Legally On the Move: Careers, Tech & Insights from Dubai – Chrissie Wolfe – E09

You can hear Rob and Chrissie discussing:

– Chrissie’s Extensive Background and Experience

– Career Flexibility in the Legal World

– Worthwhile, New and Alternative Career Paths

– How to Effectively Use Personal Branding and Social Media

– Diversity, Mental Health and Wellbeing in Law

Connect with Chrissie here – https://uk.linkedin.com/in/chrissiewolfe

Transcript

Welcome to Legally On the Move careers, tech, and insights from Dubai.

00:04

In this exclusive miniseries of the Legally Speaking podcast, we’re taking you to the heart of Dubai, a global hub for legal innovation, cutting edge technology, and transformative career opportunities.

00:15

Here’s what you’ll gain Career inspiration, unlock the secrets to thriving, and divide dynamic legal market tech trends.

00:22

Dive into how AI, blockchain, and legal tech are reshaping the industry, diversity and leadership here from Trail Blazers.

00:30

Driving inclusivity and innovation in the UAE and global perspectives, explore how Dubai’s unique blend of tradition and ambition is creating a thriving legal ecosystem.

00:40

Recorded in iconic locations, these episodes bring you the energy and insights of one of the world’s most exciting legal hubs.

00:48

Don’t just listen.

00:49

Experience the future of law.

00:50

Ready to move forward with us?

00:52

Let’s go.

00:53

So welcome to Legally Speaking podcast.

00:57

Name, title and organisation. Oh , goshwell I can do.

01:00

Name and broad title.

01:02

Chrissie Wolfe, partner at Nexa, founder of Lab Consultancy and Laura Broader.

01:11

Absolutely, and also returning guests to the Legally Speaking podcast, of course, back in the early days and we’ve been good friends ever since.

01:18

So let’s talk all things Dubai cause a lot of people who follow you on socials will know you’re out here.

01:25

You split your time between the UK and Dubai.

01:28

How does the Dubai legal market compare and what opportunities does it offer, particularly in terms of all things legal, tech and innovation?

01:35

Dubai is the hub of innovation.

01:38

I think I spent the 1st 10 years of my career in the UK almost and then came over to Dubai and now I spent a bit of time going back and forth between the two, in all honesty.

01:47

But what you notice about Dubai is just this huge focus on tech and innovation, not just in law, but in in every sector.

01:55

There is a really huge investment on the future of Dubai and the future of the world.

02:02

So anything that you’re doing in technology is, is just kind of 10X basically.

02:09

So it’s there’s technology everywhere.

02:12

There’s huge tech conferences here and there’s a yeah, real focus on innovating in every single space.

02:17

So there’s just an abundance of learning to be done over here from from what’s happening in the marketplace.

02:22

Yeah.

02:23

And I think it’s very exciting.

02:24

You’re at the thick of it.

02:24

You’re speaking.

02:25

And she’s getting out and about.

02:27

But you are you mentioned in your intro as well, obviously your partner at NEX, Sir.

02:30

Yeah.

02:30

So what sets your approach apart to medical negligence and cosmetic injury cases from other traditional law firms, would you say?

02:38

So I left private practise in 2021, havingspecialised in medical negligence and international injury cases for for around 8/8 and 1/2 .

02:49

yearsAnd one of the things that made me want to branch out on my own was kind of the, the.

02:55

Advanced approach that I wanted to take to those cases in terms of the fact that when you work for a large organisation, there’s lotsof considerations around cases that those firms will take on, how they can process those cases, make profits out of those cases, etcetera.

03:09

Which is entirely right for large verbs.

03:10

But I wanted to do some of the cases that perhaps they wouldn’t have taken on.

03:15

I was noticing a lot of cases that they weren’t taking on that I would have liked to have done.

03:19

So actually working on your own, you do get a lot more control over what cases you take on and how you run those cases.

03:26

And also, as as many people know, when you sort of climb up the ranks in a law firm, actually, you tend to drift further and further away from practise and more and more into the business and having lots of responsibilities and perhaps things that aren’t quite as related to taking care of clients.

03:42

And I really like the fact that now being a consultant, I can now focus solely on the clients and the cases because all of that back office stuff is, is taking care of by Nexa, which is a consulting platform.

03:53

It’s a law firm, but it’s, it’s a consulting law firm.

03:55

So everybody who’s there runs their own practises however they want.

03:59

You can use whatever tech you want, you can hire who you want and you can run those cases how you want from wherever in the world, from, you know, whatever time of day you want to do that.

