PhD in Law: Alumnus Profile

Gordon Christian, now employed as a legal advisor at KPMG, looks back at his undergraduate and graduate level education in the UK.

With dual British and Dutch citizenship, and an upbringing mainly in Germany, Gordon had a number of options when it came to choosing a higher education destination. He decided on the UK, partly because of the prospect of reaching qualified solicitor status more rapidly than in Germany, and partly out of a desire to spend time living in his father’s home country.

From academia...

After drawing up a shortlist of universities offering bachelor’s degrees in European law, Gordon travelled to the UK accompanied by his father to visit campuses and meet faculty members.

“Exeter came out as first choice, both because it offered a course which included English, German and European law – a fairly unique combination at that point – and also because the campus was very attractive; the South West is a lovely part of the UK,” Gordon says.

He stayed on at Exeter for a Master of Laws (LLM) degree, in part because he had not had a chance to apply for a training contract during the penultimate year of his LLB, which he had spent studying in Germany. In turn, the LLM led into a PhD, after Gordon was approached by a professor with a proposed research topic – every prospective PhD candidate’s dream scenario!

Despite taking on teaching and lecturing duties during his PhD research, Gordon says he never really considered a long-term career in academia, always planning to return to the more ‘practical’ side of law. 

... to 'the City'

When he did start applying for jobs, however, he found himself having to convince interviewers that this was true. “The starting point in interviews was that I appeared to be an ‘academic’ type, and I had to convince them I wanted to work in a City law firm – which I managed to do!”

Having spent almost a decade in the EU, Competition & Regulatory Department at international law firm SJ Berwin LLP – including a secondment as a Competition and Regulatory Lawyer for the BBC – Gordon returned to Germany in 2011. Here, he says, it’s much more common for lawyers to obtain PhDs; a fact which is reflected in the Siemens Competition team that he is now part of.

Back in Munich again after 20 years in the UK, Gordon is more than happy with his lot. “It was time for a change for me, and I’d been looking for a new challenge. To have joined the Competition team at Siemens, a company which has a wide variety of interesting competition law issues, and be part of a great team – I’m very happy to have made that move.”

In his capacity as Legal Counsel for Competition, Gordon advises on competition law issues across all four of Siemens’ sectors – Energy, Industry, Healthcare and Infrastructure & Cities – and in all regions of the world. “It’s a very broad and varied role, and it is a lot of fun to come to work every day.” Good to hear if you’re just starting out down the LLM path!