“The size of the team makes it possible to know each other really well”
Before working in the legal field, I worked as an assistant at University where I taught translation from English into French. After that I became a translator in a small NGO working in Human rights. Just before joining Withers, I was a legal secretary in a Swiss law firm based here in Geneva.
The Geneva office is a small office with about 15 people from all corners of the globe: the UK, Canada, France, Singapore and USA. We also have a number of lawyers on secondment from the London office for a period of one or two years. We work mainly in the private client area, giving tax and trust advice across a range of jurisdictions. The size of the team makes it possible to know each other well.
I started at Withers as a legal secretary. I was then given the opportunity to become a paralegal and work alongside the lawyers. My work can be divided into two different parts. One part of my work consists of working closely with one particular lawyer on a specific file and being in charge of administrative matters relating to that file, much as a family office would do. It comprises liaising with the various service providers involved, maintaining corporate files, drafting resolutions, making payments, etc. This is an important part of my work. The other part of my work consists of assisting the other lawyers on trust-related matters, such as amending trust deeds, drafting letters of wishes, deeds of appointment and doing research.
The Geneva office opened in 2005 and was what you could call a start-up. What is very exciting about being part of a new office has been the creation process: everything needs to be decided and implemented. Of course, it has been difficult sometimes: good ideas proved impossible to be put in place and what looked to be bad ideas at first seemed finally to work quite well. A few (or more!) adjustments were needed and are probably still needed but overall the Geneva office works well. As the Geneva office is small, it is very different from working in the London or US offices, you need to be able to multi task well !
Of course, I can only speak about my experiences in the Geneva office. If you are dedicated to your work and prepared to work hard, you can expect your work to be recognized. Working in a small team also gives you the opportunity to learn about and become involved in the work of the whole team.