When Associate Sara Green swapped Johannesburg for London earlier this summer for an eight-month assignment she had little trouble acclimatizing. Though you could be fooled by a growing South African accent, Sara was actually born and raised in the UK.

She explains: “People in the London office find it hard to believe I grew up in Essex, but I actually only moved over to South Africa around five years ago. I wasn’t aware I’d picked up the accent, but people tell me it sounds like I’ve lived there all my life.”

Sara was educated in the UK and studied law at Oxford University before completing her training contract at Allen and Overy.

“People in the London office find it hard to believe I grew up in Essex.”

When she accepted a vacancy with South African law firm, Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs (ENS), in 2012 she initially expected to stay for around a year, but ended up staying permanently.

“I just fell in love with South Africa,” she says, “and particularly going out into the bush and experiencing the wildlife. I wasn’t what you’d consider an outdoors type before I moved over, but that has definitely changed.”

Sara joined the Firm in April 2014 and works in the EIPAF team, although due to the relatively small size of the Johannesburg office (around 20 fee earners) the work often crosses several practice areas.

She says: “We tend to help out wherever needed – on any one day I could be working on a private equity investment, project financing and real estate financing. This differs from London, where people tend to stay more in specialist teams. While I’m here, I’ll be working largely on private equity transactions under Ken Barry’s tutelage.”

Sara saw the chance of an assignment in London as an opportunity to integrate with the wider White & Case network and to increase her depth of experience with English law. She’s currently working on matters including a cross border fund formation and a private equity investment into an oil and gas asset.

“It’s also great for the office in Jo’burg, because it allows us to build relationships internally and demonstrate that we can deliver ‘one firm’ to our clients. The Jo’burg office is strategically focused on cross-border, Sub-Saharan Africa work, so having a good working relationship with London is critical.”

Staying in touch

Sara is on assignment in the London office until January, but she won’t be losing touch with the team in Johannesburg.

She says: “Because we’re a small office I’ll continue to work on matters with my clients in South Africa while I’m here alongside my London work.

“That means a bit of juggling, but it’s really important to keep those relationships going and to support the team back home.”

Though Sara does consider South Africa her home country now, she’s enjoying time with her family, who live in Southend, Essex.

“It’s been great catching up with them and seeing my mum and dad, sister and my nephew, as well as old friends from home and university.

“The London team has also been really welcoming and I’m enjoying the culture of catching up over a drink outside in the evenings, which is something we tend not to do in South Africa where the bars are generally in shopping malls.

“One thing that did take a bit of getting used to is the amount of structure over here. Even though I grew up in England the South African culture is so much more relaxed that you forget what it’s like in London.

“In Jo’burg our clients generally show up to meetings a few minutes late and it’s considered ‘on time’, but in London, if you arrive at 1.05pm for a 1pm meeting, you’re late.

“It’s the same if you’re paying for something in a shop of café. If you don’t have your money ready and move away from the till quickly here you can almost feel the frustration of the people behind you. In Jo’burg people are more likely to start chatting to you like they’ve known you all their lives. The pace is really different.”

Sara is relishing her assignment and would recommend the experience to anyone.

She says: “I’ve been really welcomed by the London team and I’m learning so much in terms of technical knowledge – people have been really generous with their time.

“When I joined White & Case back in 2014 it was with the international opportunities in mind, but I never realized just how supportive the Firm would be –they really want to push people’s development.

“I’m the third person from the Jo’burg office to come over here for an assignment and I’d encourage anyone else to take advantage of the global opportunities we have in White & Case.”

Did you know…

Outside of White & Case, Sara is a qualified field guide.

During her safari guide training course she studied everything from tracking big game to using the stars as a navigational tool, and how to accurately discharge a firearm.

She says: “The course covered just about everything you could think of, such as managing the land and its grazing capacities, arthropod behavior and identifying the ‘toilet paper’ tree.

“Of course you also get training in animal identification, tracking and safely approaching the big five on foot. It was amazing.”

Sara gets out into the bush whenever possible and has had a few close encounters, though nothing that’s concerned her.

She says: “I was having an outside bucket shower once when I noticed a wild dog was standing right next to me and there was an occasion where we had to frighten off a hyena that came to join us for dinner.

“The key thing to remember when walking in the bush though is: if you run, the animal will assume you’re dinner. So, just stay calm and try not to move!”