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Catherine Christie, from Edinburgh – Assistant.
"I started studying law at Glasgow University in 1992. After two years of the ordinary course I decided that I wanted to focus on a career in corporate/commercial law so I took a job for 6 weeks the following summer at Dickson Minto in order to get some practical experience.
My summer there involved filling in for trainees who were on holiday - which gave me a good insight into what a traineeship with DM would involve - and generally finding out what it was like to work in an office. What appealed to me most about DM at that time was the small teams of lawyers and the high degree of involvement trainees had working with those teams.
Following my summer placement at DM I decided to take private law honours, which included corporate and property law subjects reflecting my leaning towards commercial law. I joined DM as a trainee in September 1997. My traineeship involved regular training sessions (usually at least two a week) and quality work with lots of hands on deal experience in areas in which I had a genuine interest. I had four six-month ‘seats’ consisting of public company work (including working on a large listed company merger in London), banking, a general corporate seat specialising in transactions involving private companies, then six months working in London where the firm has had a major presence since the 1980s.
Working in London as a trainee was hard work but also extremely rewarding. DM is very highly respected in the London market and advises on some of the largest value transactions out there.
When I returned to Edinburgh I became an assistant in a general corporate law department where, as well as working on plenty of transactions, I do a wide variety of work for corporate clients, including advising on employment law and commercial contracts.
I have never recognised the aggressive, macho image which I have heard used to describe DM. If the firm does comes across as being aggressive sometimes then I would suggest that it is because we are trying to do the very best for our clients. In my experience the people here, and in particular the partners, are very commercially minded and focused on getting the job done rather than being, what are sometimes referred to as ‘point scorers’.
So what is it like to work at DM? It's really what you make it. There is a definite work ethic and we are all expected to put in the hours as and when the work requires it. But this is no different from working in any commercial law department in any law firm. There is however a real fun side to life here. Regular events include Friday night drinks, curry nights, ten-pin bowling, golf days
and 'away' days. Although DM has expanded significantly since I joined in 1997 (mostly by offering trainees jobs as assistants rather than by way of outside recruitment) it has not lost its small firm atmosphere and is still a firm where you know everyone there and have the opportunity to work at some point with most of them. Also, being a relatively young firm there is none of the traditional stuffiness of some other firms. An open door policy is operated rigorously and the partners are always available for advice or for chatting things through."
