Westley W

Profile:

I am a senior associate in the commercial, technology and copyright disputes team at Bristows. I trained at Slaughter and May and I also did an extended stint at a US firm before joining Bristows in 2017. My work involves helping clients to resolve problems in their business relationships. Sometimes that involves going to court or to a tribunal but that’s usually always a last resort.

I didn’t consider law as an option until halfway through my (non-law) degree at Warwick. I liked the idea of a career in law and of moving to London but I remember thinking that the chances of me getting a training contract were remote. I suppose I just didn’t have the confidence. My grades were always good but I didn’t know any lawyers and City law was a completely foreign world to me. I’m a bit embarrassed to say that I also remember worrying that I wouldn’t be a good “fit” because I grew up on a council estate in South Wales, I was the first person in my family to do A levels and I am gay.

I started phoning around local solicitors firms back home asking for work experience and I was invited to shadow a partner in a local firm for a week. I really enjoyed my time there and it gave me the confidence to make vacation scheme applications – and it also gave me something to say on them! That year, I was invited to join the vacation scheme at Slaughters and I was offered a training contract from the firm after the scheme. I’m now on the other side of the table and have interviewed lots of vacation scheme and training contract candidates, a part of my job that I really love.

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