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❖ How did you feel winning Junior Lawyer of the Year?
Honestly, very shocked. The shortlist was made up of brilliant junior lawyers, including my inspiring colleague and friend Sophie Lloyd, and there was never any thought I’d be named. My guest for the evening was the manager who recruited me at Freeths and it was lovely to have her there as she’d supported and championed me throughout my time at the firm. It was a brilliant awards evening organised by Nottinghamshire Law Society.
❖ What has been your route into the legal profession?
Mostly standard, if a little more elongated than younger me would have liked. I studied law at Nottingham Trent University with a placement year spent at an employment law consultancy in Manchester. I returned there after graduating, working in Research and Marketing whilst studying my LPC part time. I started as a Legal Assistant with Freeths in July 2019 before beginning my training contract in September 2021. September 2023 sees me becoming an Associate in the Freeths Corporate team based in our Bristol office.
❖ What made you decide to follow a career in law?
Short answer is that I hate being bored, it’s my worst nightmare. Young me decided that law seemed interesting and, from then on, that was the path I continued down academically and professionally. Promise that I made this answer sound more interesting when the question was asked at job interviews!
❖ How do you see firms & the profession adapting to meet the needs of junior lawyers?
This is a difficult one to answer because the needs of junior lawyers are incredibly diverse and, in my opinion, there’s a lot of assumptions, stereotypes and negative labels about the so-called “generation snowflake” or “millennials”. Providing a forum for junior lawyers to collaborate with decision makers is the best way for firms and the profession to gain the understanding they might need to adapt their ways. It never hurts to listen, right?
❖ What progress have you seen in equality & diversity in the legal profession, and what more would you like to see happen?
I think the fact this is such a hot topic in the legal profession is progress itself as it’s recognition of the importance of equality and diversity. My experiences come from my own perspective and my own privileges, meaning gender diversity is something I’m really interested in. I’m looking forward to starting my NQ role in a female-led Corporate team as this still feels quite rare in that practice area. I think you’d have to ask a lot more people from varied backgrounds to get a feel of where progress stands on equality and diversity in 2023, and you’d probably get a load of great ideas of what more can be done too.
❖ If you could give some useful tips to the Junior Lawyers out there, what would they be?
Not sure how useful they will be, but my two biggest ‘tips’ are:
(1) Find your people – the ones who will celebrate your achievements with you, keep you grounded or tell you honestly when you’re overthinking things too much. The ones you can ring because they care about the answer to “how are you”. It makes such a difference.
(2) You should be your own biggest fan because we’re all pretty great in our own way. When it’s difficult to say anything positive to yourself, think about what you’d say if it was your friend saying that very thing to you. You wouldn’t tell them that a simple mistake means everyone must think they’re a terrible lawyer, right?
Oh, and one day if you’re ever asked a similar question, you’ll list all the things that were said to you and you didn’t believe. Hindsight is wonderful, so just stick in there, you can do this.
❖ What else do you enjoy outside of the law, and you achieve a work/life balance?
My two great loves are sport and music – there are very few things that are as life-affirming as being in a crowd of people cheering on your sports team or singing your heart out to your favourite band.
I think the stigma of a work/life “balance” can be stressful in itself. Personally, I don’t think about that too much and just make sure that I’m aware of what’s important to me to achieve each day (whether work or non-work related) and that I can recognise the times when I need to say no to things or to take the time to do nothing.
❖ What is the funniest thing you have seen working in law?
That’s probably the time my team booked a special guest to join one of our lockdown Teams calls. Lola (the goat) dialled in late and made a brief but impactful experience before dropping off the call. The funniest thing for our team was that it was really was as high tech and chaotic as a human following a goat around a barn with a phone camera. What a strange time.
