Hi Kate, could you start by sharing a bit about your background and your school?
I was born in Aberdeen (my family are all from just outside Glasgow) but we moved down to England when I was little. My parents separated shortly after, so I grew up in a single-income family, with my mum working full-time and raising myself and my sister.
My mum really recognised the value of a good education, she's a teacher herself, and she pushed myself and my sister quite hard at school. I went to a state primary and secondary school. My secondary school was undersubscribed when I joined it and underfunded, like too many states.
I was on free school meals and I remember having to hand over a little pink card at the till to ‘pay’ for my lunch, which felt very obvious. At the time, I felt a real sense of shame about being in a low-income family, rather than pride as it should have been, which has taken a long time for me to unpick. But otherwise, I really enjoyed school and loved learning. It was only after I went to university that I became more aware of the huge gulf between state and private school experiences.
What first sparked your interest in pursuing a career in the legal sector?
Honestly, I decided quite young that I wanted to go into law, based on having watched a lot of a TV show called LA Law. I didn't know any lawyers, didn't have any firsthand experience of the legal profession. But oddly, my school offered GCSE Law, taught by a teacher whose qualification for teaching it was several divorces and having spent time in courts with those - I was never entirely sure whether that was a joke or not! I really enjoyed it, and got the idea in my head that I'd like to do law at university.
For those educated in state schools, breaking into the legal sector can often feel like an uphill battle. What steps did you take to overcome those challenges?
No one in my family had been to university before me, and the school suggested I apply to Oxford. I didn't know anyone who'd been to Oxford either, so the school librarian very kindly gave me some interview prep.
That was probably the first time I was really aware of what having a state education meant. There's that classic question people ask at that type of university: where did you go to school? I kept saying, I promise you'll never have heard of it. There were people there who had lots of friends interviewing at other colleges because they'd all come up from private school together. I just felt very much like a fish out of water. I had no expectation of getting a place at all, but then I got an offer and ended up going to Oxford to read law.
Especially in law, it's easy to believe that everybody has come from privilege, and I had that feeling of ‘I'm going to get caught out, I'm not meant to be here’. When I met somebody more senior than me who had also come from a state school background, it gave me confidence. That feeling didn't disappear once I'd got in, either - I was very naive early on, thinking that when you achieve a particular milestone, everything just clicks into place. I thought, when I get to university, then it's easy peasy. Not true. Then I thought, when I get my training contract... not true. What actually changed things wasn't reaching a milestone, but finding people who talked openly about where they'd come from and how you get on.
What was your journey from grad to CEO?
I trained as a lawyer in London, then went to Australia for four years and worked as a project finance lawyer, before coming back and joining another London city firm. From there I moved into legal technology and publishing at LexisNexis, where I stayed for just over 11 years and had both of my children.
Coming out of COVID, I was ready for a new challenge, and I came across Flex via the founder, Mary Bonsor, who was setting up our trainee scheme, Flex Trainee, a social mobility initiative. Because of my own background, I was really excited about getting involved. I joined four and a half years ago in a client services role, then moved into the CEO role, and stayed on after Flex was acquired by Mishcon de Reya. I’ve recently moved back into my former COO role as the business prepares for its next growth leap. It's been a bit of a squiggly career but I think that’s an advantage - I’m not afraid of taking chances.
How has The 93% Club impacted you during your journey, and how can it help others trying to get into the sector?
I think the 93% Club is so empowering because what I didn't have the words for back then was the network. I could see people had these relationships and connections; I didn't really understand that that is what a network was. I've contributed where I can, including CV reviews for students, but honestly the support has run both ways. At the launch of the 93% Club's state school report, I had three or four conversations with people at a similar stage of their career to me, and we all said how refreshing it was - it's like a shortcut in language, you don't have to play a role, you can drop the mask.
What is Flex Legal doing to help state school students break into the legal sector?
The trainee scheme is a dedicated social mobility initiative. Trainees have to hit two of the Social Mobility Commission's markers, one being state school education. So we scaffold trainees through the whole journey, not just get them in the door: employing them on fixed-term contracts, funding their SQE prep and exams, and providing coaching and mentoring throughout. Before they go anywhere near a client, they spend three weeks with us on a readiness programme - legal technical training, but also core skills like how to introduce yourself in 30 seconds, how to prepare for a meeting, how to network. Nobody had taught me to do that. We also bring in senior lawyers from similar backgrounds to talk about their own career journeys.
All things I wish I had access to at that stage of my career.
Is there anything else you'd want a state school student reading this to know?
I just want them to know that they are so deserving, and that they should feel really proud of being state school educated. 93% of us are. I'd also say, especially with how fast the world is changing with AI, try to see that as an opportunity rather than a threat. Know what your values are, that's always a really good North Star for knowing which organisations and roles are right for you, and for keeping you on the straight and narrow when it's tough, because it will be tough, for everybody, at the moment.
And be a good citizen to other state schoolers. Be somebody else's scaffolding, because I really believe that all comes back around.
And if there are state schoolers out there who could use our support, we would love to hear from them.
