CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER LONDON LAW SCHOOL GRADUATION YEAR 1994 YEAR JOINED WEIL 1998 YEAR PROMOTED TO COO 2020 HOMETOWN LONDON, U.K. Who did you want to be as a child? I loved acting at school, arguing with my sisters, and watching Crown Court on TV. So law was a very early career aspiration, although the firm where I trained was very different from my childhood expectation of wearing a wig and gesticulating in court. If your younger self could see you now, what do you think her reaction would be? Growing up in Manchester, when I moved south with a strong northern accent and nobody in my family having been to university, I remember walking over Waterloo Bridge with my parents, promising myself that one day I would be a “business woman” in London. I think my 10-year-old self had no idea what that could possibly mean, but she would be very pleased with how things turned out (although possibly disappointed that I lost my accent quite so quickly!). What’s the best piece of professional advice you received? Three pieces of advice: (1) take pride in everything you do (helps to limit sleepless nights worrying about what you may have got wrong); (2) the world of law is remarkably small (taking a genuine interest in people you work with and showing them respect whoever they are pays untold dividends); (3) own your career – invest time, take a risk and seize whatever opportunities come your way (you never know where they may take you). Has learning from a mistake ever led you to success? As a very junior associate, the first deal that I did on my own was buying a tilapia fish farm and, because it was relatively low value, I was largely left to my own devices. I felt I had to prove to my client that I knew what I was doing, and after an initial lack of any support from the partner, I found it difficult to go back again to ask for help. The deal got done, but I was on a very steep learning curve, and it knocked my confidence for a while. Partly due to the impact of this deal, when Mike Francies asked me to join Weil with him and a number of other associates (at this point, the London office was two years old and effectively in start-up mode), I was incredibly flattered but didn’t feel I could make the move. Thanks to the advice of a colleague, I went back and asked if he would instead consider me doing a newly created non-practising role to help grow the Corporate practice. Thankfully, he said yes and, more than 20 years on, and several roles later, the rest is history! More generally, I would say that success as a manager comes from taking responsibility for everyone in your team – encouraging and celebrating their successes and, when things go wrong, owning that yourself while ensuring practical lessons are learned. What do you do to unwind during a challenging time? Having been brought up in a family with a love of walking (and playing cards), in moments of stress I just need to get outside and walk it off, regardless of the weather. What does success mean to you? Success for me has always been about bringing people together and seeing them flourish, encouraging the next generation and pausing for long enough to listen and learn from them. I have been very lucky to have had a lot of freedom to do things differently, and I hope to have encouraged others to do the same. From a legal perspective, my proudest moment was sitting in the Privy Council in 1997, as the decision was made to free a client after 12 years on death row in Jamaica, and then walking out through the barriers past number 10 Downing Street. From an operational perspective, it was managing to move Weil’s London office into 110 Fetter Lane on budget and on time, which was only possible because of the remarkable team we had. What is the biggest sacrifice you’ve made, and was it worth it? Being able to juggle the demands of work, as well as look after my sons, has meant that something had to give, and I guess that was sleep! You can’t quantify the loyalty that you feel for an organisation (and, in my case, Mike) that allows you to be there for your children when they have a sports day or a parents’ evening, because they trust you to get the job done, even if it is in the middle of the night as a result. I sometimes wonder what life would have been like if I’d stayed as a practising lawyer and, much as there was a time when a number of my peers from law school made partner that I had a twinge of regret, I have had an amazing career and done things I would never have imagined. It has definitely been worth it. Success as a manager comes from taking responsibility for everyone in your team – encouraging and celebrating their successes and, when things go wrong, owning that yourself while ensuring practical lessons are learned. “ ” 24 · WEIL WOMEN’S WISDOM
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI5NDgyMg==