Category: Family & Work

An Interview with… Dana Denis-Smith, founder & chief executive of ‘NewLaw’ contract lawyer supplier Obelisk Support.

In 2010, former journalist and Linklaters lawyer Dana Denis-Smith founded Obelisk Support which connects the pool of largely female ex-City legal talent to clients’ real needs for part-time and flexible resources.  Dana and the team have since won many awards, including in April being listed in The Times Top 50 Employers for Women 2015. Here Dana – one of the most forward thinking women in the business – talks to associate editor Caroline Hill about innovation, tech and what the legal market will look like in 10 years’ time.  How would you describe your business in 30 words?

“Obelisk Support’s aim is to make work work for our clients, our lawyers and their families whilst remaining a flexible, innovative and affordable provider of legal support to large corporates and law firms.”

Your growth rate is impressive, how many lawyers are working for Obelisk now?

“Our year-on-year growth remains strong – looking at 200% this year – after a couple of years at 400%. We have around 850 lawyers we can call on of which around 350 have a ‘green’ light and are available at any given time to ensure we remain highly responsive and able to build the best solution for clients.”

What appeals to clients most about your model?

“I think it is our ability to be creative with our legal solutions; we are highly versatile and fast; the other ingredients – great quality lawyers, flexibility, great management and great central team – they are a given and the foundation that enables us to push boundaries and lead the change.”

How is technology helping your business?

“Businesses like ours would not have been conceivable before the rise of faster speed internet and cloud technology; we believe in simplicity when it comes to implementing new technology – law is not an early adopter and therefore everything we have/ we are building has to account for the technical ability of its users and be very intuitive.”

What are the most interesting trends you are seeing in the legal profession?

“The overwhelming trend is really to look for and implement change; this is great as it makes the market a particularly interesting one to be in. I would say most of the innovation in the UK is in the space of operational efficiency, which is not surprising given the recent recession. There is a difference between the US and UK in the innovation we are seeing; the US is ahead in tech change as the size of the litigation market is huge there and making it more affordable through tech has led to some really interesting work – from case research to workflows and certainly the use of behavioural economics. Certainly I find the tech in US more interesting than over here.”

What innovation has particularly impressed you?

“Anything that involves predictive coding and constant machine learning I find really fascinating.”

What will the legal market look like in ten years’ time?

“I think it has to be the emergence of a ‘new’ lawyer – with a different set of skills and perhaps a more unified skills market between the various sides of the profession; the buying of legal services will change significantly and the lawyers of tomorrow will have to be able to interchange between being smart buyers and smart suppliers at various points in their careers. In a strange kind of way, the fact that there will be more automation in the lower level work will keep lawyers busy.”

If you could change one thing about the legal market, what would it be?

“I would change it so lawyers are trained to help them adapt to new tech and be more numerate.”

How to Boost your Self Confidence in the Workplace.

Our former Chairwoman Helen Mahy shares her mantra on self confidence, setting out the five things to remember when you need to your confidence in your abilities a boost.

It is often said that women in business lack confidence. Indeed many studies show how good we are at underselling ourselves. I’m not sure about you but I have always had a bit of an issue with self-confidence. So how can women in business become more self confident?

If you look up the dictionary definition it is all a bit scary. “A feeling of assurance or certainty, especially in oneself or one’s capabilities. Belief in one’s ability to succeed”. Frankly I’ve never really been sure I was going to succeed. And I have always thought confident people to be rather arrogant.

Anyway, about 5 years ago I discovered a little book called “Buddhism Without Beliefs” by a former Buddhist monk called Stephen Batchelor. It’s all about the relevance of Buddhism to everyday living and in it there is a wonderful definition of self confidence which I have paraphrased below.

1. Self confidence is not a form of arrogance
2. It is trust in our ability to fulfill our potential
3. It is the courage to face whatever life throws at us without losing equanimity
4. It is the humility to treat every situation we encounter as one from which we can learn
5. When I’m feeling less than self confident I repeat the above to myself and it does help.

Try it for yourself some day!

We titled this piece ‘Confidence Boost from the Expert’ in honour of Helen being awarded the CBE in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday list. Well done Helen from all the team at Obelisk.

There are few issues about the workplace that divide opinion as much as the professional women who seek to balance family and work but still advance their careers. Should mothers have their cake and eat it?

Looking around, I see few enduring obstacles that prevent the answer from being ‘yes’. At least for the foreseeable. As the CEO of a fast-growing company in the legal sector, the mother of a toddler, and a wife, I have my hands full – but I do have the luxury of being able to control my time. I might not have enough of it, but that isn’t gender-related, rather linked to the level of responsibility I chose to assume in my professional life by founding and running a business. Most employed mothers do not have this luxury. Instead, they are forced to choose between ‘family’ or ‘work’.

