Ashurst Perkins Coie’s Edgar Thornton on his career journey so far and what the future holds for his fast-developing practice area
“I find the work very rewarding and stimulating; there is very little scope for, or danger of, being bored!” That is how Edgar Thornton, an associate in the projects, energy, environment and resources team at Ashurst Perkins Coie, describes his practice, and it is easy to see why. His time at the firm has included work on a $2 billion fundraising for Africa Finance Corporation, raising capital to support renewable energy projects across the continent, greenfield infrastructure and project financings, and, more recently, a week in Lagos, Nigeria pitching to clients.
Edgar’s decision to pursue law came early. “I knew I wanted to be a solicitor from school age, but also that I did not really want to do undergraduate law,” he tells Legal Cheek Careers. Instead, he studied geography at Cambridge University, “because that was quite important to me; the issues I was interested in cut across lots of topics”. Law appealed both for its problem-solving element and its connection to subjects that already interested him. “It touches on contemporary issues that were central to my degree, notably climate change, environmental science, and politics,” he explains.
That sector interest also shaped his approach to his legal training, which he completed in the London office of a global law firm. Rather than using his training contract to sample completely different areas of law, Edgar deliberately sought out experience across different practices with energy as the common thread. His seats spanned corporate oil and gas M&A, a secondment with a major renewables client, project finance, and energy disputes. “While many people enter a training contract aiming to see a bit of everything, for better or for worse, I was unusual in knowing what I wanted to do,” he says.
Specialisation followed, although not quite in the way he initially expected. A supervisor with a specialist practice sparked an early interest in energy regulation, but deal flow and the move to the London office of US firm pulled him towards transactional work. “As a junior, I did more and more project finance work internationally and in the UK across all energy and infrastructure, from upstream oil and gas to renewables, nuclear, carbon capture and hydrogen,” he says. As the matters became larger, more complex and more international, and as the responsibility he was afforded grew, he found himself increasingly drawn to project finance, which now makes up around “90% of my day-to-day”.
At Ashurst Perkins Coie, which Edgar joined just over a year ago, that means working both sponsor and lender mandates. “We have a mix of sponsor and lender side work, which gives you a good perspective on, and appreciation for, the same key issues viewed from different sides of the table,” he explains. Sponsor work “involves driving deals forward with clear commercial priorities; you are very close to the asset and the client”, while on the lender side “you are often managing a portfolio of lenders, consolidating their comments and trying to manage competing demands”.
Working both sides has its advantages, Edgar believes, because it exposes you to the same commercial and legal questions wearing multiple hats; “you gain an insight into the nuances of arguments you are almost having with yourself, which is a good way to test the legal and commercial strengths of positions and precedent,” he says. The work is also “a lot more transactional” than the regulatory matters he encountered earlier in his career, with counterparties “more likely to be banks, traders and private equity groups.”. The deals themselves, he adds with a smile, “tend to move much faster”.
Ashurst Perkins Coie’s reputation in projects and energy was already familiar to Edgar before he joined, but seeing the team operate from across the table (on a Nigerian acquisition financing) proved decisive. “I was aware of Ashurst as an undergraduate, but what cemented it for me was working opposite them on a couple of deals at my former firm.”
Building strong client relationships is another important part of the job. Edgar points to “responsiveness, client care, and being seen to do everything you can, but also being genuinely enthusiastic about your client’s work”. As he puts it:
“You have to live the deals with them; you are not just their external counsel. For juniors in particular, that often means being available, because things inevitably crop up (and need fixing!) at short notice on transactional deals”.
Asked what a typical day looks like, Edgar says he comes into the office every day, preferring the interaction with juniors and partners that comes from working in person. At his level, much of the role involves “real-time firefighting on deals, delegating work and supervising trainees”, while he also must carve out time for his own drafting.
On the work front, a particular matter stands out: the $2 billion Africa Finance Corporation fundraising. “We have advised AFC on multiple financings, have a very good relationship with their team, and, on a personal level, really enjoy watching the projects such capital supports develop.” He also really enjoyed acting for a consortium of lenders on the refinancing of a large energy company’s secured corporate revolving facility and has appreciated the sectoral breadth of the work, “spanning solar, offshore wind, oil & gas, mining & minerals, rail, road, and more!”
So, what does it take to succeed as a projects and energy lawyer? For Edgar, curiosity about the wider world is essential because the work does not take place in a vacuum. “You need to be genuinely interested in the world because our work is influenced by geopolitics,” he says, pointing out that events can significantly affect energy markets, live transactions and their underlying commercial drivers — “consider current global events, all of those directly and indirectly affect energy supply and demand”.
Alongside that geopolitical enthusiasm comes what he describes as the “core City law skills”: teamwork, an appetite for hard work, and close attention to detail. That final quality matters because “small errors in documents can have serious manifestations down the line”. Initiative is equally important, particularly for juniors. “We afford our juniors a lot of responsibility; I need to be able to delegate ancillary documents and trust them to manage problems themselves without them feeling micromanaged,” he explains.
The energy sector itself is in “massive flux”; he points to rising prices for energy-transition minerals such as copper and lithium. Looking ahead, he also expects traders to “play an increasingly global role”, alongside greater investment in nuclear power worldwide, “particularly small modular reactors, to provide the reliable base load power required for things like AI data-centre generation”.
For training contract hopefuls, his advice begins with being selective. “Really think about which firm you are applying to and why. Most firms say similar things on their websites, so you should think about what a firm does really well and whether and how that aligns with your interests.” Interviews are an opportunity to “show you understand the firm’s priorities”, while remembering that law “remains a people-oriented business”.
His final pointers are to be globally ambitious, think carefully about how tools such as AI can be used effectively as a junior, and avoid a “scattergun” approach to applications. “Focus on a select group of firms and provide thoughtful, original answers based on things you have read and understood,” he advises.
Edgar Thornton will be speaking at ‘Digital economy, projects and finance — with Ashurst Perkins Coie’, a virtual student event taking place THIS THURSDAY (17 September). Apply now!
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