Networked for success

For the past 14 years, Herbert Smith Freehills has run a programme to address social mobility by providing a three-week internship and follow-up contact for young people who might feel it is difficult to access a career in professional services. Leonardo de Rezende is one of those who has benefited enormously from the opportunity. 

Leo took part on the HSF scheme in 2016, while a first-year A level student at his school in south London. This was a school that the firm’s social mobility programme was particularly well suited for, with a high proportion of pupils coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. Leo himself was born in Brazil before the family moved to London. Neither of his parents had been to university. He grew up speaking Portuguese and Italian, learning English while at school. During his three-week long internship at the firm, Leo was introduced to banking litigation, competition and finance, as well as being given the opportunity to visit the firm’s Paris office to meet a range of international lawyers. Part of the internship included delivering a full pitch to a board of Goldman Sachs in-house counsel in the process of selecting law firms to be included on their panel. 

His main mentor was Frances Furnivall, a Senior Associate, who helped Leo the whole time of the programme from university selection and applications through to internship and job applications during university. “As well as just being a great person to bounce ideas off, Frances was incredibly supportive. For a young person making their way into the world of work, that was so helpful,” Leo says.

As well as Frances, Leo got support from HSF partner, Tom O’Neill, who helped when Leo was applying to join Goldman Sachs, and Honey Sanusi from the Responsible Business team, who ran the programme at the time and lined up many useful events for the scholars to go to. 

Leo also did an additional week-long summer internship at HSF while a university student. 

Leo has since joined Goldman Sachs, firstly interning as a member of their in-house legal team and then transferring to a full-time role on the banking side. “Getting closer to how financial markets operate through interning as a lawyer triggered a different interest for me,” Leo says. “I very much enjoyed my law degree from an academic standpoint and don’t regret choosing that as my degree, but I am more motivated by the world of finance.” 

Now, in a nice piece of serendipity, Leo finds himself in a position of being part of a team that instructs HSF! “I am in regular touch with Tom, but on the other side of the table. That is both slightly strange but very satisfactory and a real demonstration of the benefits of the networking scheme.”

Leo started off in the UK equity capital markets team working on capital markets deals, including IPOs and spin-offs, but has since transferred to Madrid for a stint in M&A before returning to London to cover Italian and Swiss capital markets.