The media company’s group legal director discusses how her personal approach took her to the top of her game
At the age of 19, while doing work experience for a duty solicitor, Nilema Bhakta-Jones was called to Nuneaton police station, finding herself in a mostly empty set of cells at 1am. One cell was occupied by the client, a man arrested on suspicion of committing grievous bodily harm against his pregnant girlfriend.
Continue reading “Client profile: Nilema Bhakta-Jones, Ascential”
My father, who sadly died last year, did his articles. Absolutely hated it. Left as soon as he could. He did briefly work in London and then went to Edinburgh, and carried out his career as a fund manager. He was always much more interested in stock markets than the law. He was a very kind, calm and perceptive man.
I joined SJ Berwin in 1991, qualified in 1993, became a partner in 1999, left in 2004. Came back in 2006. Until the bitter end.
Researching our quality of life special, we canvassed the top ten UK firms for details on their HR policies on parental leave and flexible working, as well as other support provided to improve the lives of all staff. Below are the results
‘Management is the most noble of professions… No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow. More and more MBA students come to school thinking that a career in business means buying, selling and investing in companies. That’s unfortunate. Doing deals doesn’t yield the deep rewards that come from building up people.’
Clayton Christensen, How Will You Measure Your Life?
Continue reading “Survivors – the battle to improve the working lives of lawyers”
City lawyers have long been prone to burnout. Are changing attitudes seeing law firms finally face up to the challenges of mental health and extreme stress?
‘I decided the sensible thing to do was walk across four lanes of French motorway traffic. Eventually I was accosted by a toll gate assistant asking: “What are you doing?” I had to confess that I really had little idea. I wasn’t aware of the warning signs.’
Continue reading “Fault lines – Can City law face up to the challenges of mental health?”
‘We have a reasonable word-of-mouth reputation as purveyors of miserable music for gut-wrenching films.’
Many City lawyers have outside interests, few combine being at the very top of their profession with another career outlet. But Slaughter and May senior partner Steve Cooke is one such individual. Since 1993 the M&A veteran has worked with cartoonist Russell Taylor – famed for creating the comic strip Alex – to produce soundtracks for over 50 films and documentaries. Among others, they composed the music for Bafta-winning and Bafta-nominated documentaries such as The Lost Girls of South Africa, China’s Stolen Children, Chosen, Orphans of Nkandla, and the recent BBC series about Country Life magazine titled Land of Hope and Glory. Cooke plays and composes on the keyboards and guitar.
Continue reading “The quality of life report: Pursuits – Steve Cooke, Slaughter and May”
‘What makes a photograph is the light – you’ve got to get everything else there, but if the light isn’t right it will never work.’
Freshfields senior partner Edward Braham has taken photographs all his life. The walls of his office are covered with photographs from his trips to South Africa, Paris, Kyoto and Tanzania. For this respected City corporate lawyer, photography is the hobby that ‘clears the brain’ when he takes time out.
‘Being open about my experience has not held back my career. If anything, it’s enhanced my relationship with my colleagues and clients.’
In 2015 Herbert Smith Freehills pension partner Samantha Brown suffered a depressive episode. She returned to work after three months, but found herself off again because she had not fully recovered. Brown eventually returned to practise as a partner at the firm.
‘It’s the stigma that stops people talking and that same stigma prevents anyone else from learning.’
In 2011, then Speechly Bircham partner Richard Martin suffered a major panic attack followed by a breakdown and almost two years of therapy. Having left City law, Martin now works for workplace and HR consultancy Byrne Dean, advising on mental health issues. For him, the stigma around mental health in the City has prevented people speaking out.
Continue reading “The quality of life report: Perspectives – Richard Martin, Byrne Dean”
‘This is a hard career, but everything’s hard. Work hard, be the better you and enjoy yourself.’
In 2012 White & Case’s global private equity co-head Ian Bagshaw lost his younger brother, Dan, then aged just 27. He died suddenly on the finish line of an ITU Olympic distance triathlon in Hong Kong. That same year, while Bagshaw was a partner at Linklaters, his family set up Dan’s Trust to raise money for research and to help the local community.
Continue reading “The quality of life report: Pursuits – Ian Bagshaw, White & Case”
29 March 2017 will be a date that will remain ingrained in the memory, with Prime Minister Theresa May invoking article 50, formally triggering the Brexit process. Later that evening it was inevitable that the real effects of Brexit would dominate the discussion at our annual risk management round table.
‘One evening I found six cans of Red Bull on an associate’s desk. I just sent him home. People get tired, people make mistakes.’
David Trott, Freshfields
To coincide with LB‘s quality of life special, senior lawyers discuss stress, wellbeing and what makes it worth it
‘If there’s a deadline or things are blowing up on a deal, you need to take a deep intake of breath. As you go through these episodes of stress it gets easier. There are peaks and troughs for stress in any job but it gets easier.’
Andrew Ballheimer, managing partner, Allen & Overy
The mood music from Moore’s 2015 election had already signalled a more consultative stance – a welcome shift after a series of bruising post-Lehman restructurings.
Continue reading “New look Linklaters – cuddly inclusiveness proves oddly compelling”
Attempting to make up for lost time this month with a focus on quality of life, the core question is how can the profession help its staff make work more rewarding and achieve some measure of balance in their lives?
Continue reading “The true capitalist case for a new work/life deal”
Legal Business‘ team and contacts have had to put up with me banging on about my intention to do an issue focused on quality of life for quite some time. It is a difficult topic to write about without descending into generality or banality but this remains a people business to the bone.
Law firms obsess about getting bright kids through the door, how to engage and develop (and sometimes exit them) – how to retain and corral partners (and attract new ones) – how to keep the favour of clients (and attract the gaze of new ones). Lawyers can seem curiously stiff to those previously unacquainted with the profession but it does not take long to realise that this is an intensely social industry shaped in the village of modern London.
Continue reading “Quality of life – law can give it… and take it away”
Our quality of life survey, published this month, found all of the UK’s top ten law firms have policies around flexible working. Many of the partners interviewed said their firms also allowed teams to develop their own strategy of flexible working, with partners asked to use their own discretion as to whether members of their team needed time off.
Continue reading “‘Some firms do it very well’: Top City outfits embrace flexible working”
The new system, called Pathways, will assess performance in quick sessions with partners, as opposed to lengthy annual reviews.
Continue reading “Hogan Lovells pilots radical associate assessment programme”
While pitching to general counsel (GCs) is hardly a foreign concept for private practitioners, an elite group of GCs for fast-growth companies has invited a pre-selected list of law firms to bid to host its events.
The bank is looking to fill 400 positions this year globally in anti-financial crime and is recruiting for a new team in Europe to be led by regional head of anti-financial crime, Thomas Altenbach. The team will sit outside of the legal function, with four new recruits: one hire at director level and three other individuals with experience in anti-fraud, bribery and corruption matters. Deutsche Bank anti-fraud teams have historically comprised both legal and compliance professionals.
