Lawyer Work-Life Balance
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Sexism and the City - why female lawyers are afraid to speak out against discrimination
By Legal Week | April 11, 2013
In her new book of feminist advice for women in the workplace, Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook and the first woman on the social networking giant's board, acknowledges what many are afraid to admit publicly: "Women face real obstacles in the professional world, including blatant and subtle sexism, discrimination and sexual harassment." Readers of Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead will know that Sandberg, a 43-year-old American mother of two, has fought for and won priority parking for pregnant women and picked lice out of her children's hair on a company jet.
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No child left behind – helping children through the family courts
By Legal Week | March 21, 2013
The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service's (Cafcass) start was a troubled one. Established in 2001, it was created by the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 with the idea of merging the 700 probation officers who handle family court welfare work, 810 guardians ad litem who represent children's interests in child abuse and care cases, and the children's branch of the Official Solicitor's Department. These workers came from 113 groups with 57 sets of pay and conditions. Delays in the family courts system, rows over the contracts of the staff and finally the departure of the first chief executive Diane Shepherd less than a year after she was appointed meant the department got off to a rocky start. Some speculated that the organisation had had a premature birth and that an initial lack of funding made life difficult.
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Chasing the Olympic dream - Bobsleighing paralegal Lucy Onyeforo targets Winter Games glory
By Legal Week | March 14, 2013
A paralegal by trade, I am standing at the top of a mountain in Sochi on the Russian Black Sea coast, 846m above sea level. I'm about to push a 190kg bobsleigh as fast as I can for 35m before jumping in. The sleigh will reach speeds of up to 90 miles per hour while travelling along a 1,500m course, which includes 17 nerve-wracking bends. And I won't be in control of it – someone else is driving. I don't like rollercoasters and I'm not an adrenaline junkie. At 29, the first time I got in a bobsleigh was a month ago. Now I'm about to tackle the most challenging course ever designed. The question strikes me: why am I doing this?
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The return of the native – Todd QC on returning to practise after an eventful year as Bar Council chair
By Legal Week | March 7, 2013
"This last year, I have come to realise, even more clearly than before, that you cannot please all people all of the time and you cannot please some people any of the time." So wrote Erskine Chambers' Michael Todd QC at the conclusion of his year as chairman of the Bar Council. If there was a touch of asperity in the tone of writing, Todd could be forgiven.
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The best of all worlds – the new breed of portfolio lawyers juggling multiple careers
By Legal Week | February 28, 2013
Portfolio working is becoming increasingly popular with lawyers looking for more variety and flexibility in their work. But could you juggle more than one career? Simon Harper talks to advisers who have taken the plunge...
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The eight golden rules – how to be a successful equity partner
By Legal Week | February 14, 2013
The first rule of being a successful equity partner is covering your costs and share of the overheads – this is the very minimum expected. Unlike senior associates, or even salaried partners, it is the equity partner's responsibility to make sure that their team's client work adds value to the firm through profit. If an equity partner acquires a reputation for continually failing to achieve their targets, this normally leads to them leaving the practice.
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Suing the Church – how one City litigator pursued an abuse claim against the Catholic Church
By Legal Week | January 24, 2013
I litigated for seven years against the Catholic Church and its insurers, Zurich. In doing so, I wore several hats – as former litigation partner with Pinsent Masons, as the client in a high-profile action, as a sexual abuse victim and latterly as a mentor to other claimants. Over the years, I had to draw heavily on my 16 years doing commercial cases. Finally, in November 2012, after two trials totalling 15 days, one appeal and several interlocutory applications, I was awarded £55,000 damages by Mrs Justice Swift arising from sexual assaults by a Jesuit priest in the 1970s.
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Tipped for the top – how to stand out as 'partnership potential'
By Legal Week | January 17, 2013
Law firms single out individuals as 'partner potential' early in their careers, but how can you become one of these select few? Career coaches Heather Townsend and Jo Larbie explore what firms look for when identifying future partnership talent...
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Tales from a warzone - Mayer Brown on the realities of business in Afghanistan
By Legal Week | November 22, 2012
When the US Department of Defence turned to Mayer Brown for help in Afghanistan, the US firm's lawyers were little prepared for what doing business in Kabul would mean. Ian Coles reports
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A model for progress – teaching law students in Vietnam
By Legal Week | November 15, 2012
Before becoming a solicitor, I previously trained and worked as a nurse. The experience gave me a commitment to hands-on learning and 'clinical' teaching similar to that practised in medical and related fields. So I was very keen to respond to a request from the charity Bridges Across Borders South East Asia's (BABSEA) community legal education initiative for clinical legal education (CLE) experts to join a team running a legal education summer school in Vietnam in July and August – even with a warning that experts would have to be prepared to work long hours and stay in fairly basic conditions.
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