Victoria Thompson

Of Counsel, Morgan Lewis

Biography:

Victoria Thompson assists clients in a wide variety of finance transactions, focusing on asset-based lending, borrowing base financings, refinancings, special situations, and distressed debt funding. Victoria also has experience with general banking and finance transactions across a number of industries and sectors, including retail, manufacturing, aviation and mining. She acts for all classes of investors including banks, nonbank financial institutions, alternative finance providers, hedge funds, asset managers, quasi-private equity funds, and investment companies. Victoria also advises clients on strategic transactions and joint ventures.

Victoria has worked extensively on cross-border and international financing transactions and frequently works with clients and other lawyers in the United States and throughout Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Victoria is dually qualified to practice in New York and England & Wales. Victoria is a recommended in the Legal 500 UK who have noted that Victoria is “a ‘rising star’ who already has a significant amount of experience in the market, particularly in relation to cross-border ABL transactions.

Victoria previously spent 11 months on secondment to a New York–based hedge fund in 2015, where she advised on a range of issues. She also spent five months on secondment in 2016 at Wells Fargo, assisting with their acquisition of GE’s commercial distribution finance business.

Please tell us about the pro bono partnership with the National Centre for Domestic Violence that you spearheaded.

I have always volunteered at pro bono clinics throughout my career. At my prior firm, I was involved in a family law/domestic abuse clinic in the East End of London. When moving firms to Morgan Lewis in Jan 2018, I wanted to continue volunteering pro bono in this area and was determined to rope in as many of my new ML colleagues as possible! Through my contacts at the family law clinic, I was introduced to the National Centre for Domestic Violence, which is a national charity in the UK which provides a free emergency injunction service to anyone who has recently suffered or been threatened with domestic violence.  The NCDV helps over 1000 victims of domestic abuse each year. ML is now one of the NCDV’s pro bono partner firms and I’m pleased to say that over 40% of the lawyers in ML’s London office are involved in the clinic. I currently have my sights set on involving the remaining 60%.

How do you balance work/personal time?

Being a transactional lawyer, it can be a difficult balance if you’re busy on a large transaction (or transactions!) which inevitably involves long hours in the office. But the flip side of that is to take the opportunities when you can – if I’m a bit quieter in the office, I use the time to catch up on things that I have put to the side when work takes over – making time to go to the gym being the main one!

What do you know now that you wish you knew in the beginning of your career?

Building relationships is key – whether that is with your team members, other colleagues or clients. When I started out in my career, I thought that, so long as you did a good job for the partner/associate you were working for and got the law “right”, then that was enough. I now know that building trust with clients is key to a successful and long lasting lawyer/client relationship. I was very fortunate as an associate to spend on time on secondment with two clients, a hedge fund and a large US bank. My time on secondment has been invaluable in terms of learning what really matters to the client, understanding the internal processes and drivers that influence the client’s decisions and decision-making process and also just by getting to know everyone at the client in a day-to-day setting.

What advice would you give to someone who says they wish they could be move involved in “giving back” but just can’t find the time?

It can be really difficult to make time when you’re busy at work, juggling family life and everything else in between. I would say, find a project that you are interested in and that works for you. And don’t sweat it if you can’t find the time right now!