Ashurst Advance career pathways – a Q&A with Sarah Macleerie and Abilash Unny

Ashurst is delighted to have recently announced its new strategic partnership with the University of Stirling, which focuses on developing the next generation of NewLaw professionals by bringing the evolution of the legal sector and associated new career opportunities into the core of the curriculum.

As part of the Ashurst Advance NewLaw Programme, a number of students on the course will be offered the opportunity to take part in a work experience placement at Ashurst. We are delighted to have been able to offer work experience placements to the University of Stirling for a number of years, and we are pleased to expand this initiative with our new strategic partnership.

In this article, we speak to Sarah Macleerie who completed a work experience placement with us in 2017 as a student at the University of Stirling. After graduating, Sarah joined Ashurst as a Legal Analyst in July 2018 and last year, as part of our Pathway Programme, Sarah moved into a new role as Legal Process Coordinator within our Legal Process Improvement team. We speak to Sarah and her current line manager Abilash Unny, Senior Legal Process Improvement Manager, about Sarah's career journey to date and the Pathway Programme that brought her to her current role.

Sarah, you took part in a work experience placement with Ashurst in 2017. Can you tell us a bit more about what that entailed and what you took from the process?

Sarah: In the third year of my law degree at the University of Stirling, I applied to take part in their yearly work experience initiative and was fortunate enough to be allocated Ashurst! The placement involved working 30 hours, across 5 weeks, in the Glasgow office where I was placed within the Ashurst Advance Legal Analyst team and paired with a buddy who could provide support and guidance for the duration of the placement. At the outset, I was provided with a well-planned and busy schedule, which allowed me to get involved in a whole range of activities during the placement, including: attending presentations by both Ashurst Advance leadership and each of the individual Ashurst Advance teams to understand the wider Ashurst Advance and individual team objectives; various opportunities to shadow team members from both the Legal Analyst and Ashurst Advance Digital teams; and lastly, completing a research project on the changing legal landscape, with a particular focus on the impact of legal technology and digital transformation, and delivering a presentation to the Ashurst Advance leadership team on my findings.

As a result, the placement provided me with a wealth of knowledge, enabling me to understand the key skills required to succeed in the legal profession and, as someone who had been questioning a traditional career in law for quite some time, it inspired me to view an alternative career in law as a real prospect. However, if I had to narrow it down to a key takeaway point, I would have to say that the most valuable learning for me was without a doubt the sheer amount of commercial awareness I gained in my time with Ashurst, despite only being with the firm for a few weeks! While commercial awareness is a topic often discussed throughout your legal studies, prior to my placement I definitely did not have enough awareness of, or perhaps appreciate the urgency of, the current challenge faced by law firms to deliver cost-effective and efficiency-driven legal services while maintaining quality, nor to what degree this challenge was going to completely transform legal service delivery – as is evident in the creation of Ashurst's NewLaw division, Ashurst Advance. In summary, being allocated Ashurst as part of this initiative is something I am extremely thankful for as it has brought me to where I am today, doing something I truly love!

What motivated you to pursue an alternative career in Law?

Sarah: Like many of my colleagues who have also been fortunate to find themselves in a career at Ashurst, I had been reconsidering the traditional qualification route for some time, but didn't know exactly how else I could use my law degree. I thoroughly enjoyed my legal studies and wanted to remain within the legal profession, but I felt like I wanted to do something slightly different – if "different" even existed! As mentioned earlier, I was fortunate enough to be allocated Ashurst for my work experience placement while at University and was completely inspired to get involved in the world of NewLaw after learning so much about the changing legal landscape and what the future of legal services might look like. Through my placement experience, I had found the "different" legal role I had been searching for and was excited by the prospect of becoming involved in what was still a relatively new concept with the opportunity therefore to play an active role in actually shaping the future of alternative legal service delivery. I became certain that this was the route I wanted to take in my career and couldn't wait to complete my studies to pursue not only an alternative legal career, but an alternative legal career with Ashurst – it was clear to me from the outset that Ashurst genuinely believed in and was committed to driving this change, but most importantly it encouraged its people and teams to be a part of leading this change through collaboration, which was really important to me!

You joined Ashurst as a Legal Analyst in July 2018. How would you say your work placement experience prepared you for this role?

Sarah: By completing the work placement I felt extremely well prepared for not only the role of Legal Analyst, but also more generally in terms of working within any legal professional services environment. During my placement, I gained a much deeper understanding of the day-to-day work and real challenges lawyers and firms were facing each day, gaining invaluable insight into some of the measures and approaches that Ashurst and its competitors had taken, or sought to take, to proactively overcome some of these hurdles. As a result, I started to view Law not only as a subject matter, but as a business – making a more conscious effort from then on to stay well informed about the key challenges facing the legal market, the opinions of industry experts such as Richard Susskind on the future of legal service delivery, and any key developments within the profession, particularly in the area of legal technology and digital transformation.

In addition, the placement also allowed me to see first-hand and really understand the key qualities and practical skills required to succeed in a career with Ashurst, such as the importance of being able to work collaboratively with others and achieve efficiency while maintaining the high quality required to meet Ashurst standards. This meant I was able to identify the key skills or areas I had to work on or further develop while completing the remainder of my degree, with a view to being able to return to Ashurst after graduation and demonstrate I had the necessary skills to join the Ashurst Advance team.

