André Pretorius

Title: Senior associate
Division: EU and competition
Location: London

I came to Herbert Smith straight from university after reading B.Com (Law) at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and a BA Law at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge. My career here began in October 2000 as a paralegal in the Brussels office and I am now a senior associate in London.

Herbert Smith held many attractions for me: its market-leading reputation for dispute resolution, its broad base of practice, and the essential decency of the people I encountered. Those early impressions have been confirmed the longer I have worked here.

There is no single approach to law at the firm, other than an uncompromising insistence on technical legal excellence.  This not only means always getting the law right - our clients rightly assume that as a given - but by going further and being innovative about helping them achieve their objectives.

I have had very wide exposure to international work: after being a paralegal in the firm's Brussels office, I did one of my trainee seats in Hong Kong.  Since then work has taken me to Malaysia, India, Sweden, Germany, Belgium and Italy, among others. 

There are ample opportunities to get involved with pro bono work – whether pro bono competition advocacy, the Free Representation Unit to develop advocacy skills or involvement with local schools and mentoring.  I have also been involved in the firm's death row defence work in the Caribbean.

Herbert Smith is an open, friendly, non-hierarchical, easy-going place to work.  We are in the business of law and that implies certain demands, but I have always sensed a recognition that our aims are best met by having the highest quality people doing challenging work in a happy environment.