UK Early Careers - Take A Seat Podcast
Oct 5, 2026 · 29 min · 9 segments
Managing Partner Jonathan Wood describes his unconventional path into law, from building one of the firm’s leading private equity practices to stepping into firm leadership
Um, just sort of thinking a little bit about Wile as a firm then.
So we see people ask questions all the time of what is your favorite thing about working at Wile? And nearly everyone says from our side, "It's the people.
It's the culture." Um, we hear that time and time again.
Um, I guess from your perspective, how do you make sure that as managing partner you maintain the culture and the people and investment in our people as much as just, you know, servicing our clients and revenue and all that kind of stuff?
Generally set up to kind of like to, to think about the world in that way, so that we- the way that we kind of, you know, look at our internal metrics, it's not all just about, you know, have you produced a client who is producing money-
Mm
... and, and, you know, therefore do you get compensated purely linked to that kind of business performance? It is al- it also encompasses, you know, things like mentoring and sharing opportunities and bringing people into those relationships.
So you're ... what you're trying to do is create an environment, you know, from the top down-
Mm-hmm
... um, where people actually realize that you can do better things together.
Yeah.
So the sort of DNA of the firm has always had that a l- you know, kind of at its heart, making people great lawyers-
Mm-hmm
... supporting them, helping them with, you know, their education and training, um, and y- you know, giving them those opportunities, um, in mentorship and sponsorship all the way through.
And that then creates an environment that people feel- I do wanna be part of.
Yeah.
And, you know, if you read some of the press recently, we've seen, of course we have occasionally people who decide they wanna go and move to a different firm-
Mm-hmm
Mm-hmm.
Yeah
I've always found that really fascinating at Wyle-
Um, just sort of thinking a little bit about Wile as a firm then.
So we see people ask questions all the time of what is your favorite thing about working at Wile? And nearly everyone says from our side, "It's the people.
It's the culture." Um, we hear that time and time again.
Um, I guess from your perspective, how do you make sure that as managing partner you maintain the culture and the people and investment in our people as much as just, you know, servicing our clients and revenue and all that kind of stuff?
Generally set up to kind of like to, to think about the world in that way, so that we- the way that we kind of, you know, look at our internal metrics, it's not all just about, you know, have you produced a client who is producing money-
Mm
... and, and, you know, therefore do you get compensated purely linked to that kind of business performance? It is al- it also encompasses, you know, things like mentoring and sharing opportunities and bringing people into those relationships.
So you're ... what you're trying to do is create an environment, you know, from the top down-
Mm-hmm
... um, where people actually realize that you can do better things together.
Yeah.
So the sort of DNA of the firm has always had that a l- you know, kind of at its heart, making people great lawyers-
Mm-hmm
... supporting them, helping them with, you know, their education and training, um, and y- you know, giving them those opportunities, um, in mentorship and sponsorship all the way through.
And that then creates an environment that people feel- I do wanna be part of.
Yeah.
And, you know, if you read some of the press recently, we've seen, of course we have occasionally people who decide they wanna go and move to a different firm-
Mm-hmm
Mm-hmm.
Yeah
I've always found that really fascinating at Wyle-
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