ULaw’s Guy Grayson discusses his varied career
Guy Grayson has built a diverse legal career, working at firms that range from a regional medical negligence practice to several large international outfits. He spent eight years as a corporate lawyer in Moscow and later served as general counsel for a major financial services company. Today, he shares his expertise as a lecturer at The University of Law (ULaw) in Bloomsbury, preparing future lawyers for a life in commercial law.
Guy was working as a financial journalist when he came across a story on a medical negligence case which prompted him to consider qualifying as a lawyer. “I wanted to move on from the role of observer and commentator and become involved myself,” he tells me. “The lawyer who I spoke to who was acting on this matter was extremely well-informed about his sector area. I was impressed by the way he could use that knowledge and his knowledge of the litigation process to forge a very positive outcome for his client,” Guy says.
This experience motivated him to train with a medical negligence firm in Manchester. “I was fascinated by how lawyers could deliver a useful and beneficial outcome for the client affected and I wanted to get involved with that type of work.” However, during his training contract, Guy was less than enamoured by his litigation seat. “My overriding impression was that it took a long time to see results,” he says. “Working on cases could be extremely frustrating and it was often difficult to deliver tangible results but easy to incur quite material costs.” He was then taken under the wing of a corporate partner at the firm and spent much of his training contract in that department. “I enjoyed the cut and thrust of transactional work and the feeling of pushing through a transaction, getting it done and moving on to the next one,” Guy recalls. “I also became fascinated by the corporate and financial world. My background in financial journalism of course supported my knowledge in that area.”
This affinity for corporate and financial work drove Guy to London where he joined SJ Berwin, a firm dominating the private equity space at the time. I am curious to know about the skills and attributes Guy considers to be key for success in this area of law. He mentions developing a specialist in the sectors and types of businesses you are interested in, “If you have a keen interest in the client’s business, you’re on the front foot.” He continues: “The skill central to the corporate lawyer’s role is project management. Corporate lawyers need to be practically oriented and organised to keep a deal on track.” Guy was headhunted by Norton Rose (now Norton Rose Fulbright) and moved to Moscow with the firm in 2000. “During the course of a transaction in Moscow, I met the regional managing partner at Clifford Chance,” he recalls. Guy was then recruited by Clifford Chance where he worked until 2008.
I am curious to hear Guy’s insights into the commercial and legal scene in Moscow at this time. “When I first arrived, Russia had just got through the turbulent 1990s and a sovereign debt crisis,” he recalls. Vladimir Putin became the Russian president on New Year’s Eve 2000. “From that moment, Russia became a much more stable economy. Putin was considered to be the key stone in the arch which stabilised Russia,” says Guy. His experience in the city was one of prosperous economic growth. “The rouble was strengthening. The stock market was constantly improving. The price of a barrel of oil was increasing.” This manifested itself in a developing consumer economy as Russians opened bank accounts and held credit cards for the first time. “When I first arrived in Moscow, there was very little evidence of consumer activity. By the time I left there were four Ikea stores in the Moscow region alone,” Guy laughs.
All of this made busy and interesting work for corporate lawyers. “Working as a lawyer at that time, I had the impression of enormous investment coming in to Russia,” says Guy. “My work was divided 50/50 between working for the big Russian groups and working for foreign investors looking to acquire Russian assets. Many of the large deals I worked on had significant political overtones. It was a fascinating market to be in for a number of reasons.”
This buoyant economic mood came to an end with the financial crisis of 2008 which had commodities-based markets like Russia hard. “The effects of the financial crisis were significant in Russia,” Guy explains. “There were a lot of legal departures from Russia in the aftermath with a lot of the expat community moving out.” Guy was part of this expat exodus, moving back to London to take up a position at Hogan Lovells before going inhouse at an AIM listed financial services group.
I ask Guy about the differences between working in private practice and inhouse. “Servicing a client as a private practice lawyer is a narrowly defined role,” he responds.
“As a corporate lawyer, you will typically be advising on a specific transaction. Once that transaction is over, you will move on to a different transaction for a difference client. If you’re working inhouse, you have one client — the internal stakeholders of the business you are working within.”
Guy explains how inhouse lawyers become involved with the developmental strategy of the business. “When I was in-house, I worked on transactions, but I also worked on structuring the group and institutionalising the group, bringing in improved systems and processes,” he explains. “Inhouse lawyers have a much wider remit. They are operating as the business’s legal conscience and thinking about legal risk across a very wide spectrum.” I ask how this experience compared to Guy’s work in private practice. “I found it extremely involving,” is his response. “You’re in it up to your neck and it’s hard to switch off. It was frankly very challenging.”
Guy now lectures at The University of Law in Bloomsbury, bringing this range of legal experience to bear on his teaching. “I’ve done the transactions that I am lecturing on and I know how they play out in the real world,” he says. “I think the students appreciate that. It can add some colour to information that is otherwise pretty dry.”
To wrap up our discussion, I ask Guy what his advice would be to current law students aspiring to qualify as solicitors. “I get the sense that it can feel like a long haul for young law students who are starting out on the LLB or SQE,” he says. “While qualification may seem like an insurmountable hurdle, I try to convey to students that if they stick at it and are prepared to apply themselves, they will get where they’re going.” He adds that, “There is an ever-increasing demand for lawyers.”
Guy’s second pearl of wisdom is to make contacts and connections. “This profession is not just about the black letter law. Being able to draw on your contacts and connect with people is what will separate you from other lawyers in the future.” He would urge students to start this process as soon as possible. “Remember that people sitting beside you in class are the partners of the future. Start cultivating those contacts now.”
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