Law Life Balance – Details, episodes & analysis

I can't BELIEVE we're 18 episodes in and at the season one finale of the podcast. It's been such a journey, and I'm so incredibly grateful for all of your support, and the time of my amazing guests.

I wanted to take a little time to reflect on some of the themes that have come up, and what has happened in the legal industry during the course of season one. I also wanted to take the opportunity to tell you why I'm closing up here for the first season, and to explain what I'm going to be focussing my efforts on for the next few months.

Thank you again for all of your support, and I hope to see you back here very soon.

If you want to stay up to date with me and my work supporting lawyer wellbeing, you can find me via my website, Instagram, or on LinkedIn.

Mary Bonsor was a property litigator in a top city firm before starting Flex Legal in August 2016. Flex is an online platform which connects pre-vetted lawyers and law students to law firms and general counsel for a flexible, on demand service. Flex has over 5,000 candidates on its platform and over 250 clients including magic circle firms, FTSE 250 companies and SMEs. In 2020 Mary was recognised as one of Management Today's 35 Women under 35. 

Mary is passionate about the future education of the profession and how tomorrow's lawyers will qualify.  She sees the SQE offering a huge opportunity to law students to get relevant work experience during their studies and is also very interested in how law firms can retain and attract the future generation.

We talked about:

• Being a new mum whilst running your own business
• Flex Legal and the rise of legal consultancy
• How platforms like Flex can help someone transition into a completely new area of law
• How to help lawyers have more autonomy and control over their workloads
• Starting a tech platform without any tech expertise
• The importance of trying to solve problems by yourself first
• Some of the lowest moments of starting a company
• The importance of looking after employee mental health
• How the pandemic has shaped Flex’s attitude to wellbeing
• Reforming how we train solicitors
• And don’t miss the moment Mary offered to mentor me (and I OBVIOUSLY said yes)!

If you’re keen to keep up with Mary and Flex legal you can find out everything you need via their website.

This week’s guest is William Dougherty, founder of new legal tech company, Capacity. Hailing from a small town in Scotland, William found his way (somewhat luckily some might say, given his approach to applications) to Dentons in London where he qualified and practised as an IP lawyer. He recently gave up his solicitor role to take Capacity to new heights and fulfil his vision of creating a more inclusive and sustainable culture and working environment in the legal industry.

A man who’s clearly done his research, William kept me on my toes for this episode and we covered a vast range of topics in the hour that we chatted! Some of the key ones are:

• From nursing home to London law firm, William’s journey to the City
• The importance of early entrepreneurship for future solo success
• The impact of poor work allocation in private practice
• Legal tech and the future of being a lawyer
• Autonomy as the silver bullet to many wellbeing issues
• Systemic and cultural issues preventing diverse individuals from progressing in their careers
• How lawyers being naturally risk averse prevents innovation and disruption of the industry
• Alternative KPIs that firms should be using as a measure of success
• Bonuses and high salaries - financial reward or an apology?
• Alternative incentives and reward structures
• The cause of long working hours and ways to manage them more effectively
• Desirable and undesirable leavers - why do lawyers leave?
• Meditation (including vipassana - listen to find out what that is!)

You can get in touch with William on LinkedIn or directly via email at william@capacityapp.io (very trendy).

The book William referred to is “The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety” by Alan Watts.

Don't forget to subscribe if you enjoyed the episode! New episodes released each Tuesday.

This week’s guest is William Dougherty, founder of new legal tech company, Capacity. Hailing from a small town in Scotland, William found his way (somewhat luckily some might say, given his approach to applications) to Dentons in London where he qualified and practised as an IP lawyer. He recently gave up his solicitor role to take Capacity to new heights and fulfil his vision of creating a more inclusive and sustainable culture and working environment in the legal industry.

