10 minutes with Matthew Letts
Matthew Letts joined the team at Isadore Goldman in February this year. We asked him why he chose to join team IG, his route to being an insolvency and restructuring specialist and more about what makes him so popular on LinkedIn.
You’ve had a non- traditional route into law - can you tell us a bit about how you secured your first role in law?
After graduating I worked in recruitment for around a year, following which I worked for several years in a regulated financial services environment, predominately dealing with escalated and executive office complaints, including cases involving The Financial Ombudsman Service. Whilst my time spent in financial services did not involve a great deal of legal work, it piqued an interest as the more complicated matters I dealt with would often require involvement from the legal team or be taken over by the legal team altogether. I was fortunate to meet a wonderful woman, who I am now lucky to call my wife, who was working in a regional law firm at the time. We would, as most couples do, discuss our work and that served as further fuel to pursue a career in law. I therefore took the leap and applied for a role as a paralegal in a dispute resolution team in a regional firm. Much to my amazement, I was successful in that application process. The first six months was something of a trial by fire but, having survived that, I knew working in law is where I wanted to stay.
What attracted you to working with Isadore Goldman?
The firm’s excellent reputation as specialists and experts in insolvency and restructuring. As my career has progressed, I have become more focussed on restructuring and insolvency matters and so the move to Isadore Goldman felt like the natural progression. That, alongside its outstanding culture and amazing people, made it an obvious move when the opportunity arose. It’s also very apparent that the firm is passionate about developing its people, as well as attracting external talent, as is demonstrated by numerous excellent examples at director-level within the business. Being part of a business in where I can see myself growing and developing is very important to me.
How important is it to you that a firm aligns to your own values and ways of working and how has this worked at Isadore Goldman?
Working in a firm whose values and ways of working align with my own is critically important to me. Along with being a busy restructuring and insolvency lawyer, I am a father to two children under five and spending quality time with my family is very important to me. Working for a firm that respects, and supports, work-life balance, and the wellbeing of its employees more generally, is something which I am more than happy to shout about from the rooftops. We spend much of our lives at work and so finding an organisation where trust, respect, and teamwork are at the core of all that the business does makes work more fun and satisfying.
What do you feel the most important attributes are for solicitors working in the insolvency and restructuring field ?
I think the most important attributes for solicitors working in the insolvency and restructuring field are to remain commercially focussed throughout your instructions and to be flexible as matters evolve. Restructuring and insolvency can, at times, be a rollercoaster and being adaptable and being able to adjust your approach to optimise outcomes where situations change is critical. Maintaining a cool head is also extremely important, especially where you are dealing with impassioned parties. The final attribute is to retain your humanity and kindness whilst being a fierce advocate for your clients’ interests, remembering that for many parties who are involved in matters in the insolvency and restructuring matters their whole life may have been turned upside down.
What advice would you give to anyone interested in a legal career in insolvency and restructuring ?
Speak to people working in the sector and learn all you can about it. My experience of working in insolvency and restructuring is one of becoming more and more passionate as time has gone on. There is a huge range of work, both contentious and non-contentious, which is caught under the banner of insolvency and restructuring, and it is a truly solutions-focussed area. If you are detail orientated and enjoy problem solving, and are interested in a legal career, I would strongly recommend exploring whether you might find your calling within the broad church that is insolvency and restructuring. You will likely find yourself being called upon by other lawyers who require your expertise in looking at issues in their cases through an insolvency lens to assist them in their cases. Working with insolvency practitioners to find solutions is also an awful lot of fun.
You have already been recognised in the Legal 500 as a key lawyer in the Insolvency and Restructuring field - how important is that accolade to you and what’s the next goal for you?
It was great to be recognised in the Legal 500 so early on in my legal career - within months after qualifying as a solicitor. I attribute this success to the kind words of those who were called upon by the Legal 500 team as referees - with whom I have been lucky enough to work with in my career to date. My goal is to improve my ranking in the Legal 500 over the coming years and to also achieve ranked status in Chambers and Partners. I am confident those goals are achievable, working as part of the outstanding team at Isadore Goldman on large and interesting projects.
You’ve recently been recognised as a top LinkedIn influencer, how important do you think a profile on LinkedIn is for professionals and what’s your approach to content?
I think I have been on LinkedIn for over a decade now, having first started using it during my time working in recruitment, which makes me feel very old indeed! I find LinkedIn to be a very helpful platform for connecting the networking dots, in a ‘who knows who’ sense. I also think it provides a platform to showcase your authentic self, as well as to demonstrate technical expertise in a way which is engaging for your target audience. My approach to content starts from something which I find interesting, which is typically news coming out of the restructuring and insolvency sphere, and to present it in a manner which I think will be easily digestible, and of interest, to those reading. Headlines and images are key, to grab attention of those scrolling through, but having interesting content and an opinion is what will generate engagement, followers and repeat readers. In the past 365 days LinkedIn estimates that my content has generated over three quarters of a million impressions, with impressions being the number of times posts are displayed on users’ screens. That is a very large audience indeed.
You can connect with Matthew on LinkedIn here. Also, follow the Isadore Goldman LinkedIn Page for more Insolvency and Restructuring updates.