#TalkToMayo: Recent Episodes
Chris Mayo
London's soon to be number 1 legal industry podcast, hosted by London's 17th best legal recruiter (self appointed) Chris Mayo. Chris speaks with interesting, inspiring, and often entertaining guests from in and around the legal industry.
My chat with Geraint Loyd-Taylor, a Legal500 - Advertising & Marketing Law: 'Next Generation Partner', takes us on a journey through his legal career, and also into the world of advertising law. We talk about:
- Training contracts;
- Law firm culture, particularly why Lewis Silkin has been successful in talent retention; and
- The wonderful world of Adlaw
Geraint offers up some really interesting insight into how the law pertains to things like influencers, greenwashing, marketing, advertising, freedom of speech, retail, and I'm pretty sure we chuck in a few love Island references too.
Laura Brunnen spent 20+ years in the City as a “ticked all the boxes and then some” top corporate lawyer. She has first hand experience from some of the biggest names in Corporate Law including Slaughter and May, and Kirkland & Ellis.
Taking us through her career journey from accidental cambridge student, to magic circle trainee, to partner, to go-to private equity partner, and then leaving that all behind to bring big business legal advice to a new market, Laura shares her story with candour, humour, and insight that's useful to everyone from equity partner to law student.
This podcast is in two parts.. what can I say, we're a pair of chatterboxes, but I promise there's no filler, and there's plenty of pearls for you to take home.
Contact Laura by LinkedIn DM or IG @iamlaurabrunnen
More info: https://msha.ke/laurabrunnen/ and www.laurabrunnen.com
Laura Brunnen spent 20+ years in the City as a “ticked all the boxes and then some” top corporate lawyer. She has first hand experience from some of the biggest names in Corporate Law including Slaughter and May, and Kirkland & Ellis.
Taking us through her career journey from accidental cambridge student, to magic circle trainee, to partner, to go-to private equity partner, and then leaving that all behind to bring big business legal advice to a new market, Laura shares her story with candour, humour, and insight that's useful to everyone from equity partner to law student.
This podcast is in two parts.. what can I say, we're a pair of chatterboxes, but I promise there's no filler, and there's plenty of pearls for you to take home.
Contact Laura by LinkedIn DM or IG @iamlaurabrunnen
More info: https://msha.ke/laurabrunnen/ and www.laurabrunnen.com
Leaving biglaw and founding a cosmetics brand with your sister is a story worthy of a legal caeers podcast, but what Lauren had to survive in order to get there makes her journey all the more incredible.
Lauren's story makes you realise what is possible when you have an iron will and a family that loves you. Take inspiration here!
BySarah London is an organic skincare brand founded by sisters - follow them on instagram or visit their website bysarahlondon.com
One of the most candid interviews you'll hear from a Partner, and Law firm founder on the reality of Legal Practice in Biglaw. The episode charts the story of a Biglaw Partner who truly loves his work, but when it got in the way of his marriage and his children, he had to make a change. This story is a fresh take on the theme of legal entreprennuerialism and Oliver tells his story with humour, candour, and a palpable passion for his profession.
Oliver founded Euclid Law at the end of 2014 after spending the previous 4 years as Global Head of Antitrust and Head of EU Public Policy at Clifford Chance LLP. As a legal entrepreneur, his vision was to create a law firm that was highly specialist, extremely commercial and very close to its clients and their needs. This is what has been driving the Euclid Law ethos ever since.
Find #talktomayo the Podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you enjoyed the episode why not like and share?
Molly O'Donnell is an Adviser at Fortress Wealth Partnership Ltd. She has a niche in the legal sector advising lawyers on how to manage their finances better. Molly and I discuss what lawyers are doing wrong with their financial planning and how to fix it!
AJ is a sports Lawyer at Newlaw boutique Level (specialists in sports and media), we get into his story of leaving behind the world of Biglaw to follow his sports law dreams.
Philip Flynn is a legal entreprenuer and one of the first lawyers to start an alternative legal service business in the Republic of Ireland.
Philip shares his take on legal entrepreneurialism , his story and journey from Private Practice to in-house, to business owner.
