After studying Law and Spanish at university and qualifying as a construction solicitor in Yorkshire, I spent 7 years in private practice before joining Centrica PLC as an in-house solicitor.

I wanted to move in-house before that but was labelled as a construction lawyer and overlooked as unsuitable for commercial legal roles. I am now a general commercial lawyer and a success story that changes in legal practice are possible.

I spent 7 years advising developers, contractors, banks, pension funds and landowners on all aspects of construction and engineering projects and as a newly qualified solicitor undertook a mix of transactional and dispute work. I have a proven track record of delivering strategic, pragmatic and practical advice.

Since moving to Centrica PLC, I have gained broad commercial experience advising on a range of commercial agreements as well as intellectual property, competition and data protection issues. I love the mix of work that an in house position brings and joining in the successes of the company, seeing the benefit of my hard work. After only a short period at Centrica, I was promoted to Senior Legal Counsel and more recently I was promoted to Lead Counsel.

As I start to take on more leadership responsibilities I am taking an active role to help shape the future of our business and the legal profession through my participation in various committees and industry initiatives. This is of personal importance to me, having been bullied in my youth, having spent time living abroad as part of my degree and experiencing life as an outsider and having worked in a male dominated environment as a young lawyer. I whole heartedly embrace and emanate the principles of the O Shaped Lawyer – being open minded, innovative and pragmatic. I am passionate about transforming the legal profession to shake off the perception that lawyers are risk adverse and business blockers.