Husnara Begum

Magic Circle lawyer turned career guru Husnara Begum offers her top tips I have mentored hundreds of final seat trainees preparing to make the jump to newly qualified (NQ) level during some of the most challenging qualification rounds. This included the height of the Covid pandemic and now the uncertainty resulting from ongoing economic and geopolitical turbulence.

Magic Circle lawyer turned career guru Husnara Begum offers her top tips I have mentored hundreds of final seat trainees preparing to make the jump to newly qualified (NQ) level during some of the most challenging qualification rounds. This included the height of the Covid pandemic and now the uncertainty resulting from ongoing economic and geopolitical turbulence.

Husnara Begum reflects on life as a teetotalling magic circle trainee in the nineties Picture the scene. You’re a Muslim and a teetotaller. You’re a first seat trainee and you’ve been invited to a client wine tasting evening. Do you politely decline, saying you don’t drink or do you go along as an observer and then risk coming across as an ignorant outsider who doesn’t know Chardonnays from their Pinot Grigios? That was the dilemma I faced within months of starting my training contract.