Cleary Gottlieb corporate partner Ashar Qureshi unleashes his penchant for untrammelled eloquence

Why did you become a lawyer? When I was interviewing for jobs as a law student, I had a terribly pretentious pat answer: a fascination with the use of language to order and govern human behaviour led me to the law. The truth is, being a lawyer seemed to be the least of all evils (little did I know).

Who has been the biggest influence on your career? I have been blessed with a line of mentors, but a law school professor for whom I worked as a researcher, Laurence Tribe, and two men that I am proud to call my partners, Ed Greene and Les Silverman, were particularly instrumental.

What's your proudest professional moment… and worst day on the job? Candidly, I haven't really had a proudest moment. Each day can seem the worst day until it turns into yesterday, at which point it does not really seem that bad.

What's your strongest characteristic… and worst trait? My strongest characteristic is never admitting defeat, never believing that there isn't a solution. Of course, that territory goes along with a certain, shall we say, pigheadedness.

What advice would you give to young deal lawyers starting out? Make sure this is what you want to be doing. Don't do it by default or only because the money is good.  Life is too short to be driven solely by a paycheck.

What's the best part of your job? Undoubtedly, working with very intelligent people – even the dimwits I deal with are sharp.

What's your strongest card – technical wizardry or smooth client skills (you can only pick one)? Neither, it's a willingness to listen (Editor: So client skills, basically).

What's the toughest ethical/moral dilemma your job has ever presented you with? I remember as a young associate being handed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of 'live' baby bonds. There was a temptation to take the money and run.

What's the worst corporate event you've ever attended? All corporate events are a tad tedious. Work do's are, after all, work do's.  Partner dinners, no matter how much you like your partners, can be a particular joy!

Most memorable deal you ever have worked on, and why? For me it must be the privatisation of the Mexican telecommunications company. It was the first major deal I worked on and it was one of the early, emerging markets privatisations. I was flung into the deep end and allowed to participate in all types of governmental deliberations.

What is the daftest bit of corporate jargon you've heard (and did you smirk)? Given my own penchant for untrammelled eloquence, I often come up with gobbledygook that I can't subsequently explain. My own motto is, of course, "to think outside the box to optimise our collective and individual optionality".

What will be the most significant market trend for capital markets over the next 12 months? Continued instability, particularly as we are buffeted by the vagaries of new and changing regulations promulgated as political compromises between people and institutions that have not really understood how the situation we find ourselves in came about.

Do you see yourself having a career outside law? Absolutely – I want to be grand poobah of a banana republic.

What's your favourite item of clothing? Pyjamas.

What's your favourite cheese? Paneer (in my saag, of course). You can't take a south Asian away from his curry!

What's the one aspect of life at Cleary that makes it stand out from anywhere else? The fact that the firm culture is an absence of a specific culture: as long as you do your job well and treat others with courtesy and respect, you can be who or what you want to be.