A legal career at Bell Gully

 

Rachel Paris

Position: Partner
Department: Banking and finance

I summer-clerked at Bell Gully and returned as a law clerk in January 2000. It was my first full-time job out of university. After two years I completed my Masters at Harvard Law School in the US and then spent three years working as a lawyer in London. I then returned to Bell Gully in 2006.

I am really enjoying my partnership role, mainly because I have the opportunity to be involved in strategy, business development and staff recruitment in addition to advising clients. It is busy, of course, but I am very lucky as a working mother to have a flexible partnership arrangement which enables me to work (on average) a four-day week in a challenging job.

I have a varied practice which includes advising on secured and unsecured syndicated lending transactions, structured financings (securitisations, limited recourse project and entertainment financing) and capital markets programmes. Recently I have been involved in restructuring a number of distressed borrowers' debt facilities which reflects the state of the current market. I also provide regulatory advice to domestic and offshore clients.

At Bell Gully, we are consistently involved in high-profile and interesting work from our blue-chip client base. Bell Gully is invariably involved in the large commercial transactions which are reported on in the business press, so it is a dynamic place to work. In my view, what sets Bell Gully apart, beyond the quality of the work, is our firm culture: there is a strong sense of fun, collegiality and integrity. The fact that over 80 percent of our partners and senior associates summer-clerked at Bell Gully and returned to the firm after working and/or studying abroad has ensured that this culture remains strong and also demonstrates that our people have such a good experience here that they want to come back.