Here’s how the set-up currently works: there are two broad groups of mothers – stay-at-home mums and the mums in full-time work. The stay-at-home mums are equally busy with running their households and their children’s diaries, while the full-time working mums struggle to nurture a happy family whilst maintaining a separate professional identity.

But with advances in technology, there are plenty of means that could enable professional mothers to work smarter, so that they can remain engaged with the workplace without sacrificing family commitments or, indeed, the other way around. Women should no longer be faced with having to give up work, or compromise on family, but rather be helped to phase in and out of the workplace to fit the two neatly around each other.

More often than not, professional mothers become stay-at-home mums having tried to work around their families already and eventually given up. For many, as one of my colleagues put it, is ‘the classic compromise’ – as her family grew, she tried to work part-time until she gave up. She strived to be valued ‘without having to commit to more than I can realistically deliver’ whilst being a mum to her three children. Unlike those mums who remain employed or those opting straight away to stay at home, this group of mothers have seen the full spectrum of the challenges a mother faces to make work and life form a harmonious relationship.

Listening to their stories, what emerges is that we should be concerned about the glass door which prevents women from returning on equal footing after taking a maternal career break. Once through the glass door, we can then shift our focus on removing the glass ceiling.

Why is there such a vast disparity between the number of women who enter the legal sector and the percentage of women who rise to the top of the profession? This is no easy question, and I certainly cannot attempt to answer it easily or succinctly. I would say, however, that there is one large, contributing factor, which is becoming less and less of an ‘elephant in the room’, and one which increasingly the sector needs to tackle. Women in particular, but parents more generally, who wish to combine a legal career with other commitments, most notably having a family, have been leaving the profession when they finally give up in face of a constant struggle to balance work with life. The attrition rates speak for themselves – women have left, and continue to leave, the profession in droves. We now know why they are leaving and so the key question is how can we, as an industry, stem this flow?

In 2010 I went on a trip to India to research my next entrepreneurial move. Whilst there, I witnessed an outsourcing trend to offshore destinations which left me puzzled and frustrated given the amount of legal talent which lay dormant right here in the UK. This gave me a business idea, and thus Obelisk Support was born. I could see that we can offer a route back into the profession for exceptionally talented lawyers by allowing them to work flexibly. By tapping into this wasted talent pool, Obelisk Support could compete with offshore destinations on quality, flexibility, price and efficiency in its work with large multinational corporations and City law firms.

The last 4 years have not been an easy ride – and I did face something of an uphill battle in trying to convince clients that women could work flexibly, often remotely, without compromising on the quality of their delivery. But, the stories of our lawyers (80% of whom are female, many of them returning from a career break) who have succeeded in working flexibly around their family and other commitments is testament to the shifting attitudes of the legal industry (and, admittedly, four years of hard work from the Obelisk Support team).

Seeing the work coming through the pipeline and clients returning positive feedback on our lawyers’ work, some of which never thought they would earn again by doing legal work, fills me with great pride. And so it is that I measure our success by the success stories of our lawyers over the years. is best portrayed by the individual stories of the lawyers we have placed.

The stories are many and underpin just why we have become known as the legal business with a heart. Jane qualified at a top law firm, where she practiced for 13 years, before taking a 10 year career break whilst she started a family. After such a long break, re-entering the profession can be daunting. However, through Obelisk, Jane is now working for a large bank. She works remotely from home, for an average of 22.5 hours a week, all fitting around her other commitments.

Annie, who has a younger family, was able to work around her family commitments, working mostly from home and for around 5 hours a day. In Annie’s own words, working with Obelisk has benefitted her enormously ‘both personally and professionally’.

Karina moved to Chile, but was keen to stay in full-time work. We secured her a full-time placement supporting a large telecommunications company in Ireland, where she was able to work completely remotely from home.

We really do put the client and lawyer at the heart of our legal solutions, and this is demonstrated by the unique way in which we approach each client and consultant, taking into account the needs of both parties and tailoring an efficient solution. My vision when I started Obelisk Support was to enable women like Jane, Annie and Karina to do the work they love, without having to make impossible compromises. That they have been able to do so, whilst simultaneously delivering exemplary service to large multinationals and law firms, should demonstrate to the legal profession that flexibility can, and does, work.

Take a break. Seriously. It’s good for you. I don’t mean sitting at your computer typing emails through mouthfuls of salad. I’m talking about a proper break to stretch your legs and get away from your computer screen.

