A senior commercial lawyer with experience at the London School of Business and Finance, London City Airport and the Leasehold Advisory Service, Lola provides legal advice, drafts commercial/corporate contracts, real estate, negotiation, employment law advice, compliance and litigation in the sectors of property, transport, private education and FMCG. Her experience in commerce and industry means that Lola is well suited to working in a variety of environments. Here, she shares her insights on recent experiences as an Obelisk consultant.
Can you describe your work experiences through Obelisk?
Working through Obelisk is like enjoying a sumptuous box of chocolates. I get to work with a broad variety of clients and practice areas, everything from software agreements and share acquisitions to data privacy compliance and governance. Every client is unique, and I enjoy the ever changing disciplines and sectors.
What makes your expertise unique?
My expertise is unique because I am truly a general practitioner, although my expertise leans towards commercial practice I have held positions in organisations where I was a standalone lawyer and as such had to pick up multiple practice areas. This has included niche areas such as aviation law, business rates, corporate immigration, leasehold enfranchisement and state aid law.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of flexible working as a lawyer?
Being able to set my availability and mode of work is the most rewarding. This has meant that even pre Covid I was working remotely and have always enjoyed this mode of work.
The most challenging?
Managing a diverse workload and maintaining CPD. Being a freelancer it’s easy to forget about attending Webinars, Seminars and legal updates. However, I try to do something every other month to ensure that I keep updated with the latest developments in my core practice areas. Obelisk has a discount via MBL and having attended MBL’s in person seminars as well as webinars I can recommend them.
What are your proudest professional and personal achievements so far?
Helping a start-up business with key customer facing policies that were needed in order for their website to be compliant with GDPR and best practice. The business involves a field that I am passionate about, as such, my work with this client was both professionally and personally rewarding.
How do you find the right work/life balance?
- The majority of my work is performed remotely, however, since covid-19 this has been 100%, as such, maintaining the right work/life balance has always been key. I use my home office, a dedicated room for work, I find that having a dedicated space assists in creating the right balance. I try not to let work spill out into other areas of my home.\
- Where possible I agree realistic deadlines with clients to ensure that I can complete all tasks at a reasonable pace and avoid work overload.
- I use time blocking and often batch similar tasks together, this creates efficiency for me and assists in planning my working day.
- I exercise during the week and use it to break up the working day, for instance I often go for a run at lunch time or straight after work. Exercising regularly balances my energy and enables me to get more work done. Similarly, when I know I have dinner with friends or drinks after work, I am motivated to progress through my task list since I have something nice to look forward to.
- I socialise with friends and family regularly, pre Covid this would mean two to three evenings a week being out with friends or family.
- I reserve evenings and weekends for rest and recreation and only work if it is absolutely essential.
What are your words of advice to other legal consultants?
Stay motivated, there may be times when you are in between contracts, rather than viewing this time as a setback, use the time to upskill, there are great resources available such as reading online blogs on sectors that you are interested in working in, legal updates via Webinars and listening to some TED Talks.
How do you start and end your day?
I meditate most days and do this before breakfast and starting work. I believe that this helps to keep me centred which in turn helps me have a focused and productive day. At the end of the day, I wind down by clearing my mind, I achieve this by ensuring that I do a mind dump, and use a digital or paper journal to make a note of key tasks for the following day, ideas or anything that I did not get around to doing. My mind dump means that I can relax and enjoy my evenings and weekends without having to worry about work matters.
If you had a superpower, what would it be?
Time manipulation.
