That’s the question we’re asking in a new series of features called ‘Letter to my younger self’. First to take part is Executive Committee member Oliver Brettle.

I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a lawyer. When I was young I watched a popular UK TV series, Crown Court, and dreamt of being a barrister, but I soon realized I’d be better suited to the team aspect of working in a law firm. My father was a lawyer – perhaps it is in the genes.

I qualified in 1989 after doing my undergraduate law degree at Oxford University. I had a great time – not all work!

I now know that I totally underestimated the amount of study involved and so, with time running out, I realized I’d need to do a week’s worth of study every day for the last eight and a half weeks in my final year in order to do enough in my finals to get a decent degree. I virtually killed myself in the process, and vowed not to be so last minute again.

On finishing law school, I joined Farrer & Co, who introduced me to employment law through their client, Rupert Murdoch’s News International.

Even though just a trainee, the client insisted I do practically all their day-to-day employment work. Having said that, I nearly destroyed my career crashing into a senior partner’s car when using the partners’ car park for my own car!

In many ways, while I loved the work, I regretted my decision to join Farrer & Co because, after Big Bang (the deregulation of the financial markets in London), firms such as Linklaters and Clifford Chance quickly powered ahead, while Farrer & Co, and many other law firms, got left behind. So, the only way I would get the chance to work with further large companies and broaden my experience would be to move to a City firm.

That taught me to research thoroughly before making big career decisions although, remember, I didn’t have the help of the Internet or Legal 500, and law firms in the UK were not allowed publicity materials back in 1989!

When I started, I never thought I’d end up working for an international law firm because there were rules and regulations that prohibited English solicitors from being in partnership with non-English solicitors.

It was only in 1993 that the profession was deregulated, which gave rise to the internationalization of legal practice in London. The rest, as they say, is history.

Law changed a lot in the 1990s, becoming more professional and client-orientated. Previously, legal practice in London had been too much about who you knew, but that became less important, which was a good thing.

It was a very different world to when I first started, when ‘long lunches’ were commonplace, as was smoking in the office. We didn’t even have standalone computers, let alone a network, but what we did have were glorified electronic typewriters with disks you had to carry around!

The opportunity to join White & Case came up in 2001. I was at Ashurst at the time, having joined them back in 1995.

I was coming up for eight years’ qualified and was beginning to think about my partnership prospects, which seemed to be quite distant at Ashurst.

Offers came in from three firms, but the people I met during the interview process, including Doug Peel, Philip Stopford, Peter Finlay and Duane Wall, convinced me to come to White & Case.

If I were to give my younger self advice on how to get on in the Firm, I’d say follow the advice I was given by Peter Finlay.

He told me to get around the offices, get myself known by other partners, and don’t neglect marketing and business development, even if I was really busy.

He also stressed the importance of getting on well with colleagues, working hard and being responsive.

One of my career highlights so far has to be the 40^th anniversary of the London office. It was 2011 and there was a feeling that the City – and White & Case in London – was finally bouncing back from the financial crisis.

I was asked to speak at a big event at Mansion House with about 400 clients attending. Seeing the strength of support for the Firm in that huge room was an amazing experience.

That event was a real celebration of all that we had achieved and gone through in a pretty tough period in London.

“I’m proud that the London office has since become an integral part of the broader Firm and that we’ve built a very strong reputation within the legal and business community here.”

Becoming Office Executive Partner (OEP) back in November 2008 was also a huge career highlight. I’m proud that the London office has since become an integral part of the broader Firm and that we’ve built a very strong reputation within the legal and business community here, where we are genuinely regarded as an alternative to the Magic Circle firms.

To get to that point is an amazing achievement made possible by the hard work and excellence of so many people.

As OEP, I became more aware of the importance of our Business Services teams and became even more aware when I joined the Executive Committee in 2009. It’s great to have people who our lawyers can trust to make Business Services-related decisions.

It’s a bit of a cliché, but if I could go back in time and relive one day it would be my wedding day. It was such an amazingly rushed, packed day and I’d just like to go back, take it all in, and get to speak to all the people I didn’t get a chance to speak to on the day.

“We were cursed with the worst weather I’ve ever seen at a wedding.”

We were cursed with the worst weather I’ve ever seen at a wedding. There was driving rain, extremely strong winds, unbelievable cold and, to compound the feeling of misfortune, the following day was the warmest October day on record!

Having said that, 24 years on, Emily and I are still happily married with three adult, or nearly adult, sons.

If I could have one last conversation with someone no longer with us, it would be my maternal grandfather. He was very much ahead of his time, amazingly dynamic, and the only person I am related to who was really ‘in business’.

The rest of the adults in my family were fairly academic, and most slightly other-wordly, but he was different.

He had that determination to be first with everything, such as having a remote-controlled colour television when everyone else was still watching black and white. He always wore smart, fashionable suits (unlike me).

He was a true visionary who saw the changes that were happening in retail in the United States and pushed them forward into the UK.

He pursued the idea of Duty Free shops and helped introduce the world’s first automated ordering system.

Back then, this sort of customer focus and innovation was unheard of. He was the only one who really had a vision and an understanding of the way that the world was going. He was a huge and lasting influence on me.