I Wanted to Know a Girl from a State School Could Succeed at a City Firm

When I accepted a training contract at Dechert I hoped to work on high-profile cases with an international element. I wanted to travel and use the foreign languages I’d studied for years at school and university, make friends and confirm my belief that a girl from a state-school background and with a non-Oxbridge education could succeed at a high-flying City firm. I achieved all those aspirations.

I was also eagerly looking forward to earning some decent money after five years of further education, even while I mourned in anticipation the loss of my social life and damage to my emotional wellbeing. I was so wide of the mark and am still at the firm five years on.