TCLA General Discussion Thread #2 (2021)

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Strikes me as utterly needless and probably very expensive... the branding consultant was laughing all the way to the bank with that commission!

Also, nobody in the entire planet refers to Aberdeen as "abrdn", only "abdn" (take it from someone who lives here).

I just laughed as I read it as "A Burden" in a similar way to some of the comments in the post....

As I said to my colleagues, I swear missing out vowels from company names was something dodgy nightclubs did in the early 00s - I think someone was trying to relive their youth (not that all you lot will remember that time as you are all far too young... )

 

[karinny]

I’d be interested in people’s thoughts on this rebrand (not law)....

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stan...n-to-change-activity-6792343935290224640-wNb3

I thought it was a joke/very late April Fools!

The first thing that my brain registered when I read that was 'a burden'

 

[Matt_96]

Strikes me as utterly needless and probably very expensive... the branding consultant was laughing all the way to the bank with that commission!

Also, nobody in the entire planet refers to Aberdeen as "abrdn", only "abdn" (take it from someone who lives here).

It just makes me want to read it in a deeply Scottish accent!

 

[Jacob Miller]

I just laughed as I read it as "A Burden" in a similar way to some of the comments in the post....

As I said to my colleagues, I swear missing out vowels from company names was something dodgy nightclubs did in the early 00s - I think someone was trying to relive their youth (not that all you lot will remember that time as you are all far too young... )

It reminds me of someone trying to say "aberdeen" while heavily intoxicated and slurring their vowels, come to think of it!

 

[Daniel Boden]

I do most TCLA work with headphones on! Music makes a lot of tasks more enjoyable

Same here with law reading! Need bit of house music (even some EDM occasionally if I'm really struggling) to get me through some very dry leasehold covenants in Land for example

 

[Daniel Boden]

I’d be interested in people’s thoughts on this rebrand (not law)....

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stan...n-to-change-activity-6792343935290224640-wNb3

I thought it was a joke/very late April Fools!

The thing that springs to mind, in this case, is that some things are better left the way they are...

 

[jan28]

hi guys, how would you prepare for an interview where you haven’t been given much information about it? All i know is it is an interview with 2 partners. I feel really lost.

also on the topic of music whilst working, Hans Zimmer, Einaudi, Yiruma etc. are my people!

 

[jan28]

I’d be interested in people’s thoughts on this rebrand (not law)....

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stan...n-to-change-activity-6792343935290224640-wNb3

I thought it was a joke/very late April Fools!

This is really interesting and I wonder if dropping vowels is actually becoming a trend? Reminds me of SNKRS, an app that’s really big for buying exclusive trainers and the re-selling/flipping market atm

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

This is really interesting and I wonder if dropping vowels is actually becoming a trend? Reminds me of SNKRS, an app that’s really big for buying exclusive trainers and the re-selling/flipping market atm

It’s an awful trend if it is.... especially in this instance where the A is actually needed at the start

 

[Alice G]

also on the topic of music whilst working, Hans Zimmer, Einaudi, Yiruma etc. are my people!

Hi is it possible there might be something in the threads in TCLA about the firm if you don’t mind telling us which it is? If not, I think the best thing is just to prepare as widely as you can- know your motivations and practise competencies and try to have a couple of commercial news stories

 

[djqb]

This might be a very stupid question, but can someone please explain to me why US firms have much more well developed and sophisticated leveraged finance practices in comparison to UK firms?

It seems to be an area in which US firms excel greatly, demonstrate great expertise, and appear to be heads and shoulders over most UK firms (barring the Magic Circle and some SC firms).

 

[Alice G]

Also to weigh in on the music discussion- I find it so hard to work with music in the background! I really wish it wasn’t the case but I find it much harder to concentrate!

 

[Matt_96]

This is really interesting and I wonder if dropping vowels is actually becoming a trend? Reminds me of SNKRS, an app that’s really big for buying exclusive trainers and the re-selling/flipping market atm

I can't remember off the top of my head but I'm sure it is a trend. I'm positive I read an article about it once. People have had to start coming up with new ways of making their brand seem distinctive because with hundreds of thousands of companies in existence it is unlikely that calling yourself, for example, the 'London Asset Management Company' will stand out. There may be two or three companies with that name or a name sufficiently similar (e.g. Royal London Asset Management, which is a real company) that is likely to cause confusion. Much older companies could get away with it in the past because there were a lot less of them, which is why some of the oldest extant industry-leading companies always have such boring names, like British Petroleum or General Electric.

 

[jan28]

Hi is it possible there might be something in the threads in TCLA about the firm if you don’t mind telling us which it is? If not, I think the best thing is just to prepare as widely as you can- know your motivations and practise competencies and try to have a couple of commercial news stories

hey unfortunately there isn't much on tcla either. okay fab thank you!

 

[GK8997]

This might be a very stupid question, but can someone please explain to me why US firms have much more well developed and sophisticated leveraged finance practices in comparison to UK firms?

It seems to be an area in which US firms excel greatly, demonstrate great expertise, and appear to be heads and shoulders over most UK firms (barring the Magic Circle and some SC firms).

Hiya, I think the reason for this is that leverage finance normally uses a combination of loans (which are English law governed) and high yield bonds (which are NY law governed). US firms will already have NY qualified lawyers in their office so will have an established high yield practice while UK firms need to hire lawyers from the US who are qualified in NY law to deal with the bond documentation. I am guessing that it is harder for them to build up their practice because of this as UK law firms tend to have a less established presence in the US so will find it harder to recruit from the US to their London offices?

 

[jan28]

This might be a very stupid question, but can someone please explain to me why US firms have much more well developed and sophisticated leveraged finance practices in comparison to UK firms?

It seems to be an area in which US firms excel greatly, demonstrate great expertise, and appear to be heads and shoulders over most UK firms (barring the Magic Circle and some SC firms).

Also think that there's a bit of a historical element to this. If you look at the top PE firms e.g. KKR, Blackstone, Carlyle Group, they're all American. So naturally, American law firms have had more experience in this and over time built up their sophistication.

 

[Daniel Boden]

hi guys, how would you prepare for an interview where you haven’t been given much information about it? All i know is it is an interview with 2 partners. I feel really lost.

also on the topic of music whilst working, Hans Zimmer, Einaudi, Yiruma etc. are my people!

Totally agree! For 'deep focus' they're fantastic - the Inception and Dark Knight soundtracks are some of my goto playlists as are Einaudi and Yiruma

 

[Daniel Boden]

Hiya, I think the reason for this is that leverage finance normally uses a combination of loans (which are English law governed) and high yield bonds (which are NY law governed). US firms will already have NY qualified lawyers in their office so will have an established high yield practice while UK firms need to hire lawyers from the US who are qualified in NY law to deal with the bond documentation. I am guessing that it is harder for them to build up their practice because of this as UK law firms tend to have a less established presence in the US so will find it harder to recruit from the US to their London offices?

I think that's pretty much spot on and was pretty much exactly what a Gibson Dunn partner said when he explained the rise of US firms at the firm's open day

 

[Georgina Evans]

Has anyone who applied for the 2022 intake at Fox Williams heard anything about what the next stage of the process is?

 

[thatwonder_woman]

it really hasn’t sunk in yet but I FINALLY GOT THE CALL i have been waiting for for so long!!! I GOT A TRAINING CONTRACT with CHARLES RUSSELL SPEECHLYS