04:08

And actually also kind of being neurodiverse, definitely that helps me to structure my cases the way that I want to and take on the cases that really mean something to me and structure a caseload in a way which I couldn’t do in private practise.

04:21

So it allows me to, to really tailor my practise to thecases that give me a lot of.

04:25

Person and some of the things I couldn’t do when I was in private practise yeah and it’s thriving right we’re speaking off Mike how well it’s going and it’s an exciting time for you.

04:34

But one thing you also do and you’re very early to this is you support the next generation you know aspiring lawyers.

04:38

You’re very early on YouTube offering you know and helping people.

04:42

So let’s talk about law and broader and how that has helped so many either get training contracts work experience.

04:48

What’s your sort of top advice for aspiring lawyers trying to break into profession and indeed the Dubai market.

04:54

I would say keep your horizons broad.

04:56

Certainly when I went into practise, I hada really fixed idea about what I want to do.

05:03

I want to be a clinical negligence lawyer and I wanted to be at one of the top firms.

05:05

You know, in fact, I really niche down to the firm that I wanted to work at.

05:08

I wanted to work at this firm and it did work out for me at that time, but I would say the market is now.

05:16

Completely upside down since then, particularly since the SQA has now come in and you can qualify through qualifying work experience rather than through a training contract.

05:24

And at this point, there are still some really, really competitive routes.

05:29

And the training contract is, is still a great route where you will get really good quality training.

05:33

But there are also other options for you to to qualify.

05:37

So you know, there’s in house, which is open now.

05:39

There are smaller boutique firms that perhaps didn’t offer training contracts before.

05:42

There are ways into the profession that may not be.

05:45

Exactly what your life goal is right now, but actually, that doesn’t mean that you won’t ultimately get to your life goal.

05:52

So I, I would say keep your horizons broad.

05:54

Don’t just pigeonhole yourself into one route and say, right, if I can’t get this route, then I’m not going to look at anything else because you know, there’s more than one way to get a cat.

06:02

And actually, you know, there are so many interesting things about the law, you know, potentially areas, potentially jobs you haven’t even thought about yet.

06:08

And it’s all good experience, it’s all valuable skill building and it will all build your CV and make you more employable in the long term.

06:15

So.

06:15

I would just look, you know, look wider than you might otherwise have done, you know, in terms of your career because there’s lots more opportunities out there than there were when I was applying.

06:24

Yeah.

06:25

And I think the other thing that you’ve done fantastically well as well as obviously build a personal brand.

06:28

And I want to talk about that because obviously that’s brought a number of opportunities your way.

06:32

And I think you’ve now got over 100 Kworth of followers and amassing.

06:36

How has personal branding helped you, particularly through the use of social media and how’s it impacted your work and, you know, what’s the your view on it in terms of the legal?

06:45

Generally, yeah, I mean, it still surprises me when you you say that you’re you’re right that that’s how many followers I’ve got.

06:52

But for me, it was always about kind of building an online community.

06:56

But it was more about kind of sharing.

06:58

It was kind of sharing platform for me in terms of sort of sharing my journey and talking about things that were going on in the legal profession and kind of wanting to be the person that I never had in my life when I was going through that process.

07:10

Because social media didn’t really exist when I was applying for training contracts and actually.

07:16

Started my YouTube channel.

07:17

I just thought, you know what, if someone had told me this really practical advice, you know, this would have been so much easier.

07:23

So it was always just about kind of sharing everything that I learn and I now do that on my Tiktok.

07:28

My Tiktok is is really varied and basically everything I learn, I just get it straight up, whether it’s about careers, whether it’s about life, whether it’s about personal relationships.

07:36

I just think it’s a sharing platform and I really enjoy doing that When I, you know, someone imparts some knowledge onto me, it’s that, you know, giving back and saying, OK, well, someone’s told me this.

07:46

I’m now going to give my community this information as well.

07:48

But I think in terms of the sort of personal branding side of things, I mean that is what really enabled me to start up my own practise and goindependently is, is having that personal brand and that network.

07:58

I never would have been able to, I don’t think, actually decide to start my own business if I didn’t have that network that was there to build clients basically.

08:06

I mean that is that is one of the scary things or the scariest thing almost about becoming self-employed is where is your work going to come from?

08:13

You know, when you’re in private practise there , areyou know, a lot of drawbacks for that, but actually at least you have a constant stream of work being funnelled to you.

08:20

But actually, you know, when you, when you go out on your own, you know, the biggest thing is if I don’t go out there and bring in my clients, then my, my business is going to fail.

