Phoebe Makin shares her journey from government legal trainee to Ashurst projects associate and explains why aspiring lawyers should grasp every opportunity that comes their way
Ahead of tomorrow’s virtual student event with Ashurst, we caught up with Ashurst projects associate Phoebe Makin, who shares how she switched from a science degree to a legal career, and now works on cutting-edge energy transition deals at the firm.
Makin’s path into law was far from conventional. Instead of following the typical route of a law degree and training contract, she began by studying human biology at university — a subject she quickly realised she had little passion for. “I found studying to be a bit of a slog… I just didn’t engage with the subject matter well at all,” she recalls of her undergraduate days, which ended with a 2:2 degree — a result she feared “put me in a difficult position if I ever wanted to move into law.”
When choosing her IB subjects, Makin had debated between law and medicine but ultimately followed her strength in science. Looking back, she acknowledges it “wasn’t the best decision,” yet her journey shows that early choices need not be final. “Just because you make a decision at the point of choosing your A-levels or IB, it doesn’t mean that you have to stick with it to the end,” she reflects.
After graduating, she worked in a series of legal-related roles, including at what is now the Legal Aid Agency, where she first encountered formal legal documentation. “Having that opportunity really spurred my interest in law,” she recalls. A later role at the Office of the Public Guardian’s call centre gave her a taste of client interaction. While not “legal advice” as such, it involved “guiding customers through the LPA application and informing them on the deputyship process in the court of protection” and helped cement her determination to pursue a legal career. This led her to enrol on the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL), formally pivoting towards a career in law.
Makin later joined the Inns of Court College of Advocacy (formerly the Advocacy Training Council), where she coordinated advocacy training events for barristers and judges. It was, she recalls, “a really great opportunity” that allowed her to work closely with “senior judges and barristers.” Crucially, the director there encouraged her not to delay and to take the next step towards law if that was her goal. Makin listened: she enrolled on the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and applied for a training contract with the Government Legal Department (GLD), which she secured.
At the GLD, she became part of the first trainee cohort in the Commercial Law Group. The programme offered a secondment to one of the government’s panel law firms, and Makin spent one of her trainee seats at Ashurst. Working in Ashurst’s projects team gave her a taste of high-end private practice after experiencing only the public sector side of law. It was an eye-opener. “On qualification I decided it was important for me to go into private practice and that’s what led me to applying for and taking up a role in Ashurst’s projects department,” she explains. Joining Ashurst as a newly qualified projects solicitor allowed her to hone her skills and gain a deeper understanding of the commercial drivers for both public and private sector clients.
Makin admits she did not initially picture herself at a City law firm and even held some preconceptions about City life. On the one hand, she feared “the expectations would be too high” as a trainee. On the other, she worried she might be “stuck doing the grunt work without an opportunity to stretch myself.” Her experience at Ashurst turned those assumptions on their head. “When I came to Ashurst, I had the perfect balance of being given responsibility whilst having sufficient supervision,” she says. The firm trusted her with “really fairly complex” tasks that stretched her drafting and problem-solving skills, while at the same time offering recognition and support. “The team gave a lot of recognition that certain assignments were above the usual trainee level, but they encouraged me to give it a go with no fear.” That combination of responsibility and guidance reflected the projects team’s culture. “Everyone is friendly, and always happy to give up their time to give you guidance and to support you in your development,” she adds. The positive experience made her decision to return to the department on qualification an easy one.
Now an associate in Ashurst’s projects and energy transition team, Makin spends her days on major infrastructure and renewable energy deals. But what does “projects law” actually involve? At its core, it means helping clients deliver large-scale projects — in sectors such as transport, infrastructure, and energy — by putting in place all the contractual and financial arrangements needed to bring them to life.
“We work on all forms of projects,” she explains, from traditional infrastructure builds to cutting-edge renewables. For new developments, the team drafts construction contracts and everything needed to get the project “built and up and running.” Makin focuses on financing, whether that involves raising funds for a new wind farm, managing the acquisition of an existing project, or refinancing. Projects lawyers, she says, navigate all types of funding — “equity money coming in from shareholders and sponsors” as well as loans from “third-party” lenders such as banks or government bodies. In practice, this means guiding a project through its entire life cycle, from early construction through to financial close and beyond. “It’s just that full breadth of the life cycle of a project that we deal with,” she sums up.
One of the fastest-growing areas of Ashurst’s projects practice is energy transition, and Makin has already built up significant experience in the field. “One of the largest projects I’ve worked on is probably Moray East, the big wind farm off the coast of Scotland,” she says. The project involved a “hugely complicated contractual arrangement” covering both offshore and onshore components. Its financing structure had to account for “the complicated structure of the assets themselves,” making it both challenging and rewarding to be involved in. More recently, she has worked on energy-from-waste schemes, another key part of the shift towards cleaner energy. “Probably the ones I’ve led on more recently have been energy from waste,” she notes – an area where Ashurst has been particularly active.
The team is also advising on a wide variety of other low-carbon initiatives. “There’s quite a lot of other projects being worked on in the department, like battery storage, nuclear work and carbon capture, of course,” Makin tells us. Carbon capture and storage is “a big area” as governments and companies race to cut emissions. Her enthusiasm is clear as she lists the different sectors, reflecting the varied and forward-looking nature of projects law.
For aspiring lawyers, Makin stresses the importance of curiosity. Energy transition is evolving rapidly, and “it’s more crucial than ever to stay curious and up to date.” Her advice: “Keep abreast of all the developments because it’s such a nascent field in some respects.” Students who show they understand emerging technologies will stand out. “If students are able to speak to those and have done a little bit of research, that would be very impressive,” she suggests. Even a basic awareness of advances in battery storage, carbon capture, or nuclear energy can make a difference.
Before wrapping up, Makin reflects on the advice she would give to her younger self. It boils down to being proactive and open-minded. “Grasp every opportunity that’s given to you,” she urges. “If you go on a vacation scheme and somebody says, ‘oh let me know if you want to chat about X, Y, Z,’ take them up on that opportunity.” She cautions against tunnel vision, noting that even if you have a preferred practice area, every seat has value. “You might learn something that applies to the department that you’re most interested in. Or you might find there’s something much more interesting in the department that you’re in that you perhaps hadn’t accounted for.”
Above all, she believes in finding motivation within the work itself. “There is always something that you can find interesting in the work that you’re doing,” she says. “And that’s what’s going to keep driving your development as you move through your career.”
Phoebe Makin will be speaking at ‘Powering change: Exploring energy transition projects — with Ashurst’, a virtual student event taking place TOMORROW, Wednesday 10 September. Apply now.
