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Nicholas Sedgwick, legal entrepreneur, Marque Lawyers

user iconLawyers Weekly 30 September 2009 NewLaw

Newcastle-born Nicholas Sedgwick started with a summer clerkship at Gadens in 2004 before later being invited to join ex-Gadens managing partner Michael Bradbury at his new firm, Marque Lawyers.…

Newcastle-born Nicholas Sedgwick started with a summer clerkship at Gadens in 2004 before later being invited to join ex-Gadens managing partner Michael Bradbury at his new firm, Marque Lawyers.

For Sedgwick, it was an opportunity to pursue law while also catering to his entrepreneurial side. "Obviously I'm not starting the firm myself nor do I have a capital investment in it, but I was attracted to the idea of being at the start of something new and part of a start-up company," he says. "Also I really believed in what Michael and the other partners were trying to achieve and thought it was really exciting."

The move has already proved a worthwhile one, with Bradbury describing Sedgwick as the firm's "go to man" for corporate transactions and governance work. While

the firm is much smaller than Gadens, it's offered Sedgwick the opportunity to be part of growing a business from scratch and to step away from the traditional ties of a large firm. "There's a degree of risk in everything and lawyers are naturally risk-averse people, but I'm young and I thought 'Why not?'"

At Marque, Sedgwick has been able to combine his commercial mind and his business studies with law. His focus on franchise work, general commercial structuring and charity work is all done within an open-plan office at Marque, where lawyers are encouraged to develop long-term relationships with clients and do not charge by the hour.

But enjoying the thrills, believes Sedgwick, involves having confidence to back yourself and believing in what you do. "If you commit to it and put the effort in, it's going to work out for you - but at the same time, you've always got to enjoy what you're doing. The rest flows from that."

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