Lovells rising star Tom Whelan on the highs and lows of City life and ballroom dancing for charidee

Why did you become a lawyer? Back in my student days, I enjoyed a three-week summer placement scheme at Gouldens (as it was called back in the heady days of 1989) and I enjoyed the buzz of working in the City.

Who has been the biggest influence on your career? I would have to pick two mentors from my former firms: Michael Johns of Ashurst, who was always commercial, calm under pressure and able to retain a great sense of humour throughout even the most trying of transactions; and Andrew Holt of DLA Piper – again always commercial, focused, extremely hardworking and straight to the point with no BS.

What's your proudest professional moment? Without a doubt joining the partnership at Lovells.

… and worst day on the job? Worst days rather than day was living through the experience of our recent redundancy programme and seeing the effects it had on our associates.

What's your strongest characteristic… and worst trait? Getting the job done… and not delegating enough.

What advice would you give to young deal lawyers starting out? Confidence is the key to success and you should never be afraid to ask questions if you are unclear as to instructions or what is required of you.

What's the best part of your job? Winning new work, which is always a good excuse for a celebration.

What most annoys you about the legal profession? Uncommercial lawyers i.e. those who rely on technical wizardry.

What's your strongest card – technical wizardry or smooth client skills (you can only pick one)? Probably smooth client skills, although you would have to ask the clients I have represented for their views on this subject!

What's the worst corporate event you've ever attended? A DLA Piper partner conference when the main business of the partnership meeting was conducted while England were beating Australia in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. What a game to have missed!

Most memorable deal you ever have worked on, and why? The sale of the Savoy Group by the Blackstone Group to Quinlan Private when we concluded sale contracts in less than 24 hours from start to finish on early Saturday morning. It was particularly fortunate as that Saturday happened to be my birthday.

What will be the most significant market trend for private equity over the next 12 months? Two trends: firstly, private equity houses will have to get used to the fact that investors in private equity funds will want a greater say over the terms of their commitments; and secondly, many houses will struggle to achieve the returns they were seeing before the downturn as a result of smaller debt multiples and more expensive debt.

Do you see yourself having a career outside law? No – having worked hard to make partnership and build a business, it seems odd to leave that behind and go and do something entirely different.

What's your favourite item of clothing? My Hackett jacket, which my children detest!

What is on your ipod at the moment? Viva La Vida by Coldplay and various ballroom dancing music. By way of explanation on the latter, I have 'volunteered' to take part in a ballroom dancing competition for charity (click here to make a donation) which involves learning to dance the cha cha, jive, waltz and tango from scratch. Given the way my dancing is progressing my best hope is that I get the John Sergeant sympathy vote!

What's your favourite cheese? Epoisse.

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