Alex Hamilton (Twitter @alexhamiltonrad) is the CEO of Radiant Law a Newlaw firm that he set up alongside others after his career in Biglaw (ex Partner at Latham & Watkins).
Inspired by Lean thinking principles, the writing of thinkers like Richard Susskind, Mitch Kowalski, and spurred on by his frustration at the futility of trying to change law firm practices from the inside, Alex was left with no other choice than to set up his own law firm.
Books/Authors/blogs referenced and recommended in this episode include:
Out of the Crisis - Deming
Law21 Blog - Jordan Furlong
Avoid Extinction - Mitch Kowalski
Decisions That Matter - Jillson, Hayse, and Fletcher
This is Lean - Niklas & Par
Short solo episode, sharing the word on the street in the legal market and the topics that lawyers are talking about right now!
Adam is a Solicitor-Advocate with extensive experience of criminal and sports law spanning over fifteen years (the last seven running his own exclusively private practice) including periods with some of the largest international law firms in the world, such as DLA Piper.
One of the most fascinating guests. We talk about boxing, crime, starting your own law firm, recruitment and more!
Benjamin White is the founder of Crafty Counsel https://craftycounsel.co.uk/ a digital media platform and legal community. Prior to founding the business Benjamin worked as a lawyer in the fashion industry and as a Corporate Lawyer at Clifford Chance in London.
Electra Japonas shares the story of her journey from Lawyer at the European Space Agency, through various major corporations, culminating in taking the big risk of starting up her own business.
Alex Conroy coaches people (particularly women) to become more confident, and more sucessful. Before that she climbed the legal career ladder becoming a Partner at Elite US Law firms Kirkland & Ellis, and Fried Frank. But despite "making it" she felt that there was something missing.
A chance introduction to a coach when she was looking for help to improve her issues with sleeping lead her down a path that culminated in leaving Biglaw behind to set up her own coaching consultancy.
Listen to the full story here.
John is Founding Partner at Kepler Wolf, an independent law firm for independent thinkers. We use our legal and business expertise to help liberate our clients in the innovation and technology sectors.
John is a highly-experienced lawyer specialising in commercial, intellectual property and advertising and technology law. He has over ten years’ experience advising clients operating within the advertising, creative, technology and start-up industries.
John advises clients across a range of non-contentious matters, including online brand protection issues as well as assisting those taking commercial steps to protect and enforce their brand and IP.
He has expertise in advising business owners and companies on the start up, growth and exit phase of their businesses, and also has experience handling contentious matters for his clients.
John is recognised in The Legal 500 UK 2017 for Advertising. He is a UK legal advisor to SoDA, the global society of leading businesses in the digital and creative industries.
Yasmin Daswani is an Associate at Fladgate in their dispute resolution team, and has a side hustle as an International Cricketer, opening the batting for Hong Kong.
We talk about her childhood in Hong Kong, and how her mother got her into Cricket to re-connect her with her Indian roots, her journey into law, and how she's able to balance performing at work with performing at the crease.
Roshni Thakrar is a Pensions Lawyer, and the Host of the Prim Rose Light podcast. Roshni and I swap notes on our experiences, guests, and learning moments from 2020.
Charlène returns to the podcast to introduce us to the world of Bio-Hacking. We also discuss why Charlène is bucking the trend of many in the wellness space who advocate for plant based diets. Charlène discusses her experiences of plant based eating, and why she believes optimum health can only be achieved by eating ethically raised animal produce.
00:00 Intro
3:30 – What is bio-hacking?
16:45 – Balancing things that are good for you and bad for you
25:30 – What is health coaching and why do we need it?
29:15 – Why Charlène isn’t vegan
40:22 – Nose to tail eating
54:00 – Getting your genes tested
2:26 – Khurram introduces himself and describes his journey into law
09:00 – What got him into Employment law
13:00 – Social Mobility and diversity
17:30 – Decision to leave Baker & McKenzie
21:10 – What it’s like to move as a day one partner
31:00 – Growing the team
36:16 – Interviewing people for partner roles
40:20 – Running a high performing team and maintaining work life balance
0:00 Montse Introduces herself
4:15 Getting into Human Rights
5:45 Harvard and Career Change
7:10 Making the decision to leave Biglaw
10:11 Transferable legal skills
15:30 What Montse would have done differently
18:00 Do you love your job?
