Power Women special: Laura Devine, Laura Devine Solicitors
As we prepare Power Women Awards 2016, we caught-up with Laura Devine, the winner of the Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year award.
How did winning the Power Women award impact your career or personal life?
Winning the Power Women award has impacted positively on my career, my firm and colleagues in that many clients and business contacts have made reference to it. I did receive many congratulations and even some champagne and flowers! Many businesses working in the high net worth industry with whom I had not dealt with in the past have approached me to instruct my firm and/or to sell their services. I don’t believe my personal life has been affected by the award – mind you being self-employed blurs the division between career and personal life.
Why should people, both women and men, enter the awards this year?
Both men and women who work with HNW clients should be encouraged to enter the awards. It is not a time consuming process to do so and actually focuses the mind on the type of business you run, the services you provide and the image your project. Even being shortlisted will undoubtedly prompt lots of interest from the business community and winning would generate even moreinterest. Both will positively affect the nominees’ business profile. So go ahead and enter ‚Ķ
Changing the topic slightly, what does your organisation do to encourage individuals from BME community to learn about your organisation?
I am involved with the BME division of the Law Society and support it and the Lawyers with Disabilities’ Division. We encourage applications from both divisions and employ lawyers from both although we do not operate positive discrimination. All employment is offered on the merit of the candidates. The firm is recognised for caring for colleagues and the community and encourages the exercise of high ethical standards in everything we do.
Politically correct art will appeal to a wider audience and may increase value
Rebecca Foden and Becky Shaw, both solicitors at Boodle Hatfield, and Lily Le Brun, arts and culture writer, say that while art is not required to be politically correct in order to get financed, its appeal to a wider audience may increase its value.Janet Day, IT Director, Berwin Leighton Paisner
And on the legal or not legal systems debate? "I think we are
pretty good at making anything work, but I would prefer to use
legally orientated software. I am intolerant of systems going down and spend time testing everything we do before going live." I ask what this means in practice.