Online | How to... Build a Legal Career

UCL Connect: How to...Build a Legal Career is an opportunity to hear from a diverse panel of UCL graduates from a variety of legal roles, for an honest insight into the successes and challenges of building a career in the legal sector. This event will delve into their professional experience and advice, before taking part in an audience Q&A.

The Chair 

Professor Graham Penn, UCL Faculty of Laws and Sidley Austin LLP

This event will be chaired by Professor Graham Penn, Professor of International Finance Law at UCL Faculty of Laws. In addition to his academic position, Professor Graham Penn is a partner at Sidley Austin LLP, one of the worlds’ largest law firms with over 2000 lawyers practicing in 20 offices worldwide.  He is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and Legal Opinions andAudit Letters Committee; and co-leader of its Global Finance practice. He also advises various governments and state related bodies on the introduction of new laws and regulation to facilitate and expand access to the international (cross border) capital markets.

Graham was included as one of the top 10 "European Legal Innovators of the Year" by the Financial Times whose report credited Graham as "a pioneer in structured finance and securitisation" noting that he "has been involved in some of the most ground-breaking transactions of the past two decades".  He was also included in the inaugural Chambers 100, a new ranking of the top five capital markets lawyers in the UK and praised for his "superior legal knowledge" and his "ability to understand and document complex financing structures".  He is consistently recognised year on year as a leading international finance lawyer by Chambers, The Legal 500, IFLR 1000, Who's Who Legal and, most recently, by Best Lawyers 2019.

The Panel

Charlotte Pope-Williams, UCL Laws LLB with French Law, 2009

Barrister at Pinsent Masons LLP with full rights of audience specialising in financial services disputes.

Charlotte was called to the Bar in 2011. Before starting work at Pinsents, Charlotte worked in the Bank of England's Legal Directorate having previously completed pupillage at chambers specialising in commercial, common law and criminal regulatory law.

Charlotte has a strong sense of civic duty and volunteers regularly in her local community and beyond.  Charlotte is an elected member of Bar Council and sits on the Employed Barristers Committee and Young Barristers Committee.  She also sits on the COMBAR's Equality and Diversity Committee. 

Baldeep Singh Namas, UCL Laws LLM International Banking and Finance Law, 2014

Baldeep is a solicitor at T. Rowe Price. He specialises in Associate/Legal Counsel in Asset Management, covering legal advisory, fund/product structuring, drafting and negotiating fund documentation, regulatory work and project work.

Ksenia Basavina, UCL Laws LLM, 2012

Ksenia is Head of GPO Contract Initiation at Bayer, with 10+ years of professional experience in international and cross-functional environments.

Charlie Turnbull, UCL Laws LLB with German Law, 2016

Charlie Turnbull is an Associate in the M&A and Corporate Finance team at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP. He joined the firm as a trainee in 2018 following his studies at UCL.

Charlie studied Law with German Law whilst at UCL and since graduating in 2016 he has been involved with a wide variety of graduate recruitment and mentoring programmes.

Lorraine Chimbga, UCL Laws LLB, 2016

Lorraine is Future IGNITE Trainee Solicitor at Clifford Chance. She graduated from UCL Laws in 2016, when she went to the LSE for Information Technology Law in her final year. Following this, Lorraine worked in Fintech coding financial regulation for a SaaS solution, and currently works in LegalTech helping to train AI that analyses commercial agreement. 

She also sits on the Advisory Board for The Society for Computers and Law and will commence on the new tech training contract at Clifford Chance next year.

Register now