Work Life Quiz: Dominic Griffiths, Mayer Brown

What was your first-ever job?

Landscape gardener.

What was your worst ­experience as a trainee?

Two week’s paginating trial bundles in a windowless basement room.

Where’s the best place to go if you want to find out what’s really going on in the office?

My office on a Friday ­afternoon.

What time do you usually leave the office?

Between 8pm and 9pm if I’m lucky.

What do you do at weekends?

Entertain friends (with an Italian wife that means most weekends), go to Stamford Bridge to watch Chelsea FC and generally enjoy time with my three gorgeous children.

What’s your favourite ­restaurant?

Wiltons on Jermyn Street or The Boundary in Shoreditch (I’m addicted to the latter’s baba au rhum).

If you weren’t a lawyer what would you have been?

A celebrity gardener.

What’s your favourite film?

Withnail and I.

What was the first record you ever bought?

Watching the Detectives by Elvis Costello.

Who’s your hero and why?

Winston Churchill as he had the courage of his ­convictions and did the right thing for his people in the face of criticism (Silvio Berlusconi and Maurice Allen are strong contenders for the same reasons).

What’s the best thing about your job?

The people I work with.

What’s the toughest thing about your job?

The commute from ­Fulham.

What’s your biggest work/career mistake and what did you learn from it?

Everyone makes the odd mistake once or twice and I’m no exception. I learnt a good lesson early on: to come clean early and ­execute a good recovery.

What car do you drive?

A Mini Cooper Clubman.

What book are you currently reading?

Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore.

What’s your favourite ­children’s book?

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome.

What’s the most exciting deal/case you’ve worked on and why?

Recently, I acted for the arranger on a 17-­jurisdiction asset-based lending for a major ­international fashion retailer. It was a large cross-border deal with complex security issues with a short deadline. ­Historically, my first ­Italian securitisation, Bononia Funding (the trips to Bologna and Lugano are particularly memorable).

If you were stranded on a desert island, what two ­luxury items would you take?

A case of Château Latour ’82 and my wife.

What’s the worst partner ­conference location you’ve attended and why?

Mayer Brown conferences are generally in decent locations. I previously attended a conference in Bournemouth, where it appeared the only thing to do was drink (or so we thought on the first evening, to be greeted by team building games the following morning… ­eurrgh!).

What’s the longest you’ve worked without sleep?

I almost made 60 hours on an acquisition financing, but a junior associate still has a mobile phone picture of me dribbling on my desk at 8am on the (final) day of closing.

If a movie was being made about your life, which actor would play you and why?

Damien Lewis (a passing resemblance perhaps) or Colin Firth. He’s also ­married to an Italian and we both look fantastic in riding breeches.  

Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with and why?

Elvis Presley, as conspiracy theorists would have won.

Tell us two truths and one lie about yourself (in any order)

I cycled across China in 1998; I was arrested in Germany at the 2006 World Cup for looking like a football hooligan; and I won the Best-dressed ­Gentleman Award at the 2008 Hennessy Gold Cup races.

CV

Name: Dominic Griffiths

Firm: Mayer Brown

Title: Partner

Lives: Fulham, London

Education:

1991-94: BA History,

Bristol University

1994-96: Law, College of Law, London

Work history:

1996-98: Trainee, Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (BLG)

1998-2000: Finance associate, BLG

2000-05: Finance associate, White & Case

2002-03: Finance associate, White & Case (Milan office)

2005-06: Partner, Mayer Brown

2006-present: Head of London asset-based lending and ­securitisation, Mayer Brown