Idil Yusuf

Education: Law, University of Kent

Coming from a very international background, I was keen to work across multiple jurisdictions. Watson Farley & Williams has a guaranteed international secondment: that was quite rare, especially at the time I joined. Working in Bangkok was a brilliant experience and the firm’s six-seat trainee rotation was also a real plus.

As a trainee, you work very closely with partners. With a great range of exposure to clients, you end up learning more in smaller, closer teams. I’ve had a lot of support and developed great mentors, including among senior leadership. Partners and senior associates have been supportive, people are friendly and the quality of work is excellent.

Some of my favourite moments have been spent on diversity, inclusion and sustainability initiatives. With our career insight days for students in Year 10, we invite local schools to visit the firm and we talk about what it’s like to be a commercial solicitor, and our specific journeys to reach that point. As a former inner city student myself, I enjoy seeing the students’ expressions – it makes me realise how far I’ve come and I find it worthwhile to tell them about exactly what we do here. I like being able to help other people get to the same position I’ve reached. For some, law is not an easy career to get into. If you don’t have role models, people who look like you and from similar backgrounds, it can be hard to access. MOSAIC, our ethnic and racial diversity network, supports the firm in making changes to become more inclusive.

Sustainability is key to what we’re doing. As solicitors, we need to help our clients make the transition into sustainable ventures, so we’re often tasked with helping them to structure and manage their transactions as sustainably as possible. Our fee-earners are committed to sustainability ventures, and increasingly this is an emphasis for us.