Behram is a senior banking and finance lawyer. He worked at Ashurst LLP in their leveraged finance and international loan markets group before joining CMS Cameron McKenna’s international finance department. He later joined Clifford Chance LLP in the litigations, dispute resolution and anti-trust team, advising on a variety of regulatory and litigation matters, as well as other City firms. His experience covers a broad range of multi-jurisdictional matters, leveraged finance in private equity deals, re-financing, restructuring, company re-organisations and investment grade loans. Here, he shares his insights on recent experiences as an Obelisk consultant.
How was working at a leading global financial services firm?
It was challenging but collegiate and varied, requiring real time legal input and problem solving for multiple business lines in complex commercial and operational scenarios.
Describe your favourite part of the role
Firstly, the subject matter was both enjoyable and interesting. My team dealt with legal implementation of a changing regulatory landscape across business lines. As this came from U.S., European and U.K. sources, the work was intellectually stimulating from a global legal view. Secondly and more relevant to me, I had a very knowledgeable and supportive, calm manager and was treated like a member of the team by other colleagues.
What was the biggest challenge?
It was delivering the business risk advice on 50 trading platforms in the run-up to the MiFIDII go live date. The time frame was really challenging and I had limited experience of the type of agreements we were looking at. To get through the steep learning curve, I found quiet places in the open plan office and was trained by my manager who was very experienced and made herself available.
Can you describe working as a freelance lawyer through Obelisk?
Being an Obelisk consultant has enhanced my continuing legal career development, which is exactly the sort of relationship you need when you have to adapt to a new role swiftly as the legal markets adapt to business needs. The Obelisk team has been very approachable and supportive and I think we have had a very good open dialogue in general terms to discuss any issues and concerns and also just to have a friendly chat over coffee. Obelisk has also been pro-active at finding roles that suit my strengths as well as servicing their clients, e.g. in the current Financial Regulatory space.
