Clifford Chance

I first joined Clifford Chance in May 2000 (in the third year of my Law studies) as an office junior in charge of basic administrative and legal tasks. I remained a part-time office junior until September 2001 when I passed the requisite tests and began work as a paralegal at the Prague office. Throughout this period, I was impressed by the quality of work the firm does for its clients, the team spirit and the career opportunities. This was an extremely valuable experience for me at the outset of my legal career; it enabled me to work closely with senior team members and revealed the very nature of the work at Clifford Chance, both with the challenges and the opportunities it brings.

In the autumn of 2001, the Prague office was extremely busy with a mandate from one of the front-running participants in the tender for the sale of the state-owned electricity incumbent CEZ; this key mandate meant that the capacities of the Prague office were pushed to their limits. 

I continued working as a paralegal until April 2002 and, after obtaining a master's degree from the Law Faculty of Charles University, I rejoined the Finance department of the Prague office as trainee in January 2003. The entire Prague office was then made up of 18 fee earners.

My most rewarding experience I've had so far

The most rewarding experience at Clifford Chance has to be making the client happy – it brings me a great deal of satisfaction to have a grateful client upon completion of a complex transaction involving hostile counter-parties – as well as seeing the resulting positive impact on the client's business.

What motivates me

My motivation stems from the satisfaction I have from the client work I do, the constantly changing and therefore challenging nature of my role, and my personal ambition to always perform at the very highest level.

The people 

The first thing that struck me about the people at Clifford Chance was how approachable they are. Everyone I encountered was very down-to-earth and modest, in fact it was very difficult to identify someone's role by the way they behaved. I rarely met anyone who took advantage of their position – all were equally open, easy-going and forthcoming.

The best thing about my job 

The aspect of my job I like best has to be its unpredictability – the varying nature of the work, changing roles, challenging tasks, and contact with highly talented people.

The work

I am one of the four partners of the Prague office and head of our Prague banking and finance department consisting of approximately ten lawyers. We cover bank lending, capital markets, regulatory, insolvency and restructuring mandates for the key domestic, as well as international clients.

I enjoy many aspects of the work, the clients we work for and the work we do for them (the Prague finance practice participated in a significant number of the key banking mandates in the region over the past few years).

I originally worked on both transactional (bank lending) and advisory work (energy and financial regulations). The increased activity in the relevant markets in 2004 and 2005 and the consequently higher pressure on the small finance team soon revealed my particular aptitude for the transactional type of work.