Recently we sat down for a conversation with Sarah Jane Lenihan – an award-winning Family Lawyer and Partner at the internationally renowned Family Law Firm, Dawson Cornwell. During the interview Sarah Jane discussed her career, achieving Partnership at a young age and her advice for those wanting to start a career in Law.
Would you be able to start off by telling me a little bit about your career history and your progression to becoming a Partner?
I started as a trainee at a small High Street firm in Kent. It was a multi service High Street firm that specialised predominantly in family law but also offered private client services such as wills and probate, conveyancing, crime and employment law. It had a legal aid franchise when I first joined but decided to move solely to private work as the cuts came in and it became non-profitable. I undertook my two years training there and qualified in 2010. Following that I spent three years working in Kent at a couple of different firms, which included a little time in-house in the Children’s team at the Local Authority. At the time I felt I wanted to ‘save all the children’ from harm, but it wasn’t for me. It was an extremely stressful experience being faced with the worst treatment of children on a daily basis.
Following this, I decided that I wanted to specialise more in finance work, and I made that my focus. Then, after three years in Kent I decided that I wanted to try and move to London. So, I moved to a Kent practice that were keen to set up a London office, and I set up a family practice there. I began working between both Kent and London. Then Siobhan from Eventus Recruitment helped me secure a role as an Associate in 2016 in London. In 2017 I was made Senior Associate, and Partner in 2019. Resultantly, I’ve spent the last eight years working in London and my career has massively progressed.
I have moved a little bit, but each role has been for career progression, therefore always with a view of something greater. For example, looking for a firm that was interested in opening a London office, and then moving to London, and then moving to a more senior position. Now, I have been at Dawson Cornwell for the last two and a half years based in Central London. I hope to spend the rest of my career here.
Are there differences between working in London to working outside of London?
There’s more international work and varied work in London. Now, I work with lots of clients internationally. They don’t always live here or there’s some international element involved, whether it’s assets abroad or spouses abroad. So, there’s more variation and to be honest certainly more wealth. The cases I was dealing with in Kent compared to the cases that I’m dealing with now have a significant difference in terms of wealth.
Why did you choose to specialise in family law?
I’d always wanted to do a job that was helping people. That came from my family. They have always been quite philanthropic and always done charity work alongside their work. So, from a young age I’ve always been involved in helping people and found that quite rewarding. At first, I thought I wanted to do criminal law. So, I did quite a bit of work experience. Some of that included working and spending time in a prison, which I didn’t enjoy. There are a couple of instances and things that happened that really put me off, and I thought I don’t have the nerve for criminal law.
So, I had the opportunity to do some voluntary work for the National Centre of Domestic Abuse and found a real passion in helping victims of abuse. Then, when I was then looking for my training contract, I was keen on something that was primarily family law and really enjoyed it. I’ve always enjoyed being a part of people’s lives, being part of their stories of improving their lives. So, I think that’s been a big part of it.
Was it difficult making that choice?
Yes, as with most areas of law you are generally helping people or companies. But in family law you get to be more personable. You really get to know people’s stories, which motivates you to help get them through to the other side. So, I think for me it was just something that clicked. The work experience was really key in that. I did some work experience with some barristers doing road traffic accidents, trust law, environmental law and spent time at an immigration appeal court. Consequently, I think that’s one of my key tips. Get as much experience as possible because on paper something can look like it would be the right fit for you but in practice it is not what you expect. For me with Criminal law I’d enjoyed it on paper and did very well in it in my exams, yet in practice it wasn’t the right fit for me. Whereas family law was just something that I took to.
What motivates you in your working life and what aspects of your role do you particularly enjoy?
I’m motivated by making a difference to people’s lives. Seeing the growth in my clients from the moment they walk through my door and helping them on their journey to getting out the other end to a happier, better place is rewarding. Working with victims of domestic abuse has become my niche specialism. So, I help victims not only in finance work but also children matters, injunctions or non-molestation orders / occupation orders.
It’s rewarding when you’re closing your file and you see them in a completely different position to where they started – smiling, excited for the future with confidence and stability and you’ve been a part of that journey. Recently, I did a final video call with a client (as she lives abroad), and the client was so grateful in terms of the impact both myself and the team have made in gaining her divorce and achieving the financial settlement. Particularly as this was done without a need for a Final Hearing, which she was very keen to avoid. As she was not coping with the litigation and having to constantly be in correspondence with her husband (via Solicitors) due to the emotional abuse she had endured during the marriage. For her it was an extension of this so be able to close this chapter for her was a massive relief.
