Why did you choose to work at DLA Piper?

What first attracted me to DLA Piper was that it is one of the largest international law firms in the world. From a work perspective, this means having the opportunity work on global transactions. From a personal perspective, this means having the opportunity to go on secondment and work across various offices (I am from Hong Kong). Once I joined DLA Piper, what has made me stay is the people. I moved to DLA Piper in 2019 and haven’t looked back.

What have you learned from your experiences at DLA Piper?

No matter how excellent any individual is, success is achieved through working as a team. In my view, DLA Piper’s team culture is great, and there is a real emphasis on ensuring that we’re friends as well as colleagues. This is not only good from a general feel-good perspective, but your life also becomes much easier because it makes coordinating tasks, giving and receiving feedback and asking for guidance feel natural (and not seen as a weakness). Having good technical abilities is of course important, but there is a significant amount to be learned simply from working with others.

Do you have any advice for students aspiring to pursue a career in law?

Have an open mind and try a bit of everything. When I was at UNSW, I was certain that I was only going to be interested in IPT or Litigation work. Fast forward to today, I couldn’t imagine working in any other practice area than Corporate. Rotating through different practice groups helps you to develop your knowledge, skills, and networks, which will be useful wherever you end up working. The reality of working at DLA Piper is that matters often end up involving several practice groups, so having some background knowledge, as well as knowing who can help you (and how they can help you) can make things much easier for you.