Clifford Chance is an international law firm, headquartered in London, and a part of the Magic Circle. With key practice areas in corporate, global financial markets, dispute resolution, real estate, and tax, pensions & employment, the firm have a truly global team. The Insight Day offered on the 26th of October, via Zoom, was a brilliant experience to learn more about Clifford Chance!
We heard from the Head of Undergraduate Talent, Laura Yeates, who introduced us to who CC are and what they do. After this, we listened to a range of trainees and future trainees, from Alaa who is a university student, set to join the firm in 2023, to a fourth seat trainee, Felicity. This part of the day gave a brilliant look into the stages of becoming a solicitor, and the speakers spoke very honestly about their experiences.
We looked at a fictional Mergers and Acquisition case study, in a session led by Adrian Levy, in which Photogram wanted to buy TikTak from Orange. Three newly-qualified solicitors at CC took us through the timeline of such a deal, from investigations to closing the deal completely. We looked at three key issues in this deal. The first was logo theft, in which TikTak was facing a lawsuit. There were 4 main solutions: reduce purchase price; call off the deal completely; slow down the deal until the lawsuit is resolved; include contractual protections. The second issue was a rogue team member, who has been accused of taking bribes, and this has made headline news. The options to deal with this are: conduct an investigation; suspend the employee; dismiss the employee; inform investors and employees; issue a public statement. The final issue was the influencer contract that was a large part of Photogram’s desire to buy TikTak, but his contract has a clause that meant that the influencer could terminate the deal in the event that the owner of TikTak changes. In this problem, the first step is to ask whether the influencer plans to terminate, and then maybe make the purchase conditional on the influencer not terminating. After this, the negotiation and drafting stage takes place, and in this, we looked at some redrafting of certain clauses to make them airtight. This was a brilliant and engaging session, which encouraged me to look into a career in M&A.
The Intellectual Property session, led by Leigh Smith and Laura Hartley, introduced us to the field of IP, and some of the key types of IP. In his discussion of trademarks, I was intrigued to discover that the shape of London taxis and the smell of cut grass for tennis balls had both been, at some point, trademarked. Patents and copyrights are very interesting. One particularly interesting fact that Mr Smith introduced was that products produced by AI cannot be patented under current law, as they must be created by humans. Then, we looked at another case study, this time based on a social media influencer marketing campaign for the Vegan Milk Collective. I found this session really interesting!
Liam Porritt then joined us, which was amazing! We delved into his vlogging about law, and he taught us the importance of good personal branding. I will now, definitely, be working on my elevator pitch!
The day was excellent, and I learnt a lot from all the speakers. My thanks go to the Young Professional team, especially Dan, who ran the event today, and, of course, to the Clifford Chance lawyers who spoke to us today. Your wisdom and advice have been invaluable!
Aspiring Lawyer Online 