Knowing that I can be a part of an individual’s / sometimes family’s story in making their lives better, is what keeps me motivated to work hard and do everything I can to help them.
What's the most challenging part of your role as a Family Solicitor?
For me it’s having boundaries with clients. It’s quite easy to be constantly available because there’s so much emotion involved. Also, clients become quite dependent upon you. So, it’s important that there are boundaries in place because otherwise I would work 24/7. And I think as a Solicitor who really enjoys helping people and who wants to make a difference, if someone needs me, I feel like I need to be available. Therefore, I make sure that clients are aware that yes, I’m available in emergency situations out of hours, but not available 24/7. For my own sanity it’s important that I have time away and allow myself to refresh for the next day. In any job it’s important that you have that time and space to yourself as well.
How did you find the transition from a junior to a senior role within a law firm?
It was quite natural because as the years go on you gain more experience. Also, I think you go from wanting to do everything yourself to gain the experience, to being happy to delegate tasks that the more junior people can do. So, I think it was quite a natural progression. When I was junior, it was good to have experience of different individuals above me that were mentoring me, and learning from them to enable me to become the best Solicitor that I could be. Now, being in a position where I’m mentoring or supervising juniors, it’s quite nice to be able to give back in that way.
What tips and advice do you have for others looking to specialise in family law?
Work experience is so key as being a family lawyer isn’t something that’s easy. You need to have a passion for it because without that passion it makes it more difficult to do the job. Also, clients are looking for that. You need a connection with clients and be able to empathise with them. Without that passion, it makes it harder. Work experience is key for this and will allow you to find what your niche is.
Also, now I conduct training contract interviews. When interviewing I’m looking for trainees that have experience, because for me it shows that they’re not just coming to us and saying that they want to do family law because we are a family law firm. I want to see those who can actually show solid experience in what they’ve done and the reasons why. As I want to find other Solicitors similar to me who have that passion. Ultimately, I find they make the best trainees, the best Solicitors and will connect with clients easier.
What do you like the most about working for Dawson Cornwell?
I like that it’s a niche family law firm and really is shaping family law. I believe we have the most amount of reported cases of any family law firm. We are changing the law regularly and it’s exciting to be a part of that and I am proud to be a part of that team too.
We have a separate specialist children team and a specialist finance team and we’re quite split in the work that we do. This means a client gets an expert for the advice they need. For example, if I’m assisting a client with a financial settlement and one of the children are abducted in my case, I can hand it over to somebody that really knows what they’re doing and doing this work regularly. Therefore, we can provide the best service to clients.
How have you grown professionally since becoming a Partner?
Professionally, both learning to delegate and learning to share your work. Generally, lawyers like to be in control of everything. So, I found letting go of work quite challenging at first. It’s allowing your juniors to learn and accepting that it doesn’t necessarily need to be done exactly how you would do it. Learning that other Solicitors will have different styles and allowing your juniors to develop their own style. Supervising has been something that I’ve enjoyed more than I thought I would and I have got much better at delegating!
I also enjoy seeing the juniors achieve great things, or prepare a great statement, or win awards, more than my own achievements now. Seeing other people doing really well whose careers I’ve been apart of is the most enjoyable.
How have you found managing and mentoring people as well as keeping on top of your caseloads?
I’m the sort of person that will make time for anyone at any time. So, even if I’m really busy, I will always take time out of my day to help juniors, which means I have more people coming to me because they know that I offer that.
It’s something that’s important as other people did it for me and that’s something that I really appreciated. It could be something that would take me as a senior a couple of minutes, but a junior could spend all week or the weekend worrying about it. So, by taking a few minutes to help them with something, that to me is minor, actually means an awful lot to them. Also, I mentor students from my old university as part of their programme. And again, people say to me, how did you find the time to do it? But, you know, it’s something that’s important to me because somebody did it for me. So, I just somehow find the time to answer the question.
What's been your biggest achievement in your career so far?
Winning Citywealth Future Leaders Family Lawyer Partner of the Year last year. That was massive for my firm to put me forward for this and then for me to go on to win was amazing. The key areas of my work that I was congratulated for were my mentoring, helping victims of abuse and my EDI work which I undertake for the London Resolution committee.