A man who’s clearly done his research, William kept me on my toes for this episode and we covered a vast range of topics in the hour that we chatted! Some of the key ones are:

• From nursing home to London law firm, William’s journey to the City
• The importance of early entrepreneurship for future solo success
• The impact of poor work allocation in private practice
• Legal tech and the future of being a lawyer
• Autonomy as the silver bullet to many wellbeing issues
• Systemic and cultural issues preventing diverse individuals from progressing in their careers
• How lawyers being naturally risk averse prevents innovation and disruption of the industry
• Alternative KPIs that firms should be using as a measure of success
• Bonuses and high salaries - financial reward or an apology?
• Alternative incentives and reward structures
• The cause of long working hours and ways to manage them more effectively
• Desirable and undesirable leavers - why do lawyers leave?
• Meditation (including vipassana - listen to find out what that is!)

You can get in touch with William on LinkedIn or directly via email at william@capacityapp.io (very trendy).

The book William referred to is “The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety” by Alan Watts.

Don't forget to subscribe if you enjoyed the episode! New episodes released each Tuesday.

This week I’m joined by Elizabeth Rimmer, CEO of LawCare, the UK’s mental health charity for the legal community. Elizabeth began her career as a lawyer at Leigh Day, before transitioning to the VCSE sector. Years later, she found herself drawn back to the legal industry in a different capacity - one which lets her combine her knowledge of the law with her passion for mental health and wellbeing. For Elizabeth, wellbeing means (primarily) daily dog walks and time with her parents, but she’s advocating for a broad and flexible definition of wellbeing throughout the legal industry.

This conversation could have continued into multiple episodes, and there may well have to be a Part II sometime! But in this episode, we discussed:

• Elizabeth’s route into law and back again
• How the legal industry has changed from the 90s to the present day
• The impact of the pandemic on lawyer mental health and wellbeing
• How firms can support their lawyers to have better mental health
• Management training
• The impact of the billable hour and billable targets on lawyers
• Better ways of evaluating lawyer performance
• The importance of making (and being allowed to make) mistakes
• Skills-based training at law school
• (And dogs)

If you want to find out more about Elizabeth and stay up to date with her thoughts on the industry, you can find her on LinkedIn.

You can find out everything you need to know about LawCare and how to get in touch on the LawCare website. Please, if you’re struggling, do give them a call.

The book Elizabeth is currently reading is The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman.

This week I’m joined by Elizabeth Rimmer, CEO of LawCare, the UK’s mental health charity for the legal community. Elizabeth began her career as a lawyer at Leigh Day, before transitioning to the VCSE sector. Years later, she found herself drawn back to the legal industry in a different capacity - one which lets her combine her knowledge of the law with her passion for mental health and wellbeing. For Elizabeth, wellbeing means (primarily) daily dog walks and time with her parents, but she’s advocating for a broad and flexible definition of wellbeing throughout the legal industry.

This conversation could have continued into multiple episodes, and there may well have to be a Part II sometime! But in this episode, we discussed:

• Elizabeth’s route into law and back again
• How the legal industry has changed from the 90s to the present day
• The impact of the pandemic on lawyer mental health and wellbeing
• How firms can support their lawyers to have better mental health
• Management training
• The impact of the billable hour and billable targets on lawyers
• Better ways of evaluating lawyer performance
• The importance of making (and being allowed to make) mistakes
• Skills-based training at law school
• (And dogs)

If you want to find out more about Elizabeth and stay up to date with her thoughts on the industry, you can find her on LinkedIn.

You can find out everything you need to know about LawCare and how to get in touch on the LawCare website. Please, if you’re struggling, do give them a call.

The book Elizabeth is currently reading is The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman.

Dan Kayne is General Counsel of the Routes department at Network Rail, and the founder of the O Shaped Lawyer movement. Juggling effectively multiple full-time jobs (including fatherhood), Dan is a tour de force when it comes to driving change in the legal industry. A man who believes that “it’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice”, Dan joins me for a chilled and friendly chat, peppered with moments of his natural, dry humour, which will leave you feeling positive about the future of the legal industry, guaranteed.

