Name: Nicholas Vaughan
Uni attended: Durham
Seats undertaken: Commercial Litigation
and Real Estate
Current seat: Corporate in Milan
Why I chose Withers
The opportunity to work closely with Italian
clients and other Italian-speaking lawyers,
and to receive responsibility from my first
day in the office are two key factors that lead
me to believe that Withers is the ideal firm
for me. It is an expanding firm with
opportunities in whichever field I eventually
decide to qualify into. The chance to work in
an international forum, in a firm that offers
the highest professional advice to an elite
client base, is an opportunity that I couldn't
miss.The opportunities and responsibilities that
the firm offers means that it is an exciting
place to learn and develop my skills in a
challenging and ever-changing environment.
My seats
At Withers you do 4 seats of 6 months each.
So far I've experienced three seats –
Commercial Litigation, Real Estate and
Corporate in Milan and the experiences in
each could not be more different.
Commercial Litigation
During my time in the litigation department
I was involved in cases ranging from
international fraud to professional negligence,
from the recovery of lost/stolen art to
insolvency and hedge fund disputes. What I
enjoyed about this work was that whatever case
I was working on, I was always involved as a
proper member of the team. Tasks assigned to
mewithin the department ranged fromthemore
predictable and emblematic work of preparing
Instructions to Council, drafting witness
statements and preparing claim forms to more
colourful exercises and excursions such as
collecting witnesses from their homes to
ensure that they attended court and even, at
times, running out of court to buy tissues for
those witnesses who found the experience all a
bit too much. These latter experiences were,
of course, not very frequent but they did add
a spice of life that, one assumes, is difficult to
find in other departments.
Real Estate
My second seat was in the Real Estate
department and life could not have been more
different to my days spent in litigation. I was
given my own files from day one and had my
own clients. Nearly all of my client's were
Italian and I used my second language on a
daily basis. The real-estate department allowed
me to develop my skills further as a solicitor by
helpingme to createmy own style of interacting
with clients and other professionals. A typical
day would involve time on the phone, writing
emails, letters or faxes to clients or other
solicitors trying to ensure that a purchase or sale
ran as smoothly as possible. I assisted with
commercial real-estate work and was involved
in negotiating lease terms and carrying out duediligence
on commercial premises.
Corporate in Milan
My third and current seat is here in Milan,
working in the capital markets division of our
corporate department. Although the work done
in our Milan office is still UK law, a large part
of my time is spent interacting with our Italian
clients, foreign Counsels and Italian lawyers
and so much of my non-written work is done in
Italian. Unlike many English firms that have
offices in Italy, Withers has not merged or
formed a "best-friend" relationship with an
Italian firm and, as a result, I still feel very
much part of the Withers London corporate
team, despite working in a different country!
Work out here is very fast paced, involving
general corporate M&A advice but mainly
focusing on Italian companies listing on the
Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the
London Stock Exchange. Outside of the office,
Milan is a fantastic city and a great place to
spend six months of my training contract. The
city is lively and very entertaining but for me
the highlight must be that Milan has countless
ski-resorts on its doorstep and I amcounting the
days until the season begins.
Expectation v reality
My first year at Withers has definitely lived up
to the expectation that had built up since I
obtained my training contract three years ago.
From doing work experience at the firm, I knew
it was going to be an extremely friendly place to
work and that I was always going to be able to
ask questions whenever a problem arose that I
couldn't solve by myself. I have worked on
some extremely high-profile cases and been
involved in some exciting transactions. For
example, during my first two weeks in the Real
Estate department I was handed a conveyance
on an £8.5 million house in Chelsea, to do by
myself! It was very daunting but it is precisely
the reason why I choseWithers.
More Information
For more information on training at Withers
and to read profiles from other Withers'
trainees visit
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