Did you have to give a speech?
No. Luckily, they didn’t ask for a speech because, somebody said to me, “have you written your speech?” and I was like “very funny”. And then all of a sudden when I won, I had this panic. But luckily, they weren’t doing speeches.
What's been the biggest challenge in your career to date and how did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge is dealing with unpleasant opponents. Whether it’s a Solicitor or somebody that’s self-representing on the other side of the case. Sometimes they can be particularly unpleasant and quite difficult.
As I’ve become more senior I’ve been able to rise to that less. Beforehand, it used to really get under my skin, and I would write more aggressive emails back. However, now my biggest thing is ‘kill them with kindness’, and if anything I’m more nice to them. As I find when someone receives a really nice response it makes it much harder for them to be aggressive or unpleasant back. I’m not saying that that always works, but I think it helps me. Whereas when I was more junior, I think I could get more caught up in the kind of tit for tat. So, they send something aggressive, and I’d send something aggressive back. It’s very unpleasant for the client because the client has to read it all at the end of the day as well.
As a result, now I’m more likely to pick up the phone to the client saying that I’ve had a horrible e-mail, I’m not going to send it to you, but this is how I’m proposing that I deal with it. Just to try and diffuse it and sometimes that works. Also, often I will pick up the phone and try and have a conversation with the Solicitor on the other side to bring the heat out of the situation because family loss shouldn’t be done in an aggressive and unpleasant way. It doesn’t need to be. The people that suffer are the clients or the children. You are then put in the middle of this contentious relationship between their parents, which is really sad. So, I’ll try and do everything I can to diffuse that situation.
How do you manage to juggle personal commitments with being successful and an award-winning legal professional?
It’s difficult and I think it’s vital to have a good support network around you. So, for me, that’s my husband and my Mum, who are really supportive in terms of helping with my children because sometimes work needs to be done out of hours. There are things going on that you can’t just leave, that can’t just wait until tomorrow. For example, there might be an emergency situation. So, having a good support network in place is crucial and sometimes you have to cancel dinner with friends and things that you had planned.
However, I think it’s making sure that for me it’s questioning myself. Is it really urgent? Does it really need to be done now? And if the answer is yes, then for me then I will get it done. If the answer is no, then it’s just managing the client’s expectations in terms of that. Because quite often for a client, everything is urgent. However, in reality it doesn’t necessarily need to be done that day. For example, it can be done the next day or week or you can find somebody else to assist.
How do you switch off after a day working on complex and emotional cases?
Switching off after work has definitely got easier. At the beginning it affected me a lot more particularly working with victims of abuse than it does now. I’m not saying that there aren’t still cases that I do think about at the weekend or in my own personal time.
However, for me exercise has been key. So, my advice is to make sure that you carve out that time for exercising and even if the minimum you can do is walk in the fresh air, it’s still something. For example, I quite often get off at the station before to increase my walk by another half an hour back home. So, that I can decompress after a long day before walking in the door at home. Also, I do the same before work quite often, I’ll get off at the station that’s a bit further away, to have a nice walk into the office. It gives me a refreshed feeling before I start. I feel that that makes a real difference.
Throughout the day, I’m good at telling people to step away from their desk but not necessarily good at doing it myself. However, a lot of people say taking that time away is good, because sometimes actually going for a walk around the block and coming back can make you deal with the task a lot quicker than you would being tired stuck at your desk. Ensuring you take breaks is very important.
You're featured in the press a lot. How did you develop that relationship with the media?
It started from social media. I used to provide a lot of commentary on social media on family law issues that were taking place. Back then journalists were looking through searching for somebody key. Then if somebody’s already commenting or writing about that, they were likely to get in touch with you. In addition, I would always make myself available. So, if a journalist called me and said, look, “can you do a call in 10 minutes?”, I’d be like, “yeah, fine”. “Can you go on the radio tonight?” “Yeah, fine.” And so being available for that, meant that they kept me as a contact knowing that I was willing and available. Now they contact me to comment on more family issues directly.
What is your aspiration for your career as a whole?
I suppose my kind of career / life motto is to leave this world having given more than I’ve taken. So, for me, that drives me to continue helping people, which I hope to do throughout my career.
Why should someone take up a career in law?
