Name: Daniel Simons
Organisation: Hogan Lovells
Role: Corporate Partner
Location: London
Trained at: Linklaters
Year qualified: 2005
What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee?
Within the first month of my seat in the Linklaters corporate team in September 2003, we did an all-nighter before launching Pierre & Vacances’s acquisition of Center Parcs. As a thank you, as soon as the deal had signed, the partner in charge took us all to Ferraris in Smithfield for a 7.30am fry-up where we were joined by most of the Smithfield Meat workers who had just finished their shifts! Unsurprisingly, this tradition has been repeated on more than a few occasions over the years!
What is the thing in your professional career that has terrified you or taken you out of your comfort zone the most?
When I was a trainee in the Equity and Debt Markets team at Linklaters, sitting with the wonderful Elaine Keats, we were doing a financing for Prada and needed to deliver $200m of bearer bonds to Deutsche Bank’s offices in Frankfurt in advance of completion. As bearer bonds are unregistered and the owner of a bearer bond is the person in possession of it, I was entrusted with hand delivering these in person!
What is the wisest thing anyone ever said to you (and who said it)?
When I was on a work experience placement at Herbert Smith aged 17, I turned up to work in a navy suit, green shirt and a navy/green tie. At that time, I had little experience of a City law firm and, although I did my best so blend in, I stood out like a sore thumb with my garish attire. One morning while I was making a coffee, a senior partner came up to me and said. “I’d like to give you some free advice young man. Us lawyers are a conservative bunch and so I suggest that you never wear a green shirt in to the office ever again!” And I never did!
What advice would you give to someone who wants to get to where you are/do the job you do?
Work hard, embrace opportunities that come your way even if they take you outside of your comfort zone and learn from your mistakes.
What’s your best friend from law school doing now?
John Connell and I studied Law at the University of Manchester and attended Law School together, we’re both now Corporate Partners in Hogan Lovells’s London office!
