Commercial awareness is an integral part of a competition seat. Each week brings new headlines that could directly affect the clients we advise. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has extensive powers and plays a key role in promoting and protecting competitive markets in the UK. When studying competition law, much of the focus is on landmark cases involving well-known household names. However, a glance at the CMA’s ongoing investigations shows just how far-reaching competition law, with cases spanning practically every industry you can think of. The CMA has recently investigated industries as diverse as poster framing, freelance television staff agencies and electric vehicle charge points. These examples demonstrate that competition law applies to all sectors of commerce. Clients in any industry need to ensure strong compliance with the law.

What surprised you most about competition work once you started the seat?

One aspect of the seat that surprised me was the breadth of non-contentious work. As competition sits within the firm’s litigation regulatory enforcement department, I’d expected the work to be largely contentious in nature. However, the team is also heavily involved in a wide range of advisory matters. This often takes the form of providing legal advice or training materials for clients. For example, clients frequently seek guidance on how to train their staff to identify and avoid anti-competitive behaviour.

The team also supports corporate transactions, which represent another significant area of non-contentious work. The transactional work typically involves matters such as foreign direct investment (FDI) and merger threshold jurisdiction analysis.

I recently assisted on the carve-out acquisition of Kaplan Languages Group by our client Inspirit Capital. This transaction required several regulatory filings across multiple jurisdictions, making it a particularly interesting project. I worked closely with Priyanka Patel in our corporate team, as well as colleagues in the London competition team and our Brussels office. As part of this matter, I undertook detailed research on international FDI and merger control regimes, providing an opportunity to utilise my language skills.

Find out more about Priyanka’s role at Mayer Brown with her Meet the Lawyer profile.

As a trainee, how do you start to understand what the client is trying to achieve?

You don’t have to guess what matters most to a client – you hear it directly from them. We regularly attend calls and meetings with clients to discuss their active matters, providing valuable insight into the commercial, regulatory and reputational considerations that inform their approach and instructions. Clients want to ensure that their staff comply with competition law and that any potential anti-competitive conduct is investigated appropriately.

On one matter, Mayer Brown assisted a client in preparing a robust defence to a preliminary opinion from the local regulator. This required me to assist the team with a substantial review of UK and EU competition cases. After a seven-year investigation, we received confirmation on a Friday afternoon that the regulator had found no evidence of anti-competitive conduct. Hearing the client's reaction first-hand was a powerful reminder of the real impact of our work. It was certainly a very good start to the weekend!

How has your previous non-legal experience shaped the way you think about clients and commercial priorities?

There are several ways I think about these priorities. I don’t need to speculate about what matters most to clients because I’ve sat on the other side of the table. Through previous roles, I developed an understanding of the importance of cost, value and margin, with responsibility for managing budgets and delivering revenue. I also gained first-hand experience of navigating complex regulatory requirements, whether legal/regulatory obligations or industry best practice. As a result, I appreciate both the pressure and importance of ensuring compliance.

Working in-house, you gain an appreciation of the commercial factors that drive our clients. No two clients are the same, even when they occupy a similar space in the same industry. Each organisation has its own objectives, risk appetite and stakeholders. Balancing the priorities of senior management, boards and shareholders, and understanding the opportunities and tensions that can arise between them, is something I witnessed first-hand.

Finally, I’ve commissioned a variety of City law firms on various matters. I know the kind of advice our clients want: punctual, correct, commercially relevant and personalised to their circumstances.

What skills have you developed in this seat that help you think more commercially?

One of the reasons I wanted to complete a seat in competition was my suspicion that it’d be far more interesting than the subject you study on the LLB. That hunch has certainly been proven correct. A competition seat is a fantastic way to experience a fascinating and technical area of the law, while seeing first-hand how legal principles are applied in a commercial context. Trainees are given the chance to undertake detailed research and develop an understanding of how competition law affects clients’ day-to-day business activities and strategic decisions.

Another skill I’ve refined during my seat is adapting my communication style to different client audiences. A good example is creating client training materials. Most employees receiving the training will only have a basic awareness of general legal principles, so you have to explain complex issues as clearly and concisely as possible. This creates an interesting juxtaposition, as competition law itself can be highly technical and nuanced. Learning how to distil technical legal knowledge and translate it for clients is a valuable commercial skill that’s relevant across all areas of legal practice.

How do global economic factors impact the work you do?

Global economic factors can influence the matters advised by the competition team. For example, changes in interest rate can affect the flow of corporate work across City law firms. Even if interest rates are static, the regulatory landscape is constantly evolving. Transactions that didn’t require FDI or merger control filings a few months earlier can become subject to regulatory scrutiny as thresholds are revised or sectors redefined.

While the volume of transactional work may fluctuate, there’s a consistent stream of contentious and advisory matters. Given the breadth of competition law, the team has the opportunity to support clients across a wide range of industries on these issues. Contentious matters, in particular, can span several years and are often less directly linked to global economic factors. This diversity of work helps ensure a steady and varied workflow for the competition team.

For more on boosting your commercial awareness, check out our Commercial awareness hub, sponsored by Mayer Brown. Plus, read this LCN Says to find out more about commercial awareness lessons from finance practice at the firm.