Lawyer Monthly - Women In Law Special Edition

WOMEN IN LAW EDITION LAWYER MONTHLY 93 treat every day as a learning day. Above all be patient and organised. No two days will be the same, but it will be all worth it. Best tip on improving confidence? Imagine you are where you want to be and act like you are there already. Know your subject and believe in your success. Talk to good friends for objective advice and guidance. Or hire a business coach. A good one will encourage and guide you towards your strengths. If you could go back and pick your career, would you choose law? Why? Yes definitely, as I am a private client solicitor. What other profession would enable me to help, protect and inform people, often at a sensitive or otherwise important time in their life? Law is a great profession. Women now outnumber their male counterparts. So undoubtedly the profession’s culture will need to evolve for everyone’s benefit, to better meet changing work expectations. Who would you invite to your dinner party? – (you can bring people back from the dead for this one). Nelson Mandela for wisdom. Muhamed Ali, for sheer power. Ava Gardner for glamour. Helena Kennedy contemporary insight into women in the law. My father, just because I still miss him. Marie Curie for scientific intelligence. Elizabeth I for her dynamism and political nuance. Oprah because who wouldn’t want her to come over for dinner! Q Q Q ARE YOU READY TO START YOUR OWN LAW FIRM? If you answer yes to all these, then you may be! Can you guide yourself? If you lack self-motivation or need someone else to gear you up and point you in the right direction, you may want to wait a bit until you start your own firm. Entrepreneurship is for those who can work alone, don’t need to be reminded of their remaining tasks and are independently driven to succeed. Do you have a healthy way of handling stress? Running your own firm may make your hair fall out. Regardless of the reaps of benefits, it will be stressful at times. You have to produce quality legal work, represent your clients in a professional manner (and deal with their stress), work under pressure, and maintain your life outside of work alongside this. Think about how you have managed previous stressful situations and ponder on if you think you can manage it on a more intense scale. Have you done your homework? You need to have a plan in order to successfully start your own business. Where you may have masses of experience in the legal sector, how much do you know about the business world? Research, liaise with business experts and be as knowledgeable as you can about the business sector. Does law feel like more than ‘just a job’? You need passion, passion and more passion. It will motivate you through the tough times, as starting your own business is no easy venture. If working in the legal sector just feels like “any old job”, this may not be for you. Do you stand out from the crowd? And we aren’t talking about having bright blue hair, here. Do you have something that you know will make clients turn to you? What can you do differently? If you find yourself constantly copying others when you are stuck in a rut at work, you may need some more years before starting your own firm, because, when managing your own business, what works for others may not work for you. Refrain from copying and try and dig deep to guide yourself through your own challenges.