Jon East - Consultant Perspectives

JON EAST – CONSULTANT PERSPECTIVES

Jon East, a seasoned Senior Legal Consultant and proud Eversheds Sutherland alumnus, shares his journey from corporate associate to interim lawyer. We delve into Jon’s experiences and discover his top tips for anyone contemplating a similar career move.

Tell us a bit about you and your career at Eversheds Sutherland

My working life in the law (a profession I never intended to join when deciding to study law at Uni – but that’s another story) started as an articled clerk at Jaques & Lewis - which became the London office of Eversheds a short while after I joined the firm.

Qualifying into the Corporate Department, I “enjoyed” the traditional baptism of fire working late nights/ overnights/ weekends – all in the pre BlackBerry era and with very limited (if any) ability to work remotely, so all having to be done in the delightful surrounds of Senator House. It did, however mean that the Seahorse pub was nice and close and getting takeaways to sustain us was much easier than it would otherwise have been.

After a few years of that and having conquered the sporting Everest of being part of the London cricket team that won at the national sports weekend I headed off to work for Minter Ellison in Melbourne for a year and a bit. I returned in early 2000 to the comforts of Eversheds before heading off to work in-house (and won the “most successful leaver” award as a result).

And what drew you to consultancy work?

I worked in-house from 2000 to 2018 for a number of different organisations and in very different businesses (consumer packaging, consumer electronics and financial services) with a number of corporate transactions during that period – the highest profile one being the IPO of Jupiter Fund Management in 2010.

With a young family, my wife worked as an HR consultant for the majority of that period and I couldn’t help but look slightly enviously at her and the variety of work, people and environments she was exposed to. I also came to realise that life as a General Counsel – with all of the inevitable people and process management that came with it – wasn’t really what I wanted to do. Ditto working in financial services; time for a change!

Legal consultancy, then, became my focus with the two hardest questions being (a) what my daily rate should be and (b) what to call my personal services company.

I had maintained regular contact with a number of former colleagues at Eversheds (personally and professionally) and was impressed with the whole set up and premise of Konexo, so signing up was an easy decision. With encouragement from Konexo, I also signed up with a number of other law firm platforms and started life as a consultant.

What has legal consultancy looked like for you so far?

In the past 6.5 years, I have worked on a number of consultancy roles – one with an international business process outsourcing company through Konexo, which was originally for 6 months but ended up lasting almost 2 years! I have also had roles through other platforms and am currently working with a multinational contract foodservice company.

All of my roles have been M&A focussed, with a mixture of divestments and acquisitions, and my current role is the most involved yet. In a space of 15 days in October, I completed 3 transactions – one of which went from first drafts of the transaction documents to signing and closing in 10 days (we had the impending budget and expected CGT changes to thank for that one)!

Life with Konexo

The Konexo team have been great from day one – always friendly and professional, they understood that I only wanted to work in M&A roles and that I wanted to avoid returning to anything financial services related.

They get the balance right when I am on assignment too – whether through Konexo or other platforms – keeping in touch, checking what I am looking for next and passing appropriate roles to me for my thoughts on whether or not I am interested.

Finally, the social events (I always try to make these!) are a great way of keeping in touch in person with the Konexo team and fellow consultants – a number of whom are also with other platforms, so are frequently on the circuit.

What are your tips for lawyers considering consultancy?

A few thoughts on this one… because it’s not for everyone!

1.      You will need a clear sense of purpose and direction – why are you doing it?

2.      Leveraging your prior experience is key (so make sure you have some/ enough).

3.      Be confident, but humble – you are there to help (and enjoy yourself/ learn)… adding value from the start and being part of the team are the key (leave your ego at the door.)

4.      You’ll need to be flexible, comfortable with regular change and uncertainty (the consultant mindset is quite different to that of an employee).

5.      Having a supportive spouse/ partner will help enormously, particularly when you are between assignments.

If you are interested in joining Konexo get in touch: resourcing@konexoglobal.com