Working as a Freshfields associate wasn’t fulfilling his creative ambitions, so Jonathan Lee took unpaid leave to pursue his dream of writing a novel
It’s a tricky business, telling your boss that you want to write a novel. I was a two-year qualified associate at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer when I spoke to the partners about the possibility of taking unpaid leave. I explained, somewhat nervously, that I wanted to finish a manuscript I’d been working on since qualifying as a solicitor. Then I sat back and waited for the P45.
