A very warm welcome to Darcy Rak who joins White & Black as a Trainee Solicitor. Darcy will move through four seats during her period of recognised training, beginning in Litigation.

We asked Darcy a few questions to get to know her better!

Why did you choose a career in the law?

I turned to the law in 2021 when the Coronavirus pandemic took me out of my work as an opera singer and gave me the opportunity to re-assess my career. I had been curious about pursuing a legal profession throughout my undergraduate degree and operatic training. The academic and ever-changing nature of the law appealed to me. I was eager to do a job that helped others, which was something that was lacking in my line of work at the time. I saw the state of flux that the pandemic had put me in as my opportunity to grab the bull by the horns and transition into the law. Within a matter of weeks of lockdown, I started the PgDL, followed by the SQE, which led immediately onto me starting my training contract at WAB.

Which seats will you be moving through? And which one are you most excited about?

My training contract will involve me experiencing seats in the Litigation, Corporate and Commercial departments. Throughout my studies I was always drawn more towards contentious work as opposed to transactional, so I am excited to get involved in civil disputes in my litigation seat and see the journey of a case, be it through negotiation to settlement, or court proceedings. The Litigation team here is brilliant and I can’t wait to tap into their wealth of experience. I am also very excited to experience and learn more about how the Corporate team work. I look forward to getting involved in the exciting mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions and board governance and business restructuring matters that they work on. Again, the whole team is brilliant at what they do with huge amounts of experience and I’m really excited to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible from them.

What excites you most about joining WAB?

The aspect of WAB that won me over from the moment I set foot in the office on a work experience week, was the people. The team take great pride in the work they do and has clearly been carefully crafted to incorporate incredibly intelligent individuals, who think outside the box. I find this very inspiring; it is a fantastic environment in which to learn and develop as a legal practitioner and the passion and care for the work, displayed throughout the firm, is infectious.

What do you get up to when you’re out of the office?

I am a singer and my evenings and weekends are often spent at band rehearsals or performing in gigs/concerts for any of the 4 bands I am in. I am also an enthusiastic golfer; I enjoy spending my weekends roaming around the Cotswold countryside in pursuit of small white balls with regular picnic breaks!