My legal life: Lara Kaplan, Department for Business and Trade

One of the things I love about law is the variety of legal issues and working environments you can experience. To date, my career has included a combination of public law, financial services and European legal and international experiences, both in private practice and at the Financial Conduct Authority and World Bank.

After graduating from Cambridge, I trained in private practice in London and spent a couple of years working in financial services regulation and fintech. I was fortunate to take the opportunity of working across the Atlantic in Washington DC where I frequented Congress and regularly dealt with novel, complex legal issues with hard deadlines. Because fintech straddles different disciplines, it often required quickly getting up to speed on a broad range of laws concerning non-banking firms and payment companies. As a World Bank consultant in the Finance Competitiveness & Innovation Global Group, I worked in a team of lawyers, policy personnel and specialists from across the globe. I had the honour of being nominated by the DC Mayor to serve as Commissioner for Financial Services on the Innovation Council where we worked on establishing a regulatory sandbox in DC.

In my favourite hit musical Hamilton, there’s a song about wanting to be ‘in the room where it happens’, and this is certainly the case for trade lawyers who are in the room for negotiations with other countries. As an international trade lawyer, you become a key player in shaping and safeguarding the UK’s economic interests on the global stage. This high-profile work requires a deep understanding of international trade, as you are regularly analysing complex trade policies, negotiating agreements and addressing disputes that may arise between nations. The ever-evolving nature of global trade means that adaptability and staying current with international developments are essential. 

'As an international trade lawyer, you become a key player in shaping and safeguarding the UK’s economic interests on the global stage'  

Joining the new Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is exciting. DBT lawyers work in partnership with policy colleagues to negotiate and deliver the UK’s ambitious free trade agreement (FTA) programme. We are given extensive training and tools to develop our capability on international trade. From the minute you join, you start contributing to trade strategy development, managing dispute risks, considering World Trade Organisation strategy, and supporting the negotiation of high-quality cross-cutting and sector-focused provisions of FTAs.

I specialise in international investments. This means I actively participate in the negotiations and strategy, stakeholder engagement as well as assessing the legal effects of approaches that policy may be considering. I advise clients on investment liberalisation or protection clauses, and developing an investment policy strategy.

We advise throughout the whole lifecycle of a free trade agreement. Before the egg is hatched and negotiations can take place, lawyers have a formal role in setting the mandate necessary to achieve policy objectives. This often involves collaborating closely with diplomats, policymakers, and experts from various fields to ensure that trade relations remain fair, transparent and mutually beneficial. Next, we draft the actual text of the agreement, which is intricate, detail-oriented, time-consuming, and often demanding but very rewarding. A lot of precision and clarity is required, but it’s worth it as the resulting FTA is professionally satisfying.   

My favourite part of our role involves engaging in negotiations. Lawyers are present for the negotiations, often necessitating the rapid provision of concise and lucid advice that aligns with policy objectives all while operating under time constraints. This process can span successive rounds of negotiations. This demands a combination of diplomacy, adept negotiation skills, and a willingness to find middle ground. It often entails travelling to the negotiating country. Following the negotiation phase, once the FTA has been mutually established, DBT lawyers play a vital role in overseeing the ratification and execution of the FTA. Achieving success here holds the potential to enhance economic relations significantly and boost growth and prosperity in both countries. So yes, when people wonder what it’s like to work as a trade lawyer, their first thought might not be the hit musical Hamilton, but trade lawyers can happily say they are in the room where it happens.