Victoria Ballantyne, Associate

I came to London to join Slaughter and May after completing my training contract with a leading Scottish law firm. What appealed to me about SandM was the broad range of work, the size of the deals and, of course, the quality of its client list. I felt that the best way to become a good lawyer was to get out of my comfort zone and SandM's multi-specialist approach certainly trains you to adapt your legal skills to cater for a range of situations.

The firm's international strategy means that we always work with the best law firms in any given jurisdiction. I have recently been involved in a deal where we worked alongside one of our "Best Friends", Uría Menéndez, which was a great experience.

Earlier this year I played in a football tournament organised by one of our "Best Friends" in Germany where I met lawyers from across Europe as well as a lawyer from Uría whom I had been working with - it was nice to "put a face to a name". It was also an excellent opportunity to do something different and socialise with colleagues from across the firm.