In this very human conversation with Dan, he and I discuss:

• The difference between private practice and in-house law;
• The O Shaped Lawyer movement;
• Human-centric skills-based legal education;
• Glorification of “busyness” in the legal industry;
• How to solve for wellbeing in the law;
• The importance of personal values; and
• Empowering lawyers to look after themselves.

You can find Dan on LinkedIn, and learn more about the O Shaped Lawyer on their website, or you can join the O Shaped Lawyer LinkedIn group.

The book Dan is currently reading is Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein.

Dan Kayne is General Counsel of the Routes department at Network Rail, and the founder of the O Shaped Lawyer movement. Juggling effectively multiple full-time jobs (including fatherhood), Dan is a tour de force when it comes to driving change in the legal industry. A man who believes that “it’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice”, Dan joins me for a chilled and friendly chat, peppered with moments of his natural, dry humour, which will leave you feeling positive about the future of the legal industry, guaranteed.

In this very human conversation with Dan, he and I discuss:

• The difference between private practice and in-house law;
• The O Shaped Lawyer movement;
• Human-centric skills-based legal education;
• Glorification of “busyness” in the legal industry;
• How to solve for wellbeing in the law;
• The importance of personal values; and
• Empowering lawyers to look after themselves.

You can find Dan on LinkedIn, and learn more about the O Shaped Lawyer on their website, or you can join the O Shaped Lawyer LinkedIn group.

The book Dan is currently reading is Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein.

Raj Panasar is a lawyer who has recently left private practice from his previous position as a Corporate Finance partner at Hogan Lovells. Born and raised in Lancashire, Raj felt under immense pressure from his parents to pursue a ‘high-flying’ career, despite being at real socio-economic disadvantage and coming from, in his own words, deep deprivation. Nonetheless, he made it into private practice, training at Linklaters, and then making partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton before moving to Hogan Lovells. Raj has now stepped away from partnership to pursue his own legal tech venture which he’s keeping under wraps (for now)!

In a conversation that could’ve continued into multiple podcast episodes, some of the key things Raj and I discuss are:

• Raj’s journey into law from a socio-economically disadvantaged background;
• Arrogance v confidence and imposter syndrome;
• Raj’s own experience of partnership, and his recognition of his unfair expectations of juniors earlier in his career;
• What led him to changing his attitude towards people management;
• Machismo in the culture of the legal industry;
• Work-life balance; and
• Management training and how to get managers to actually change their behaviour.

You can find Raj on LinkedIn where you can keep up to date with his exciting new venture!

The book that Raj mentioned is ‘The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts’ by Daniel Susskind and Richard Susskind

Raj Panasar is a lawyer who has recently left private practice from his previous position as a Corporate Finance partner at Hogan Lovells. Born and raised in Lancashire, Raj felt under immense pressure from his parents to pursue a ‘high-flying’ career, despite being at real socio-economic disadvantage and coming from, in his own words, deep deprivation. Nonetheless, he made it into private practice, training at Linklaters, and then making partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton before moving to Hogan Lovells. Raj has now stepped away from partnership to pursue his own legal tech venture which he’s keeping under wraps (for now)!

In a conversation that could’ve continued into multiple podcast episodes, some of the key things Raj and I discuss are:

• Raj’s journey into law from a socio-economically disadvantaged background;
• Arrogance v confidence and imposter syndrome;
• Raj’s own experience of partnership, and his recognition of his unfair expectations of juniors earlier in his career;
• What led him to changing his attitude towards people management;
• Machismo in the culture of the legal industry;
• Work-life balance; and
• Management training and how to get managers to actually change their behaviour.

You can find Raj on LinkedIn where you can keep up to date with his exciting new venture!

The book that Raj mentioned is ‘The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts’ by Daniel Susskind and Richard Susskind