Lawyer Monthly - Women In Law Special Edition

WOMEN IN LAW EDITION LAWYER MONTHLY 27 enough to make a success of a new role. Self-doubt will hold you back. If you want your career to grow, you need to grow with it and this means getting involved in projects that take you out of your comfort zone and having more confidence in your own abilities. Develop a brand. Make sure people know what you stand for and that you are passionate about that. Being a role model for flexible working is very important to me. I believe strongly in supporting women and men to find a balance that works for them. We have a culture at Sky that makes this possible, that’s one of the reasons we were named by The Times as one of the Top 50 Employers for Women for the last four years. Becoming GC: what are you most excited about? What change will you be advocating for? It’s a really brilliant time to be at Sky, as we continue to connect customers to more of the content they love as part of the wider Comcast family. I am excited about the innovation work we are doing on the legal side to create the legal department of the future, but diversity and inclusion is what I will be championing at Sky. Building teams full of different people, with different perspectives and who are a truer reflection of our customer base will make us a better business. From the moment you graduated university, what is the most important lesson you have learnt about the legal sector? Understand what your client needs from you. As an in- house lawyer, this means understanding the problem that your business stakeholders are trying to solve and help them find a way through. Being able to communicate clearly and concisely is perhaps the number one skill you need to develop. If you could pick a superpower to help you with you day-to day tasks, what would you pick and why? I would love to cut out the time I spend doing chores at home, so… being able to move things using the power of my mind. Like Eleven from Stranger Things. It would be pretty cool to do that around the house, from picking my daughter’s clothes up off the floor, to loading “ “ Self-doubt will hold you back. If you want your career to grow, you need to grow with it and this means getting involved in projects that take you out of your comfort zone and having more confidence in your own abilities. Q the dishwasher, to unpacking the grocery shopping… the possibilities are endless. Why did you pick commercial law as your path in the legal sector? I did not have a clear idea of what I wanted to specialise in when I started out. My final seat as a trainee was in the media team at Clifford Chance. It was a hardworking, highly collaborative team, which I loved, but what really motivated me was the opportunity to work in the media sector. The late 90’s was a boom time for TV and the media law sector was growing rapidly. The chance to play a part in bringing great Q Q Q Q CLAIRE CANNING