Maclay Murray & Spens partner Jill Reid entered private practice after 25 years in-house with Chevron UK, Shell and Dana Petroleum. Why did you make the move into private practice? I feel that my role [at Dana] as General Counsel and Company Secretary in an oil and gas operating company having assets in multiple jurisdictions with […]
Travers Smith’s David Patient gives his advice for those moving into a management role. Was moving into a management position always a career objective for you? It has certainly not always been a career objective for me, but something that evolved over time. I had the good fortune to have the opportunity to open our […]
Talk Talk legal director Nadia Hoosen nearly left the profession entirely at 5 PQE but her move in-house reinvigorated her appetite for law. You always knew you wanted to work in-house and did so at 5 PQE when you moved to Carphone Warehouse. Do you regret not making the jump sooner? It was always my […]
Dentons’ Qasim Aslam tells The Lawyer about how he climbed the career ladder. Where did you train? I started my career in a very modest way at a very small firm called Trainor Alston in Glasgow. I was working at the coalface and one year into my training contract I was appearing in front of […]
Nicholas Fletcher QC spent more than 30 years in law firms before returning to the Bar. He talks about how he went about it. Why did you decide to return to the bar? What has working in a law firm taught you? I had spent more than 30 years as an associate and a partner in […]
Westfield GC Leon Shelley talks about his time as a banker, and how he was offered his current job in the back of a cab… Your first legal role was as a trainee at Herbert Smith. Why did you join them? I was young and naïve and fell into my first firm, I did […]
Wilkin Chapman chief executive Des Mannion gives his perpective of moving from accountancy to law. What made you leave London and the accounting world to join the Lincolnshire legal market? I got to a certain age and I was thinking about my career and where I was at Grant Thornton, and what challenges lay ahead. […]
Laura Carstensen spent 10 years as a partner at Slaughter and May before quitting law entirely and moving to the Welsh countryside. She tells us about her big career decisions. For a long time you combined your role as a City partner with being a mother to six children. How did you do it? Do […]
Barrister Camini Kumar, now an associate at Penningtons Manches, gives her advice on moving to a law firm from the bar. What was the thought process you went through in making the decision to leave the Bar? This certainly had not been a career objective for me – quite the opposite. My ambitions had always been […]
Brandsmiths founder Adam Morallee quit Mishcon de Reya to go it on his own. He tells us how he did it and what the challenges are. Was starting your own firm a career objective for you? How did you come to the decision? Starting my own firm was never a career objective. While at Mishcon, I was […]
The Lawyer’s new feature, My Career Stories, will explore the personality and rationale behind impressive careers every week. This week, Top Right general counsel Nilema Bhakta-Jones charts her journey from pupillage to in-house via the Government Legal Service and the City.