Dr Apostolos Gkoutzinis

LLM in Banking and Finance Law; PhD

"I was a graduate student on the LLM course concentrating on international banking and finance and upon graduation I enrolled on the PhD programme. I chose Queen Mary because CCLS is the strongest research centre in Europe on my subject matter. I came to CCLS without any work experience in law. Following my LLM and PhD degrees at CCLS, I was hired as Lecturer in Financial Law at SOAS, University of London.

I now hold a visiting Lectureship at SOAS, while practising capital markets law and corporate finance at Shearman & Sterling LLP, one of the few truly global law firms operating in Wall Street, the City of London and other major financial centres. It is fair to say that my formative years at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies gave me the opportunity to learn from international experts in the field of international finance, to understand how financial markets work, to appreciate the internationalisation of finance and the nature of cross-border legal problems.

I was also exposed to the cosmopolitan academic scene of London and enjoyed events and opportunities for learning at international centres of academic excellence such as the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, the Financial Markets Group of the London School of Economics and many others. For students, especially international students, interested in international financial law, I truly believe that the Centre for Commercial Law Studies is second to none in the depth of research and the quality of its experts."