Deborah Olawore

So my name is Deborah. I work as a senior manager in legal and I'm in London.

I spend most of my time managing people. So I have about three direct reports: regulatory legal assistant and then two other managers.

I spend my time liaising with solicitors as well. So it could be about ethical framework, so what we do. They call it code of conduct, just so we have something in line to regulate the people that we manage and our registrants and members.

Also speaking to other people as well in the organisation, could be assessment managers, just to know about the allegations they get in, the complaints they get in and how many.

So I spend my time talking to people, managing people, ensuring that we manage risk as well. Speaking about legal queries with the teams so they can learn more. So just many more like that.

A typical day would look like spending time with the team, talking to people within the business. So it could be the business analyst talking about how to map out our process or operations managers as well.

A typical day involves me accepting budgets as well. So approving it when we get like budgets from our contractors, basically. Yeah, just checking legal queries as well, answering these questions, explaining, you know, why we have these questions and answers to them so the team can also learn.

Yeah, so I would say, assessment manager. So they are the first set of people who would get the complaints, the allegations and stuff, and they would look through it and decide if there's a case or answer and if it needs to progress into a hearing, which is my side.

So we would always talk about how many allegations they've received in the last few months, in the last few years, track those and then decide if we need to get more people within the hearing team to manage the hearings with the panel members and the case presenters.

There's solicitors as well when we escalated a lot of legal queries and we're receiving so many more from legal representatives from our clients or members.

I like this question. I see myself as a young manager. So one of the best things that I would say is helping my team grow, helping them develop and also helping the company maintain its growth as well.

And another thing I would say is the fact that because I work in regulation, we are essentially managing people to ensure that they are doing what they need to do. They are fit for purpose. They are working according to the code of conduct.

So that makes me feel like I am promoting public protection, public interest, and making sure that people are rendering the best services.

So it's like saying, as a lawyer there's a body that governs solicitors, which is the SRA. As a doctor, we have a body that governs them as well. So, just making sure that the services are appropriate and just people who are working with the ethical framework, ethical and professional standards are the ones doing the job.

Yeah, that's what I'd say that I love about the job. So promoting public discussion, public interest, and just making sure that the people are safe.

It's definitely when we send out reports to our members.

So the reports could be favorable, could be unfavorable to them. That's the hardest part.

So it's like saying you've gone through an investigation process, we've received an allegation against your practice and the panel members, they've looked through it. They have found that these allegations are true and you've been sanctioned.

So it could be conditions of practice over your job. It could be suspension, could be total eradication out of the profession.

So when we send out these reports to the members, it could be really bad for them. So that's one thing I don't like. It's just sending out unfavorable reports to the members.

So I went to university, I did undergrad in law for three years and then I did the LPC and master's program, so the law school and master's at the same time and also did a couple of courses on Coursera, which is free, so why not.

Because I was a very curious person when I started my career. So with that I was able to gain more experiences from learning, from doing the jobs as well. So worked in adjudication for a bit.

So I took all the lessons, the skill sets, the knowledge, explored very well. I contracted as well, obviously, which sort of made me an expert in some parts of regulation. So investigation, witnesses, and stuff like that.

So I would definitely say job hopping. That really helped me to get to this position really quickly.

In this job, it would definitely be when I managed to streamline the process. So when I started this job, obviously if you start a new job, you would have a couple of weeks or a couple, well, about a month to learn the process and know what they do in the business.

And when I started, I did a lot of research trying to understand what the business was about. And I saw that the process was long, not unnecessarily long, but we could work our way around it.

And I remember the first conversation I had with my manager was how about we just break some things down? You know, this process is already nerve-racking for members and registrants going through the process. So why not just, you know, cut some things down and make it faster?

And I started that. Well, I did it for about a year and I completed it yesterday at my presentation. So it was a very long process because I had to check in and out of everything that we were doing in the company, break some things down and some of the results that we got from it was cost efficient as well.

So rather than getting a whole law firm doing witness statement for us, we picked someone, contracted someone to do it for us in-house.

We're getting reports back quickly and then sending them back to the panels and members quickly as well. So it will definitely be a streamlined process.

That's one of the greatest achievements from this particular role.

I wish someone told me not to stress about the future. The future would definitely sort itself out. They would say work smart, not hard. And it's true.

You know, when I started my career, I started contracting in the very beginning. Some people say it's not advisable, but it makes you an expert because when you do something for a short while somewhere, do the same thing somewhere else, you're learning faster, picking up things more than those that are comfortable in that position.

So yeah, I wish someone told me not to stress about the future. It would definitely sort itself out. Although I would say that you need to make plans for it. So set yourself in positions where you can easily achieve these things without stressing too much.

And people usually say when you worry about things of the future, it's anxiety and we worry about things of the past is depression. We don't want these things for ourselves, do we?

So do what you need to do. Go to school, read your book, learn, take free courses online. There are webinars as well, use them, but just don't put pressure on yourself about the future.

And then other thing I would say is dream boldly as well. I started my career about two years ago now, and then I became a senior manager, I still can't believe it. I was dreaming to be a leader and I got it in the end, isn't it?

So, and again, there are so many other opportunities for me out there. In the future, I'll be a partner in a law firm and I will work my way up there.

So dream boldly because you definitely can achieve anything that you want to do and don't say no to opportunities. Take them. Take them. You would not fail, even if you fail it's an experience. So yeah.