Legally Vocal

In this episode of Legally Vocal, Nino speaks to Ben White, founder of Crafty Counsel.

Ben and Nino explore the similarities in their careers: both starting as corporate lawyers who moved into in-house roles before founding their own businesses within the legal industry. In doing so, they discuss the inevitable tension in trying to maintain work-life balance while building a successful ‘now or never’ business.

Ben also shares his insights into why a sense of community, and fun, is increasingly important to London’s GC community. He also tells us a bit more about the inaugural CraftyFest, which promises to deliver both these things, along with a little dash of glitter.

In this episode Nino speaks to an old friend Casey Flaherty, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer at LexFusion.

Casey shares his thoughts on why in-house lawyers and outside counsel are more similar than they think. He also talks about his passion for solving the fundamental problem of delivering legal expertise at scale and pace.

Nino and Casey also discuss how a 'savings-centric' approach is counterproductive to the legal department adding value to the business. Instead legal teams should focus on how they can spend funds better.

In this special International Women’s Day episode of Legally Vocal I. Stephanie Boyce (President of The Law Society of England and Wales) speaks to Alexis Alexander (General Counsel at Liberis).

Alexis runs Legal and Compliance at Liberis, is a mum to twins and a ten-month-old baby, and enjoys regularly running at least 12km distances. Alexis believes her high stamina and mental grit is helped by being authentic and not having to hide her true self, as well as taking time to recognise her own achievements and gain perspective.

Alexis and Stephanie also discuss unconscious and cultural biases, the value of interpersonal relationships, and how informal networks and mentors can provide a safe space for women in legal to use as a sounding board to help #breakthebias.

In this special International Women’s Day episode of Legally Vocal I. Stephanie Boyce (President of The Law Society of England and Wales) speaks to Amy Wang (Trainee Solicitor at RVU).

Having completed her first year of training Amy and Stephanie speak about whether the concept of gender neutrality is still relevant and whether changing from an industry that traditionally seeks individual success will ever be able to truly find equality.

They also speak about the concept of proteges and how the role of mentoring requires organisations to dedicate more time from women in senior leadership positions to help #breakthebias.

In this special International Women’s Day episode of Legally Vocal, I. Stephanie Boyce (President of The Law Society of England and Wales) speaks to Priscilla Osoba (Projects Solicitor at Burges Salmon LLP).

Priscilla was the winner of the Under-35 Lawyer of the Year Award at our Inspirational Women in Law Awards 2019 for her work with BCultured, the firm’s first BAME network and challenged the inequality that can be found in an input vs output, billable hours culture.

Priscilla and Stephanie also speak about having allies and how challenging stereotypes around projecting confidence can help #breakthebias.

In this special International Women’s Day episode of Legally Vocal, I. Stephanie Boyce (President of The Law Society of England and Wales) speaks to Stephanie Corey (Co-Founder at UpLevel Ops and Founder of CLOC).

Stephanie shares her perspective of ‘falling into’ the female-dominant world of legal operations and how she has seen female leadership develop faster in this specialisation, compared with other areas of legal. They explore how soft skills are being leveraged by leaders in smaller, more nimble organisations.

They also speak about the positive impact of workplace flexibility, which was necessitated by the pandemic, and how this legacy can ultimately help to #breakthebias.

In this special episode of Legally Vocal, celebrating International Women’s Day, guest host I. Stephanie Boyce (President of The Law Society of England and Wales) speaks to Dana Denis-Smith (CEO at Obelisk Support).

Dana is a campaigner for equality in the legal profession and set up her company to create flexible opportunities for people in the legal profession. Dana also set up the First Hundred Years campaign celebrating the centenary of women in law, as well as looking to the future to achieve equality at a faster pace.

Stephanie and Dana also discuss the challenges and opportunities for career progression in the legal industry, and how the profession has achieved many milestones with pioneering role models to help #breakthebias.

In this special International Women’s Day episode of Legally Vocal I. Stephanie Boyce (President of The Law Society of England and Wales) speaks to Chidi Onyeche (Associate at Latham & Watkins).

In 2021 Chidi won Under-35 Lawyer of the Year at the 2021 Inspirational Women in Law Awards and speaks about how law firms can take action on equality in three main areas: allyship, partnership and business development. She also gives direct advice to those considering going to university, especially as ‘first in family’ to do so.

Chidi and Stephanie also share their similar experiences in how sponsors and mentors have helped them find pathways to overcome barriers and #breakthebias.

In this episode we speak to Liz Lugones, Legal Operations Senior Advisor at UpLevel Ops.

Liz shares her top three tips for building an effective legal ops strategy and how legal ops can help the legal function be more cognisant and proactive around spend management.

Liz and Nino also discuss why digital fluency is critical for the evolution of legal departments and how legal ops can help educate legal teams on the capabilities of modern legal tech.

Legally Vocal is back with a brand new season and we're kicking off 2022 with our first guest, Daniel Chin, General Counsel at Arrival.

In this episode Daniel shares the key to building a high-functioning legal team and the importance of having delegation processes in place early on.

Daniel also shares what the biggest change was when moving from private practice to in-house (spoiler alert: it wasn't time recording!) and explains why he thinks the PQE system is in need of reform.