The Hot 100 career quiz: Fieldfisher litigator Ellie Pinnells

What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee?

I really enjoyed my training contract. I had so many varied and sometimes quirky experiences, running off to court to get things issued and being asked unexpected questions by the court clerk. I was sent to make applications to remove travellers from a big property client’s sites, and explored a field in wellington boots that was later to become the site for a client’s HQ building.

I did my turn on the photocopier and colouring in. My first Christmas to New Year shift was entirely spent copying bundles and highlighting confidential passages in yellow highlighter for a big case in the Competition Appeal Tribunal. I ended up with yellow all up the side of my hand and arm. It was a bit like the A0 map I had to colour during my property seat and ended up with green stains all up arm and my sleeves.

I also had the fairly common experience of a trainee when you get asked last minute to attend an important client meeting and take a note. You don’t know anyone’s name, so my notes afterwards had things like ” beard” and “red jacket”, hoping that I would later be able to find out their names without looking completely clueless. I have never forgotten that, and take great care these days to make sure I brief any juniors properly before going into meetings.

What is the thing in your professional career that has terrified you or taken you out of your comfort zone the most?

I spent some time helping to build up a bulk practice from scratch. As part of that, I really needed to understand what everyone in the team did, and whether it could be done more efficiently.

So I spent half a day in a job swap with a PA in a bulk claim department. I was answering the phones non-stop to new and existing clients, while trying to fit in writing attendance notes, filling in forms, filing things, answering emails. It was a hugely stressful experience and made me appreciate even more the skills and dedication that so many unsung PAs bring to the job every day.

What is the wisest thing anyone ever said to you (and who said it)?

There are two ways to make yourself look big: 1. Make everyone else look small or 2. Make everyone look big.

This was said to me by a very successful American opera singer when I was about 10. I was always tall for my age, and it took me ages to work out what that meant.

The second way (make everyone look big) is definitely the way to go, and I realised this more and more as my career progressed. The team around you (and beneath you in terms of seniority) are the people that will make or break your career. You can’t get anything off the ground without a great team around you.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to get to where you are/do the job you do?

Be yourself.

Everyone brings a different skill set to the job: some excel in the technical side of the law; others are better at the commercial/strategic side. Understand your strengths and play to them, work with other people to complement your skill set (i.e. be a team player).

I am also a great believer in the power of inclusion and diversity. If you are “different” in some way, don’t hide that and try to assimilate. Instead, work out how your characteristics can benefit the team. Be proud of who you are and what you represent.

What’s your best friend from law school doing now?

One of my contemporaries from law school, Dan Hayward, is one of my excellent fellow partners at Fieldfisher.

My intake was majority female, and I am particularly pleased to see that a good number (with and without families) have now become partners at a variety of law firms.

A few of my friends have now left the law, some have gone into business and others have gone in altogether other directions.