Meet Our General Counsel: Stuart Swift

From English student to international finance lawyer, Stuart’s path to Avantia was anything but traditional.

Before becoming Avantia’s General Counsel, Stuart studied English in Liverpool, taught in China, built his legal career at BLP and Milbank, and joined one of the world’s most formidable investment firms. Now, he brings all of that experience to bear helping Avantia scale a fast-moving, tech-enabled legal business.

We caught up with him - over a coffee, naturally - to talk about his journey, what life’s really like as a GC, and why his desert island survival strategy involves SOS signs, and exactly the right colleagues.

Let’s start at the beginning. English Literature to law via China?

I chose English because, leaving school, I didn’t have any fixed career plans. My main motivation was to go to university and leave small town North Yorks behind me – my chosen degree only having six hours of contact time a week was an added bonus. After graduating, and not having taken a gap year, I wanted to experience something different and spend time abroad before settling on and starting a career. I also wanted to work so that I’d gain a deeper understanding and experience of the culture and day-to-day life. That’s how I ended up teaching English in a Chinese University for six months.

This was pre-SARS, so I managed to travel quite a bit. It was amazing, although I did learn the hard way that if you want a cold beer in China, you have to ask for a cold one. Otherwise, it’s warm. No one wants that.

When I got back, a friend of mine was doing the GDL, and I realised law might offer more structure and opportunity. I went to York for the GDL and LPC, and eventually moved to London to get started properly.

You trained at Berwin Leighton Paisner and went on to Milbank. What was that transition like?

Milbank was a real step up - intellectually, emotionally, and occasionally physically. I joined the London team of Milbank’s formidable Finance Restructuring Group and worked with some incredibly bright people. It could be intense. It was a brilliant place for my career development but I always knew that partnership in private practice wasn’t for me.

Through Milbank, I was seconded to Sixth Street (then TSSP), which was a completely different world. The firm was initially seeded by TPG and was still an affiliate when I joined (although it operated autonomously). I learned a huge amount in a short space of time - probably eight years’ worth of experience compressed into three. Ultimately, the nature of the role wasn’t what I was looking for as a long term but it is where the path to Avantia opened up.

So how did Avantia come into the picture?

I got to know Avantia and James (Avantia’s founder and CEO) from being a client at Sixth Street, which was one of Avantia’s earliest clients. We’d sometimes end up chatting about Avantia and James’s plans for the firm and I always found that conversations genuinely interesting and exciting During a career break, we met for a catch-up that turned into a few drinks—and ended with him mentioning that Avantia was raising funding and looking for another senior lawyer before we both ran somewhat in a straight line for our last tubes / trains home.

It was genuinely different from anything else I was considering. Six months later, I was working on Carlyle’s NDAs from my office at home!

You’ve since gone from Managing Director to General Counsel. What does the role mean to you?

It’s one of the few roles that gives you visibility across the entire business. You get a broad snapshot of what’s going on day-to-day, but also the chance to dive deep into specific issues that can have a real impact on the direction or operations of the business.

What I really appreciate is how different the energy is here. Private practice was often rigid and driven by billable hours, which isn’t always a healthy environment. Avantia is fast, collaborative, and full of smart people doing ambitious things. Things get decided and done quickly - and that’s energising.

Any advice for younger lawyers who want to be a GC one day?

One of the best bits of advice I ever got was: keep your highs low and your lows high. Don’t get too carried away when things go well, and don’t beat yourself up too much when they don’t. Everyone makes mistakes - it’s how you handle them that counts.

That said, some lows are best avoided. Fraud, for example.

Final questions. Hidden talents? Favourite book? Desert island picks?

Hidden talents? Too many to list - and even better at hiding them.

Favourite book: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Favourite film: tough call, but The Usual Suspects edges it.

Desert island colleagues? Ragesh (for support duties), Laurence (to create an SOS sign), Peter (he respects my corner office seat and needs less screen time), and if I can squeeze in one more: Hannah Thompson, to balance the dynamic and keep us all organised!