Graduate Recruitment
Meet our people
Tamsyn Mileham - Partner
Finance and projects
University of Birmingham
I joined DLA Piper in 1998 as a trainee and became a partner in our Leveraged Finance team in 2009. We primarily work with banks, but also borrowers and private equity houses, on the financing aspects of international mergers and acquisitions.
As a trainee in the Finance team, I really enjoyed the work, the dynamism of the team and I bonded well with my colleagues and clients, and therefore decided to qualify into the team. Our clients are experts in their fields, who want sensible and commercial advice from lawyers that they can relate to. As one of the leading mid-market firms in the leveraged finance market, we get a sizeable proportion of quality cross-border leveraged deals that come through.
However, our position in the market comes down to our hard work, always giving a really good service, getting out and meeting clients, and increasing the awareness of our brand. Networking and building client relationships probably take up probably around 50% of my time. Even when you’re working on a deal, you have to remember that you’re trying to build a long-term relationship with your clients and therefore hoping to win more business in the future.
When I joined DLA Piper, it was a mid-sized city law firm (Alsop Wilkinson) with a growing reputation. I was attracted by the ambition and the innovative thinking about what could be achieved. I think that still holds true now and we’re even more dynamic, international and exciting than we were back then.
The past decade has been a really interesting time to be here. You do feel a part of the overall expansion and it’s down to you to play your part in marketing the firm and integrating with our offices around the world. You can make as much of this international network as you want to and I think it’s exciting to be able to have regular contact with people in the offices around the world, some of which we work with on a regular basis and are building practices which cross the borders.
The career prospects are very good. It’s the kind of firm that takes you at face value and allows you to achieve whatever you would like to in your career, whether that be becoming a partner, a legal director or anything else. I’ve always felt very nurtured and supported in all my career decisions. If you have ideas about how you want to develop your practice then you’re encouraged to pursue them.
Whilst it’s very exciting and dynamic working in the City, you need to be aware that the hours can be quite long – it’s something you’ll have to live with if you work in London. That’s why it’s important to have a firm, team and type of work that you like. If you’re not dedicated and enthusiastic then you’re just going to be miserable if you’re still in the office at 3am in the morning. We have a great team spirit so, when you do work late, you’re there with people you enjoy working with.
You need to think about what you want out of life. But DLA Piper is the right place for someone looking for a dynamic and exciting environment with great learning opportunities. It’s a firm where you’re not just one of number of trainees but integral to every team you work with.