Although UK law requires that all employees take at least one uninterrupted 20 minute break per 6 hours of work, in many workplaces, there is a culture of eating lunch at your desk or skipping breaks altogether. Many employees feel they are losing time or will seem less committed by taking their whole lunch hour, but in reality, if you’re not taking a break, you’re probably not making the best use of your resources. So, whether you’re working from home or in a city office, what can improvements to your productivity can you trigger when you take the time to stop?

1. You get more done

The human brain wasn’t made for the intense, long haul concentration we expect of it during the course of a working day. All the decisions (big and small) we make fatigue our brain and decrease productivity. In fact, studies have shown that even a 5 minute break is enough to sustain concentration and increase productivity by an average of 13%. By not allowing your brain to take a break, you’re decreasing its capacity for creative thought processes and your work can suffer.

2. You’ll be healthier

Ever noticed how much better you feel after going for a quick walk? Taking time out to stretch your legs and get moving boosts circulation and increases oxygen flow which is a great energiser. Going for regular walks can help prevent dementia, osteoporosis and improves the body’s cardiovascular fitness. It’s also a great opportunity to explore your local area and discover new cafes and green spaces – as well as giving your Vitamin D levels a boost while you’re at it.

3. You’ll be happier

With the Spring weather coming out in force, there’s no better time to take advantage of London’s green spaces by spending your lunch time outdoors. People that regularly spend time outside report lower levels of stress, depression and anxiety. In fact, the endorphins produced from physical activity can be as effective as antidepressants in cases of mild to moderate depression.

4. You can practise mindfulness

There’s a lot to be said for putting down your phone/tablet/laptop and just ‘being’. Even focusing your attention only on eating your food instead of also tapping away on your phone can be hugely beneficial. Whilst multitasking can make you feel like you are hyper efficient, in reality, the human brain doesn’t cope very well with multiple tasks and struggles to switch between them. Singletaskers can actually switch from one task to the other better than multitaskers, and can also filter irrelevant information more effectively. So, use your break to focus on one thing only and you’ll be setting yourself up to be more productive when you’re back at work.

5. You’ll save your eyes

Remember the 20-20-20 rule. That is, every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. If you don’t, you’re in danger of getting Computer Eye Strain – something that 50 – 90% of office workers complain about. Symptoms include physical fatigue, decreased productivity, an increased numbers of errors, as well as eye twitching and red eyes. Getting outside on your break will also protect your eyes from the overly harsh lighting found in most offices. If you can take a break and get out of the office and away from the computer screen, you’ll be saving your eyes and improving your work.

So if you think you’re too busy to take a break, actually, maybe it’s time to think that you’re too busy NOT to.

I’m sure a lot of us remember that famous (or maybe infamous) quote from 1980/90s super model Linda Evangelista, who professed that she “didn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 per day”. I’m not sure what your reaction is to that but at the time, as a young woman in my 20s, I remember thinking not only how lucky she was, but also how far removed she must be from what was the ‘real world’ for the vast majority of the population. Surely if she had a greater appreciation of ‘normal’ day-to-day life and the financial challenges most people face, she wouldn’t have been so crass as to publically voice her ‘reality’?

Most of us would argue that the words of a mercenary supermodel hold no resonance with those of us living in the real world. But, in reality, are we also guilty of having the same thought process when it comes to ourselves (albeit on a less grand scale)? Do you always set your ‘current market value’ based on what your peak earning power has been previously, at any point during your working life? If so, you could be missing out on potential opportunities to develop and grow now and, in effect, be creating a false economy by adversely impacting your future earning power as a result of looking at basic salary alone.

I’ve heard comments such as “I would feel undervalued”, “my self-esteem would suffer”, “I would feel like I’m going backwards” when someone is offered a position with a basic salary that is very competitive and attractive, but slightly below what they have previously been paid in the past.

But we all know that times have changed. The way people are working and what they consider important is also evolving rapidly. For example, in 2013 there were 367,000 more self-employed people than in 2008 proving that, with better technology, more and more people are working from home. And, in 2013 150,000 more people were secured on ‘zero hour’ contracts than in 2005 – another example that the workforce is shifting its collective expectations and embracing a more agile style of employment.

The reality is that, in this day and age, no one really expects to work for the same company until retirement. I think, now more than ever, it is imperative that the whole package is considered when choosing a job – including what working arrangements are available and how the opportunity fits with your own commitments and aspirations, along with what personal growth will be achieved to improve your own personal brand and marketability.

So, maybe now is the time to assess your own ‘reality’ and reconsider what you will get out of bed for.