The Hot 100 career quiz: Browne Jacobson’s Tim Johnson

What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee?

I would like to say the various Junior Lawyers balls and parties, although I’m not sure how ‘vivid’ my recollection really is of some of those events…

On the work front I remember a few weeks into my first seat being asked to sit behind counsel for a two-week trial.  It was such an invaluable experience to watch a trial in full so early during my career.  Watching the advocates arguing over the tiniest details and nuances really taught me the importance of meticulous planning and preparation (and bundling!)

What is the thing in your professional career that has terrified you or taken you out of your comfort zone the most?

Launching our new policy wordings product with the inclusion of linguistic analysis certainly took me out of comfort zone (although I wouldn’t go as far as saying it terrified me).  Most lawyers – including me – are naturally very risk averse and although I had confidence in the quality of the product and the value it could add to our clients, it certainly required a leap of faith to launch something that was so different from anything the legal market had seen before. It certainly helped working in an innovative firm that is always looking for better and new ways to package our legal services and add value for our clients

What is the wisest thing anyone ever said to you (and who said it)?

My second seat as a trainee was in our real estate department supervised by Caroline Green, who has gone on to become the firm’s senior partner. I spent a substantial proportion of my time during that seat working on a very large and complex development contract for one of the firm’s logistics clients.  I remember presenting my first draft of a 30-page Report on Title to Caroline to review.

The Report included one of many lawyers’ favourite phrases, ‘for the avoidance of doubt’, to which Caroline’s response was, “if you have to say ‘for the avoidance of doubt’, go back and redraft it to take away the doubt in the first place!”.  This piece of advice has stayed with me and I am sure it has contributed to the drafting ethos of our policy wordings team.

Safe to say I haven’t used the phrase ‘for the avoidance of doubt’ since!

What advice would you give to someone who wants to get to where you are/do the job you do?

Quite simply ‘go for it’.  There is a perception that lawyers have to come from a certain background in order to be successful.  That is certainly not the case.  Dedication and hard work will get you a long way.  I also recommend using your training contract or pupillage to experience as wide a variety of practice areas as possible.

When I started my training contract I was convinced I was going to be a corporate finance lawyer… then an environmental lawyer… and eventually an insurance lawyer.  You never really know what you’re going to like until you’ve tried a few areas.  You only have a relatively short period to try out different areas of law before pinning your colours to the mast.  Use them wisely.

What’s your best friend from law school doing now?

Rather predictably, a partner in a law firm!