08:28

So actually kind of having that brand and having that network, fortunately, you know, Touchwood today, that hasn’t been my biggest problem is actually bringing in clients.

08:36

And that that really came off the back of the platform, which was, was never my intention.

08:40

I’d love to say it was my strategy all along, but it wasn’t.

08:42

I just started YouTube giving advice to students.

08:44

And then a few years later, that was what enabled me to start my own business because of the, the clients that were coming through that.

08:50

So yeah, it’s been a convoluted journey, but, and you know, I’ve changed, you know, I’ve changed so many things throughout that, that period in terms of where I started with my content and where I am now.

08:59

But it’s, it’s been a key, key factor in how I’ve been able to build my practise. Yeah.

09:03

Andit’s, it’s that powerful, isn’t it?

09:06

And I, you know, I just think what you, you’ve done is, is phenomenal.

09:09

And I think it’s absolutely justified all the opportunities and all the great things you’re doing before I let you go.

09:13

And I want to talk about something I know you’re very passionate about as well.

09:16

Is, is, is sort of well-being and inclusivity, particularly within the, the legal fashion.

09:20

As someone who speaks regularly on diversity, mental, what steps can the legal sector actually take to become a more inclusive and supportive community?

09:29

When I joined as a trainee, you know, well-being, no one knew what that word was in law.

09:33

You know, it just wasn’t something that was spoken about.

09:35

It was billable hours and targets and salaries.

09:38

And but you know, there was nothing about well-being.

09:41

And that’s really transformed actually in in the last few years, which is which is positive.

09:46

I think there’s still a long way to go.

09:48

And I think well-being is a topic, which is.

09:50

Evolving in terms of we are now I think a much more emotionally aware and, and kind of emotionally intelligent and self aware race compared to how we were years and years ago.

10:01

And I think there’s a lot of reasons for that.

10:03

But I think that is not a journey that that ends with anything.

10:07

It’s, it’s continuously evolving and more recently I’ve I’ve been diagnosed with with ADHD.

10:12

So I’ve learned a lot more about myself and actually it’s, it’s now I’ve estimated that one in seven people are neurodiverse and that was not a topic that was being talked about even.

10:20

Two years ago or three years ago, that’s something that’s really recent.

10:24

And, and actually, I think the best thing an employee can do is, is be open minded and actually not see it as a bad thing that that people are coming to you with different skill sets and you know, different nuances to their personality.

10:35

Because the more diverse your team, the better, the more angles that you can have, the more personality types, the more kind of nuanced approaches to work, the better.

10:43

So actually, I, I think the kind of more diverse your workforce then the more complete your company is because you’ve got a diverse, you’ve got a diverse range.

10:51

As well, whether you know it or not.

10:52

And actually your workforce needs to reflect the clients that you serve.

10:56

And if you’ve got, you know, if you’ve got 10,000 clients, then actually the diversity within that client pace is going to be absolutely huge.

11:03

So your workforce needs to match that because if you can match your workforce directly with those clients and you’re going to have much better relationships moving forward.

11:10

So I think it’s really embrace the diversity, you know, embrace different people’s idiosyncrasies because that’s really what is going to set you apart from other firms who.

11:21

Really just go for one type of person because I think there’s there’s so much value in in diversity and there’s so much value in having happy workers.

11:29

You know, happy people are more productive that there’s, you know, a number of studies which show that.

11:33

So actually, if you can cave to people who have a diverse range of needs and you can keep them happy and productive, then your business is going to thrive in the long term.

11:42

Yeah, really well said.

11:43

Plus one to that.

11:44

And, you know, huge value having you back on the show today.

11:47

It’s been an absolute pleasure.

11:48

We’ve got to do this at a super cool spot.

11:51

Try if folks want to learn more about what you’re getting up to, what’s the best way for them to get in touch?

11:56

Feel free to share any social media handles websites.

11:58

We’ll share them this episode for you too.

12:00

Thank you.

12:00

Yes, I’m I’m Chrissie Wolfe on LinkedIn, fairly active on there.

12:03

I’m at the Tiktok lawyer on Tiktok and I’m Chrissie Wolfe on Instagram as well.

12:07

Those are my main platforms at the moment, so feel free to drop me a connection request or Adm and I’d love to continue the conversation.

12:15

There we go.

12:15

Well, thank you ever so much once again for coming back on the league has been podcast, but from all of us here in Dubai over and out.

12:21

Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of our Legally on the Move from Dubai series.

12:26

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12:32

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12:34

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12:42

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12:45

Stay tuned, we’ll see you again soon, over and out.