LAW DEGREE AND THEN WHAT ? THE WORLD OF OPPORTUNITIES
ROBERT RAJCZEWSKI
LAW DEGREE AND THEN WHAT ? THE WORLD OF OPPORTUNITIES
ROBERT RAJCZEWSKI
• Mr . Robert is currently an assistant manager in the Wealth and Asset Management Consulting ( Regulatory ) Team at KPMG UK
• He has had several legal publications in both the UK and Poland covering the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive ( AIFMD ), private equity , hostile takeovers , and force majeure
• He has an LLB ( English and French Law ) from Kent University , LLM ( International Business Law ) from University College London and is ongoing a PhD from Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main
• He is Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment ( CISI )
A few years ago , as a law student , I would have never expected to have a career outside law or that my first full-time job would be at a global professional services firm . Although I was fascinated with a prospect of becoming a practicing lawyer at one of the international law firms in London , I was also cognizant of the availability of other opportunities . Having explored various industries , attended numerous job fairs and talked to a number of young professionals , I eventually decided to pursue a non-legal route after graduating and consequently joined KPMG ’ s Financial Regulation Graduate Scheme in London . I was attracted to this consulting firm due to the dynamic nature of work and the exponential learning curve that would give me the opportunity to learn something new every single day and rapidly develop skills and expertise that would simply not be learnt anywhere else .
After three years , I am currently an Assistant Manager within the regulatory team where I deliver advisory and assurance services to asset managers and other financial services firms with regards to UK and EU regulatory developments and their impact on business models , policies and procedures of these firms . Whilst I am now familiar with the consulting world , I cannot say this was the case when I was a student making job applications . Despite my thorough research and active steps to learn more about a career in consulting , I had a nebulous idea of what would be expected of me and what type of projects I would be working on upon joining . However , as soon as I was placed on my first engagement , I quickly realised that studying law had given me the attributes which enabled me to face any task with confidence and professionalism .
Many people think that studying law is only suitable for those who wish to pursue a traditional legal career culminating in qualifying as either a barrister or a solicitor ; however , this could not be further from the truth . My personal work experiences in the regulatory area at KPMG validate the notion that studying law , a rigorous and challenging discipline , helps one develop plenty of valuable transferable skills that can be applied beyond law , effectively supporting other exciting careers such as regulatory consulting . Despite a steep learning curve , thanks to my versatile law degree and the multi-dimensional skills that it allowed me to develop , the transition to the financial regulation work environment was quite smooth and almost invisible .