19:28 Associate Salaries and Taking the Pay Cut
24:50 Montse's Current Work
26:50 War Crimes: Pillage
33:50 Covid helping crime
40:00 Personal security
43:00 Perpetrators of War Crimes
48:40 The Military Limited report - Myanmar
54:40 Environmental Crimes
57:30 Advice on how to make the change
0:00 – Chris and Sarah discuss the charity Ultra Marathon
3:20 – The Social Mobility Foundation, and what they do
6:00 – Why Social mobility makes people more empathetic
9:30 – The Barriers to Social Mobility in the UK
11:00 – Why Social Mobility efforts need to be channeled correctly
16:30 – The effect that mentoring has on mentors and how it spreads
18:18 – Why the Cream doesn’t rise to the top on its own
24:30 – A level results scandal
26:40 - How Lockdown affects social mobility
36:30 – you can be a mentor at any level in your career
43:40 – Feel Good stories from people they’ve helped!
Podcast Time Stamps:
0:00 - Jayne introduces herself and the PCP (professional career partnership)
4:50 - The idiosyncrasies of a legal career
6:20 - Leaving the firm/the law
8:07 - What happens after Partnership?
9:20 - Managing your own career as a lawyer
11:11 – Having tough conversations
16:20 – Therapy in law
22:39 – Types of Therapy
30:00 – Lockdown and Mental Health
34:30 – Trainees in Lockdown
36:00 – Wellness in Law firms
48:15 – Saying thank you can matter more than money
49:50 – How are you really? Being honest about mental health
1:10 - Beers open, minimising the damage of alcohol
3:00 - Recruitment
7:30 - Recruiters behaving badly, roll on friday
14:30 - Yiddish, and Judaism
16:50 - Leaving law
17:30 - Pro bono employment work
21:50 - Legal tech to help individuals
22:20 - New Law, Kepler Wolf, and The Litigation Friend
26:50 - Acting for corporates against individuals
40:03 - Social mobility in law firms
49:45 - Law isn't like suits
51:00 - Jake tells the vac schemers the truth about law careers
54:00 - Being real with candidates
55:30 - Recruitment as a career
1:00:38 - Jake's Kombucha brand
Faiza Mukith - (Employment Lawyer)
· 1:00 – Cats, and trying to zoom when living next to a train station
· 1:48 – Lockdown life, working from home pitfalls
· 4:20 – Disconnecting from Social Media and the news,
· 6:50 – Faiza’s role, fighting Islamophobia
· 9:15 – Doing a job that means something to you
· 10:16 – From the hood to becoming a lawyer (Faiza’s backstory)
· 15:00 – Simmons & Simmons Scholarship,
· 17:40 – Diversity in law firms and social mobility
· 24:00 – “Making it” but knowing it’s not what you want
· 26:40 – The benefits of working in the corporate world
· 28:00 – The need for passion in your work
· 31:30 – A chance meeting that changed the game
· 34:31 – The challenges of working with victims
· 35:48 – The perks of working for individuals
· 37:00 – How to keep motivated in the face of injustice
· 38:00 – the difference between corporate clients and her new clients
· 39:00 – Dealing with Islamophobia as a Muslim
· 42:00 – The state of Islamophobia in the UK
· 43:40 – Why speaking up is important
· 45:40 – Shifts in Society
· 47:20 – The Media, stealing the narrative
· 53:40 – Making change in society
· 57:30 – A woman takes on an Islamophobe and wins
· 1:00 – The positives
· 1:03 - Social media vs real conversations, keyboard warriors
· 1:06 - Faiza calls Chris out for not buying her coffee
Our second Wellness Wednesday - Former banking lawyer turned psychotherapist Uxshely Carcamo, TalksToMayo about mental health, food, social media, and neuroscience!
Chris Daw QC is a leading criminal defence barrister, BBC TV presenter, campaigner, and Author of new book Justice On Trial. We discussed how the UK Justice system is broken and what we need to do to fix it.
Charlène Bourliout is a City lawyer turned Primal Health Coach, she sat down to #TalkToMayo about how her all encompassing philosophies on health and wellness can help us to live our best lives, and be more effective in our careers.