“When I qualified, it didn't have the ‘oomph’ I’d imagined”

I had decided I wanted to go into law after spending a day watching a court case. My uncle’s friend was a judge, and he invited me to sit in the gallery. That was where the seed was planted.

At the start of my law degree at Greenwich University, we were told only 10% of us would go on to work in law, if we were lucky. After I graduated, I really struggled to get a training contract, so I got a job as a property paralegal. I self-funded my master’s degree to help give me an edge in applications – but it didn’t help.

Dogged determination kept me going. I thought, ‘I’ve set out on this goal and funded myself through law school, so I’ll be damned if I don’t actually qualify’.

Early in my career a female colleague said, ‘If you want to be taken seriously, you shouldn’t have long or blonde hair’. Because I was so desperate for a training contract, I cut it all off into a bob. I still didn’t manage to get a training contract though.

It’s taken all this time to get my hair back to the length it was. Now I’m a bit rebellious to expectations. I’ve got long hair and I have tattoos as well, but none of it has any impact on my capability.

Paralegal life, property and wedding photography

When I qualified, it didn't have the ‘oomph’ I’d imagined. I’d met so many barriers trying to claw my way up to qualification. I thought I’d feel much happier than I did.

I started doing wedding photography while I was studying for my master’s and working full-time. I was quite busy! I would work five days a week as a paralegal, study in the evenings and shoot weddings at weekends. The photography was a stark contrast to working in property law.

I ended up doing it for 10 years – and even had photos published in Vogue. I got to travel a lot as I was photographing weddings abroad. It was nice to do something creative outside of the day job.

There was a point where I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll just have a career as a paralegal’. I was being well-paid and managing a team, plus I was still doing photography on the side.

I also contemplated going all-in on wedding photography. Ultimately, I didn’t want to stop pursuing my dream to do law. I’d been doing it for so long and wanted it so much – I just couldn’t put it to bed.

Rediscovering my motivation

I was a senior paralegal in a US firm when I got pregnant with my daughter. Even though I’d qualified, I didn’t feel like I was helping people. I realised that something had gone amiss and I’d lost sight of my motivation.

I’d previously done a bit of work in risk and compliance and loved it. I thought it might bring me more joy as a lawyer because it's got a creative element. And, as it’s not transactional, I thought it could be an easier path to juggle as a mum.

So, during my maternity leave, I handed in my notice at work – it was terrifying. It was August 2020, I didn’t have a job to go on to – it was mid-pandemic. But I knew if I was going to swivel into a different career in law this was the time to do it.

I got my first compliance job at Herbert Smith Freehills after my maternity leave. It wasn’t a solicitor position, but it was a great foot in the door.

I started at the bottom of the food chain again. That was mentally quite difficult. Financially, it was a huge step back – my salary halved overnight. But I then got my first solicitor role working at Clarke Willmott and after that moved on to Freeths.

I love the fact that every day is different in risk and compliance. Nothing is ever straightforward. It brings in what I loved about photography into my legal world. I now get to help people again in a meaningful way and have to apply an element of creativity to solve problems which may not be black and white. I also learnt how to deal with many different people when I owned by own photography business and this has served me well.

People ask if I miss wedding photography. I still have my camera and love to take photos. By running my own photography business, I learnt how to deal with many different people and this has served me well. Even if money wasn’t an issue, I’d still stick with working in risk and compliance – it’s the right fit for me.