Thinking creatively and embracing choice to succeed

From where it all began for Lucy Tarrant, solicitor and Managing Director of Cognitive Law.

My passion for the law started many moons ago when I was a witness in a Magistrates’ Court for a road traffic accident case. I totally fan-girled the prosecuting barrister. Inspired by her. my career has developed into one of ‘firsts’ – through via a slightly winding route. 

Not having graduated with a law degree (I preferred either spending my time with my nose in a novel or in the student union bar), I was required to do the conversion course. This I did at the University of Brighton, part time, whilst working as a paralegal for what was then Lloyds TSB Bank. Having proved I could burn the candle at both ends, the bank agreed to sponsor me to complete the LPC at the College of Law in Guildford. They hadn’t done this before, but offered me the chance to study for my LPC part time whilst continuing to work as a paralegal. Better still, when I completed my LPC, I persuaded the bank to offer me a training contract, and I became their first ever trainee solicitor.

With an appetite for hard work and continued determination, I worked in a few law firms before becoming a Partner in a large regional law firm. Here, I grew a team around me and honed my skills in commercial litigation.

Becoming Partner in a law firm is often regarded as the pinnacle of your career as a solicitor, but I still felt like I had so much more to achieve. So I decided to make another change and was appointed the first in-house solicitor at the G2 Group (an owner-managed group of recruitment companies), affording me a unique insight into the recruitment industry and invaluable hands-on commercial experience. This also provided me with a stepping stone into following my true passion – creating a law firm which broke the rules and established a new way of delivering legal services, at the same time as giving solicitors their lives back. 

I can’t take credit for the concept – that was the brainchild of the CEO of the G2 Group and my former business partner, the late Stuart Gillespie. Whilst working in-house, he proposed that we establish Cognitive Law and I agreed on the condition that we didn’t recreate the traditional model law firm and instead create something different. 

Creating a law firm that champions choice

Cognitive Law was born out of the need for change and the desire to create a completely flexible working environment for solicitors. To re-think how and by whom legal services could be delivered. In 2014, with my non-lawyer business partner, I set up Cognitive Law which is a consultancy law firm based in Sussex with a network of consultant solicitors nationwide.

Cognitive Law is a firm where everyone manages their own time in a way that suits their lives. It is a place where solicitors can work to live and not live to work, borne from my deep-seated belief that having a passion for the law doesn’t have to mean sitting at a desk in an office all day, every day; or compromising our personal lives for which we work hard to enjoy. I wanted, needed even, to give myself and other solicitors a true work-life balance, without compromising client service or professional aspirations. 

I have absolutely thrived on creating an alternative way of providing legal services. Cognitive Law was called a “challenger firm” by the Law Society when it first began, with few people comprehending how scrapping billing targets and office hours could possibly succeed. 

What started with just me in 2014 has now grown to five Head Office staff members and 15 solicitors, most of whom work remotely and flexibly. Thankfully, the consultancy model law firm is more commonplace now, but I continue to advocate passionately for giving solicitors their lives back and remain determined to keep building an alternative place to practice the law. 

Inspiring the next generation

It’s important to me to enlighten young or aspiring solicitors to think differently when it comes to providing legal services. I hope the achievement of creating a law firm that puts a true work life balance at its very core, actively demonstrates to the younger generation that the legal industry has the ability to fit in with the modern-day way of working.  

I am hopeful that I have shown, through Cognitive Law, that you can be a successful solicitor without compromising the rest of your life. Having been a lone parent, I know the struggle that female solicitors endure in order to achieve success in a traditional law firm. Now I can demonstrate that it is possible to have a fulfilling career and a family without one sacrificing the other or having to choose between them. I am a passionate advocate for “not settling” and for finding what works best for you. I champion having a choice in how you practice law.

I have been asked to talk a couple of times to the law students at BHASVIC (Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College). We talk not just about my journey, but about the students’ aspirations. I like to think I give them honest answers to their questions and provide an insight into the reality of a career in the law. We discuss the different paths into the career, such as apprenticeships, which have opened up the profession to more comers. I love to share my story with the students, and truly hope that I can encourage and empower them to embrace a legal career if that is, like me, their passion. 

My daughter, now 18 and studying law at University, saw from the youngest age how a legal career can be built – with hard work but without personal compromise. Her first job was opening and scanning post in Cognitive’s head office, and answering the phone. And as she embarks on her legal career, she is empowered with the knowledge that as a woman she can achieve whatever she wants to achieve without sacrificing her personal values or family life. 

So this year, on International Women’s Day, I hope to empower women and girls into following their passion and progress into a career they love. I want them to know there is choice and not to be afraid to think creatively. If they have the desire, everyone has the ability to shape their career into exactly how they want it to be for them. 

www.cognitivelaw.co.uk

lucy.tarrant@cognitivelaw.co.uk