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Colin MacNeill, from Edinburgh - Partner.
"I remember hearing as a student about these people called Dickson Minto that had broken away from one of the large established Edinburgh law firms with the sole purpose of practising corporate law. For committing such a cardinal sin they had been labelled the "enfants terrible" of the Scottish legal scene.
I didn't know much about corporate law at the time and couldn't have told you what ‘Big Bang', ‘insider dealing', ‘hostile takeover' or ‘illegal share support scheme' meant. But such was the significance of these terms in the late 1980s that they managed to find their way out of the business pages of the papers (which I never read) into the mainstream news (which I only pretended to read because doing so gave one the air of maturity in the law library) and created a certain glamour and mystique about the corporate world.
Having been (mis)sold on the glamour and mystique of that corporate world I thought that Dickson Minto would be the firm for me. I was interviewed by Bruce Minto and noticed that while he was young enough to be an "enfant" he was far too cheerful to be "terrible". If this firm is far-sighted enough to employ me (my qualities not being immediately apparent) I thought at the time, then I might rather enjoy the experience (especially the glamour and mystique).
The firm was indeed far-sighted enough to employ me and in 1991 I started as a trainee. I didn't think I had been particularly indolent as a student (certainly not compared to some of my peers) but I soon realised after beginning the traineeship that I had never really worked hard at anything in my life. Looking back, the difficult lesson to learn was not so much getting used to the physical demands of work. (For a student even turning up five consecutive days in a row is a mountain to climb but most of us do eventually master it). Instead the difficult lesson (and more valuable once learnt) was to appreciate fully the need for quality in all that the firm does.
Luckily though, at Dickson Minto there was (and still is) a lot of quality around. The quality of the people I have learnt from is second to none as is the quality of the transactions I have worked on. I guess some of it must have rubbed off because they made me a partner in 2001.
The quality of the fun at DM has also been second to none. In particular, what is significant in all of our day-to-day lives here is the openness we all enjoy and the collegiate atmosphere which, combined, create a particularly sociable environment five days a week and not just on nights out.
Add to that the immense satisfaction of doing a good job working with some very talented people (clients and colleagues) and the value of being a lawyer at Dickson Minto becomes apparent.
The only thing missing is the glamour…"
