60 second interview with Alistair Robertson, Fieldfisher

Date: 14 Jan 2020

Citywealth

Citywealth spoke to Alistair Robertson, private client partner at Fieldfisher about his recent accomplishments, including a team move from Linklaters in 2019.

Tell me about your role.

I am a partner in the Private Client team at Fieldfisher, a European law firm with over 300 partners across 25 offices.

What does a typical day look like for you?

My days are normally spent meeting or having telephone conversations with existing and potential clients regarding their matters. As I am still relatively new to Fieldfisher, I am spending a lot of time meeting with colleagues internally to find out about the range of expertise across the firm’s sectors and geographies, and how this can be of assistance to my clients. Fieldfisher has a market-leading Tech team as well as a Mayfair boutique private equity/hedge fund offering, which are providing a number of opportunities for overlap with our Private Client work.

Tell us about interesting client instructions.

The vast majority of my work is international which means that legal and political change in other jurisdictions quite often have a direct impact on my clients. This is particularly the case at the moment for my clients based in Hong Kong.

What challenges do your clients face and how are you helping your clients to overcome them?

The pace of legislative change in the Private Client world in recent years has been enormous, both in terms of continuous UK tax changes and supra-national regulatory developments. Keeping on top of this and making sense of it for clients is a constant challenge and involves a large degree of looking forward at the direction of travel in order to anticipate issues clients will face both now and in the future, and planning for these as best as possible.

What is your proudest professional achievement?

Moving the majority of the Linklaters Private Client team and our clients to Fieldfisher in August last year was a great achievement which I am very proud of. As with all these sorts of things, there were many moving parts and nothing was guaranteed. It is a great testament to the skills, ability and client-service focus of all of the lawyers that moved that our clients transferred with us.

What do you consider to be the most important attributes for a leader?

Creating an environment where the team is happy, motivated and empowered. Not an easy task but worth aiming for!

Who do you most admire and why?

I think the recent English court cases brought by Gina Miller in a very challenging, and often hostile environment, have had a profoundly positive impact in clarifying important aspects of the UK constitution. I recently listened to a podcast about the challenges she has faced in her personal life which made her achievements all the more admirable.

Where was the last place you travelled to for work or pleasure?

I was in Hong Kong a few weeks ago seeing clients and Singapore before that for the STEP Asia conference.

If you weren’t in the wealth management industry, what else might you be doing?

Probably a failed writer.

How do you relax after a long day?

Fieldfisher’s offices are right on the river by Monument and so running home along the riverbank is a great way to unwind.