Nobody can afford to be complacent right now. I’ve just re-read JG Ballard’s Empire of the Sun, and while I realise it may be going a bit far to compare the credit crunch to World War Two, the book’s message of not taking anything for granted is sound advice for anyone working in the City at the moment. Now is the time to keep a particularly close eye on clients’ objectives and align yourself accordingly — an approach that has been key to my enduring relationship with RBS, for whom I’ve just finished acting on its £12 billion rights issue.

As a restructuring specialist, a part of me has always associated downturns with drama and excitement. Some of the stuff that goes on is absolutely riveting. The dramatic collapse of the Maxwell empire stands out, as does the fall of Barings. I’ll never forget the Saturday evening spent rifling through boxes in their offices in Bishopsgate in the hours before the story was leaked to the press. For sheer full on adrenalin, it would be hard to top the search for the missing Parmalat billions. All were experiences where, momentarily at least, you felt like you were at the heart of the action.

Despite the state of the markets, there have still been some major UK and European deals going on. Last year’s epic ABM Amro takeover, on which I headed the team advising RBS, is a perfect example. Nevertheless, it’s clear that the focus is shifting farther afield. It’ll be interesting to see which of the top 12 firms does the global model best during the next few years.

Law was the sensible option. I actually wanted to go to drama school and pursue a career on the stage. However, somewhat conspiratorially, my parents and teachers teamed up to persuade me to do a law degree at Queen Mary’s instead. Fortunately, I found myself enjoying it — partly because I was lucky enough to have Lord Grabiner, QC, as a tutor. Still, I often wonder what would have happened if I’d pursued acting. I suppose the reality is that, like most actors, I would have spent a lot of time out of work.

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There was some irritation when I left Wilde Sapte to join Linklaters in 1990. I approached them: I’d just got to a point where I wanted a bigger platform. Attitudes towards lateral hires have changed hugely over the last decade, so it doesn’t seem such a big deal now. At the time, however, it was regarded as a very surprising thing to do.

Unnecessarily aggressive behaviour really irritates me. Respond in a knee-jerk way and you’re in danger of getting sucked into a very unconstructive cycle. On a recent deal, involving some very delicate rules affecting fiduciary liability, certain lawyers on the other side tried to destabilise our client’s directors personally. We waited, thought about the best way to respond, then, in a full plenary meeting, very politely enquired as to the reasoning behind their approach. They were, to put it mildly, rather embarrassed.

Corporate and commercial lawyers are at the end of the food chain. It’s not unusual for the guys from the client to pull up their chairs at six o’clock on a Friday evening and say, “Right, we’re off . . . can we expect the next turn of documents by Monday?” In that situation a law firm doesn’t have a lot of choice. Of course, as far as possible we try and manage it so that the same team isn’t getting banged weekend after weekend, night after night.

In the bad old days I’d often work extremely long hours. Fortunately I’m much better placed now, so I get a reasonable amount of time for hobbies. Racing my yacht is a passion; I recently did a regatta on Lake Michigan in Chicago and I’m about to go off to Cowes week. Also, as you can tell from the Alan Shearer autographed shirt hanging on my wall, I’m a big Newcastle United fan, which takes up a fair few of my Saturdays.

Naturally, I was disappointed not to become senior partner. You don’t run for something unless you want to win it, as David Cheyne well knows. He and I and the other contestant, Giles White, are good friends, and David is obviously doing an excellent job, so there are no hard feelings there. There’s still plenty to do at this firm, lots of challenges left. Do I have ambitions to do the top job in the future? I think we’ll just see how things go.

Robert Elliott is global head of banking at Linklaters

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