I think it’s highly rewarding if you find that passion and the right specialism for you. I thoroughly enjoy my job and everyone who knows people who specialise in the area of law they’re passionate about will say that too. So, I think if you can find that area of law that you really are passionate about that you can enjoy, it makes it enjoyable and therefore it doesn’t make it difficult. Often people say “find a job that you love and you won’t work a day in your life”. Personally, I don’t believe that because you’ve got to work hard. However, I think if you enjoy your work, it does make it easier, definitely.
What advice do you have for someone wanting to begin a career in law?
Work experience is just so key. Also, alongside work experience, taking a year out to be a Paralegal is so beneficial. Sometimes people feel like they’ve got to come out of university, go to law school and then get a training contract and it needs to be like bang, bang, bang, bang. However, having a year behind you as a Paralegal makes your CV more interesting for interviews and applications. In addition, it’s an opportunity to see inside a law firm and potentially trial different areas of law, which will help you decide on your specialism. Also, when you have Paralegal experience, it will help to hit the ground running when you start your training contract. You will be ahead of your peers.
What could someone do to make them stand out to you on top of the work experience? Is there anything you've seen before?
I’d say do something different to make your CV interesting. For example, have you had a different experience, something that’s a talking point. It doesn’t have to be a legal experience. Such as something that you’ve done that makes you a more interesting individual. As when I’m undertaking interviews, I want to meet people that are interesting, passionate, and have a good life experience as well. It’s imperative for family law that you have that.
Obviously when you start, you’re very junior. However, if you have some life experience, whatever it is, it will make you stand out. For example, maybe you’ve worked for a charity / helpline or volunteered in a third world country or something else that’s a bit different. As doing so will make you more interesting to us because 99% of those applying to us have outstanding grades.
So, having something interesting to talk about on your CV plus the work experience, are the two key areas that I’m certainly looking for when I’m interviewing.
Have you come across any unique ways to get work experience, aside from Citizens Advice or in a law firm?
Voluntary work is a great way to acquire experience. I volunteered at the National Centre of Domestic Abuse. Also, there’s Citizens Advice, Support Through Court. Now there’s legal advice centres where you can volunteer your time. Lots of voluntary sectors are desperate for people to help and would be grateful for assistance. There are lots of domestic abuse charities and other voluntary places that you can make contact with who would probably snap your hand off. Again, you might not be on the phone line advising a victim of domestic abuse, but if you’re doing something within the organisation, you will get exposure into that area.
Also, it can be about opportunities as well. So, you might go into something that might not be too relevant. For example, you might be part of the fundraising team for a domestic abuse charity. But then, you meet somebody and something else progresses from there. So, I think just getting involved with as much as possible is key.
How would you summarise your experience of working with Eventus?
It’s been very positive. Siobhan was the person I worked with. She gave me great confidence to move to London permanently, having qualified outside of London. I was worried that I wouldn’t secure a role in London and she really encouraged me and believed in me. She made me feel I was definitely right for London and that it was the place where I could progress. So, she gave me a real boost and the confidence for the interviews I had.
Siobhan got me a job in London and then helped me secure my plan for my second role here as well. Prior to meeting Siobhan I had had a couple of knock backs on the basis I did not have London experience and I did start to wonder if London was right for me. Siobhan was of course right and it has been wonderful.
Since I have been in London, Siobhan has helped me recruit amazing juniors for my team. Undoubtedly, she just has a real feel for the London market.
She really gets to know both the candidates and those who are recruiting really well. So, she can really make sure that there’s a good personality match, which is so important. Now I’ve got a team, to bring someone in who you know ends up not being a good fit, could completely disrupt the whole team. She just gets how important that is and is not just interested in getting a placement. She is super responsive, very lovely and fun to work with which makes the whole process more enjoyable.
Legal Career Insights
We hope you have enjoyed this interview. The interview is part of our series of legal career insights with professionals specialising in Law at all levels.
If you would like tailored career advice don’t hesitate to contact us. We are legal recruitment and job search specialists, who offer support at every stage of the job search process.
Further Reading
Insight into Helen Milburn’s career and journey to Partner and Head of Private Client, Wills, Trusts and Probate at Jacksons Law firm. Click here to read.
Trainee Solicitor Ross Simmons’ experience of securing a training contract after working as a Paralegal. Click here to read.
Insights into Legal Apprenticeships with Solicitor Apprentice Ellie Phillips. Click here to read.
Solicitor Apprentice Ellie Phillips’ personal experience of a Solicitor Apprenticeship. Click here to read.