Rafael

Profile:

Although my parents were very committed to my education, neither of them had a formal education themselves and they arrived as economic migrants from elsewhere in Europe in the late sixties and so initially a career in law seemed a distant prospect.

Thanks to their encouragement and support however, I attained excellent grades at school. Unfortunately, and purely due to my own lack of focus, my university tutors’ relatively hands-off approach meant that I neglected my studies in favour of the hockey pitch and college bar, and I received a 2:2 which I thought had torpedoed any chance of a career in commercial law (which is what I had decided was the career most closely matching the skills I had and, frankly, would most easily pay for a roof over my head).

I spent many months applying to the wrong law firms – top tier London corporate firms that simply had too many candidates who ticked all boxes to warrant the time spent interviewing a candidate who did not. I then applied to smaller firms where I thought personality might make more of a difference to a more tightly-knit office network and succeeded in getting a training contract with a niche IP/IT firm which luckily closely matched my own personal interests and where I received excellent exposure to what was then a rapidly developing area of legal practise.

I moved in-house relatively quickly as one of the firm’s clients – a large financial institution to which I was seconded – offered to turn a secondment into a permanent position and I was keen to experience the opportunities of working in a much larger institution where my advice would have a direct impact on the bank’s business.

Having started in Morgan Stanley’s London office, after 2 years there I negotiated a transfer to the Hong Kong office where I worked for 4 years until I decided that, before I had children and lost the risk appetite, I would start my own business and I had a 5-year career break.

Although my business was a success, with a young family and after 10 years in Asia, I decided to return to the UK and to a career in law with a position at Bank of America Merrill Lynch as Assistant General Counsel. Since then I have moved on to a position with Beazley, a leading cyber-liability risk insurer, as their International Breach Response Manager.

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