Partner in charge (energy), Baker Botts, London

I had always wanted to be a lawyer from childhood, having been engrossed in a show called Crown Court. Needless to say, things worked out differently in the real world.

 I went to King’s College London, and had a truly excellent set of tutors in the first year who managed to rewire our brains from learning to thinking. Even so, it is still a huge leap then to start as a trainee and realise the amount of real thinking that is required to be a good lawyer, rather than rote learning.

Most of my work has been outside the UK, particularly in Russia and the Caspian, so some of our biggest challenges have been logistical, like trying to close a gas pipeline deal in a closed-down casino in Baku with a leaky roof, 94 different documents (not including multiple copies), 10 sets of tired senior company management, and no room for mistakes. We ran the closing like a military operation.

Having patience makes a good lawyer. And I sometimes wish I had a psychology degree.

If they behave professionally, there is a strong bond between lawyers on all sides of the table, as our role is to negotiate, but ultimately to get the deal done. No one wins if the parties just walk away.

I get some bizarrely childish reactions when I say I’m a lawyer, mainly from people who may have had a bad experience and think all lawyers are the same. I just explain rationally, and then run a key down the side of their car when the time comes to leave (joke!).

Parts of the Russian civil code give me heartburn.

I worry that some law firms have lost some of their professionalism, and become low-cost service providers. That may be no bad thing, but it leads to a stratification of the legal profession, more so than ever before. The rise of electronic communications has led to the demand for speedier delivery, and sometimes you lose the time to really ponder over a problem like we used to when I was a junior lawyer.

Big firms outside the magic circle and Wall Street firms need to specialise, or else become general providers and watch their margins fall. I trained at Slaughter and May, and the role of a generalist transactions lawyer was (and still is) valued.

We are on the cusp of having too many lawyers. Some of the increased specialisation means that more work will be done at the administrative end by non-lawyers and paralegals.

There are certainly too many students qualifying into law. It is a poor show to have students burden themselves with debt,  thinking that they are entering a safe profession, only to find that they will never achieve the career that they wanted, despite good qualifications.