Lastly, by having the opportunity to work closely with so many individuals across the various Ashurst Advance teams during my placement, I quickly understood the importance of networking throughout your legal career and maintaining close working relationships with those you work with – as well as being able to easily reconnect with those I had worked with when I returned to the firm, I now continue to work with many of the same people and teams on a daily basis and I've therefore found that maintaining strong working relationships really is key! In summary, I think it is fair to say that completing the work placement at Ashurst definitely stood me in good stead for starting my legal career and has without a doubt contributed to the success I have had in my career with Ashurst so far.

Your current role is now Legal Process Coordinator within the Legal Process Improvement team. Can you talk to us about your experience transitioning to this role, through the Ashurst Advance Pathway Programme?

Sarah: As a Senior Legal Analyst I was often involved in a variety of workstreams across multiple practice areas. However, regardless of work type, I always found myself seeking ways in which I could improve processes and increase efficiency in order to streamline day-to-day operations and collaborate with others to turn these ideas into real process improvement initiatives to find solutions. When an opportunity to join the Legal Process Improvement team as part of the Pathway Programme arose, it was therefore a no-brainer for me to apply as the role seemed like the perfect culmination of both my skills and what I enjoyed doing on a daily basis! During the application process, my experience of being involved in and driving a number of legal process improvement initiatives while part of the Legal Analyst team was really key in helping me to demonstrate both the passion I have for challenging processes to maximise efficiency, and ultimately why my skills and experience to date showed that I would make a great addition to the Legal Process Improvement team. Since making the transition between teams, I have also been afforded an extremely unique and advantageous perspective – with my Legal Analyst team experience allowing me to understand first-hand exactly what is required for the successful and efficient implementation of legal processes, and the ability now to support this with the legal process improvement expertise and methodology gained in my current role. In summary, taking part in the Ashurst Advance Pathway Programme and the transition from the Legal Analyst team to Legal Process Improvement team has been an extremely rewarding opportunity for me to learn and grow professionally – it has allowed me to pursue a very different career path in a well-supported and development-focused way!

Abilash, you are now Sarah's line manager in her new role as Legal Process Coordinator. What can you tell us about your experience of the Pathway Programme?

Abilash: I have always been a strong believer in internal staff development programmes, so naturally I was excited to hear more about the launch of Ashurst Advance Pathway Programme. The Pathway Programme team, especially Carolyn O'Connor, were amazing in guiding me through the seamless process.

The Pathway Programme is more than just a learning experience, I see it as a win-win scenario for both the successful internal candidates and their managers. Candidates who decide to join the Legal Process Improvement team through this programme get an opportunity to work with various practice areas and clients and to understand how legal process improvement adds value to their experience. They get the opportunity to be directly involved in client projects, even leading them in some cases, before deciding on their next career move. For example, Sarah successfully led multiple projects before she made her decision to transition permanently to a Legal Process Coordinator role. My experience with the Pathway Programme is extremely rewarding, as it allows me to learn more about the candidates during the length of the programme. This is very useful in planning the candidate's transition into the team at the end of the programme, if we both decide it is the logical next step. In future, where possible, my first point of call for recruitment will always be the Pathway Programme.

What advice would you both give to anyone considering a career in NewLaw?

Sarah: I would say to any new law graduates, or those currently studying law, who might be questioning whether the traditional traineeship route is for them and are looking for a legal career which is both challenging and rewarding but slightly different, that a role in NewLaw is definitely that! NewLaw is, as mentioned, still a relatively new concept so by starting a career in NewLaw now you really are at the forefront of the changing legal landscape and will definitely play an active role in driving that change. My advice would therefore be to start to really understand the urgency of the challenges lawyers and law firms are currently facing on a daily basis to provide clients with cost-effective and efficient delivery of legal services to the highest standards, and, if challenging the status quo and thinking outside the box is something that excites and motivates you, then you will be well suited to a career in NewLaw! And of course, by starting your career with Ashurst Advance you get to learn from the best and reap the benefits of working for an industry-leading firm that is committed to being at the forefront of driving this change!

Abilash: It is evident that the legal landscape is changing, so it is inevitable that this has given rise to many exciting opportunities within the legal industry. For example, Legal Project Management and Legal Process Improvement have been a feature of the mainstream legal industry for only the last five to seven years.
The concept of NewLaw is often misunderstood and seen simply as an "alternative" way to deliver legal services, for example, faster and cheaper delivery. This could not be further from the truth for us, as we see NewLaw as an opportunity to think outside the box and deliver an exemplary service to our clients in an innovative way, while focusing on their experience as an Ashurst client. In this process, saving time and money is a bonus for our clients as our service quality is never compromised.

NewLaw is also about changing and adapting to the evolving legal ecosystem, which naturally results in new opportunities within the legal industry. We have witnessed an increase in legal technology, legal project management, legal process improvement and legal operations roles within the industry and we expect to see an increase in demand for roles in data analytics and data science in coming years. I would advise anyone considering a career in NewLaw to research the roles available and speak to experts in each field to get a better understanding of the various roles. Once you have identified your area of interest, then take a leap of faith.