Helin Gurel, associate in the private client team at Macfarlanes, discusses the firm’s culture of collaboration, what has been keeping her and her team busy recently and her advice for future lawyers
As a law student unsure which area to specialise in, Helin Gurel wanted a firm that could offer exposure to a broad range of practice areas and Macfarlanes fit the bill. “It’s rare that you see a top-ranking corporate practice and private client practice under the same roof” Gurel notes, highlighting the City firm’s unique offering. Now with three years of experience as a private client lawyer behind her, Gurel sat down with Legal Cheek Careers to discuss her career journey so far.
In her second year at university studying law, after meeting Macfarlanes at law fairs and events, Gurel applied for a training contract at the firm. “I applied directly for the training contract because I’d come across the firm a few times and I knew it offered what I was looking for” she says. That conviction paid off — she was offered the training contract in the summer of her second year. After graduating from university, Gurel completed the LPC, and then began her training contract at Macfarlanes.
Macfarlanes stood out to Gurel for its ideal combination of high-quality work, smaller size relative to its peers and, perhaps most importantly, its culture. Having gained work experience at both high-street practices and larger City firms, Gurel knew she enjoyed the “more complex work a larger City firm has to offer” but also the often more “collaborative, tight-knit” feel of a smaller outfit. In her view, the firm “combined that perfectly.” This came across even in her early conversations with Macfarlanes, giving Gurel a gut feeling that it was the right place for her — “and my gut didn’t deceive me!” she adds.
Gurel’s training contract delivered on the promise of variety. She rotated through seats in Real Estate, Corporate and M&A, Private Client and Litigation and Dispute Resolution. She ended up enjoying all of her seats, but one department ultimately stood out.
Gurel had a hunch that Private Client might suit her — a module on the LPC and practice-area talks at the firm had piqued her interest. What cemented Gurel’s decision to qualify into Private Client was the breadth of work and supportive and intellectually curious culture of that team. “The work we do is complex but there is a significant emphasis on the training and development of each and every individual.”
As a Trainee, she felt she was always encouraged to ask questions (regardless of how simple they might seem), fully immerse herself in tasks and take ownership of matters. This ethos meant she never hesitated to tap into the expertise around her. “Our partners and senior associates are incredibly knowledgeable — there’s a significant range of technical expertise,” she explains, adding that she found people genuinely took the time to explain tasks, the law behind it and give feedback. This culture is something Gurel has sustained as an associate. “We don’t see trainees as people who just come and go in each department” she says, “we make sure they enjoy their experience as much as possible,” emphasising that the Trainees are, ultimately, the future of the firm, and investing in their learning and the lawyer they will become is therefore also an investment into that future. “It’s a win-win for both the firm and the lawyer.”
Now a qualified private client lawyer, Gurel’s day-to-day work spans a broad spectrum of clients and matters. “We act for a broad range of clients,” including entrepreneurs, next-generation family members, trustees and family offices — “basically anyone with complicated estate situations.” Much of her work has an international/cross-border element. In fact, Gurel flags that some of her work has minimal or no UK element at all, with her team instead being called on for their expertise in cross-border and complex estate, tax and succession planning, to coordinate advice from lawyers in other jurisdictions and act as a “bridge” to translate this into practical guidance for clients.
When asked what issues are currently affecting Gurel’s clients, she referred to the substantial changes which were brought into effect on 6 April 2025 to the tax regime applicable to individuals who are UK resident but not domiciled in the UK. “The changes represented a significant shift in the landscape for a lot of our clients. Most of our clients suddenly discovered that they would be subject to income and capital gains tax on their worldwide income and gains. Many who were not expecting their worldwide estate to fall within the scope of UK inheritance tax for a few years still found themselves in a position where they are exposed to it.” In the run-up to 6 April, her team worked hard to prepare their clients for these changes. The knock-on impact is still felt, with there still being considerable uncertainty on many aspects of the new rules and how they will apply in each client’s specific circumstances.
And more changes are on the horizon — changes to certain inheritance tax reliefs to be brought into effect next year and rumoured further changes practically in advance of every Budget are keeping private client lawyers on their toes. Guiding clients through such uncertainty means understanding and evaluating new rules in some cases before they are even announced explains Gurel, describing how her job can also involve an element of “crystal-ball gazing.” But it’s very much a team effort at Macfarlanes. “It was a very busy period in the run-up to 6 April, but we had so many departmental education updates and seminars to help navigate through the changes,” Gurel recalls. “It felt very collaborative,” she says, describing how everyone learned together to find the best outcomes for clients — a true testament to the culture of the department.
As we finish up, we ask Gurel what advice she would give current students keen to follow in her footsteps. In response, she cautions against getting swept up in the rush of application season. “It feels scary at times when everyone around you is frantically applying for vacation schemes and training contracts, and everything is moving at a really fast pace,” she says. She urges aspiring lawyers to be selective in the firms they apply to. “Give yourself a moment to reflect on what you want from a firm, what’s important to you, what you want from your training contract and what practice area you might eventually want to end up in” she says.
After all, a legal career will have its challenges — “you will be working long hours occasionally and it’s going to be difficult at times, so you want to be somewhere you’re happy and feel supported,” Gurel concludes.
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