28 March 2008
Fresh out of university Nathan Butler began his legal career with Clayton Utz in 1995 – spending six years with the firm's Melbourne M&A group and shortly after joining the National Australia Bank's in-house legal team.
Since beginning with NAB in 2001 Nathan has swiftly progressed from his first promotion to the head of the corporate advisory team in 2005 to the deputy general counsel in September last year to his current position as the Bank's Acting General Counsel – to which he was appointed at the beginning of March this year.
Nathan spoke to us about his new role and his memories of CU.
What does an average day for you involve?
There is no average day in-house. It’s part of the beauty of the job really. I try to stay on top of what’s happening in the legal and finance sector fairly generally, and there’s a reasonable amount of work in that. But what comes across my desk on a day to day basis can be fairly varied.
How does an in-house role compare to working in private practice?
I could talk for hours about this. When it comes down to it, I think it boils down to a deeper understanding of the client – it’s fairly difficult, if not impossible, for an external lawyer to have the same sort of knowledge about a company as someone sitting inside it.
What are some of the more challenging aspects of your role?
The pace of regulation in the financial services industry is mind boggling. Trying to stay ahead of the game in that type of environment is a significant challenge.
How would you describe your time at Clayton Utz? What were some of the highlights?
I have many fond memories of my time at Clayton Utz. It was a relatively small Melbourne office when I joined the firm, and grew fairly rapidly in my 6 years there. It was a great place to cut my teeth as a young lawyer, as the quality of the work was high and I worked with some great people.
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