Louise Kidd joined Coudert Brothers as a trainee in September 2004, moving with the Coudert London office to Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in June 2005. Louise graduated in Land Economy (MA) from New Hall, Cambridge. She is an Associate in the Real Estate Department

I joined Coudert Brothers as a trainee in September 2004. My first two seats were in Finance and Real Estate prior to moving across to Orrick in June 2005 where I completed my training contract with my final two seats being Litigation and then a second seat in Real Estate .

Having studied Land Economy at Cambridge I knew I wanted to work within property and my first seat at Coudert confirmed this. In Real Estate you are given your own files to run under careful supervision so I felt I was contributing to the department from day one while also learning a lot. 

I prefer transactions where there is a physical entity at the end – be it an new retailer in a shopping centre, a residential house or an affordable housing development. 

My final seat in  Real Estate gave gentle introduction to the work I have since been doing as a newly qualified. I have been able to build up relationships with the clients. A benefit of working within the Real Estate department is that you get a lot of client contact. 

There are plenty of social events and clubs both firm-wide and office specific such as office end of month drinks and an in-house yoga class. Orrick also hosts a number of client events such as days out to the Windsor Races. Orrick is also extremely supportive of pro bono activities and everyone is encouraged to take part as well as come up with future initiatives. This can add to the variety of experience you gain as well as being a great opportunity to give something back to the community.