Legally On The Move: Strategy, Scaling, Sunshine and Success from Ibiza – Kate Burt & Kirsty Pappin – E8

You can hear Rob, KATE and KIRSTY discussing:

Connect with Kate and Kirsty here: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-burt-hiverisk-co-uk/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsty-pappin-legal-practice-manager/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-lawyers-retreat/

Transcript

00:00

What happens when you gather the UK’s boldest legal minds on a sun-drenched retreat in Ibiza and press record?

00:07

Welcome to the Lawyers Retreat mini-series, a special edition of the Legally Speaking podcast sponsored by Clio.

00:13

We’ve partnered with the visionaries behind the Lawyers Retreat, the wonderful Kate Burr and Kirsty Pappin, to bring you real, unfiltered conversations from Carla Carbo, where strategy, succession and scaling and sunshine meet.

00:28

This isn’t your average CPD,It’s leadership with a view, innovation with a cocktail, and well-being with purpose.

00:35

You’ll hear from trailblazers rethinking the legal playbook with the episodes recorded poolside, Mike Hike, and even post yoga.

00:44

2025 is our year of 10xing the show.

00:47

This mini-series is just the beginning.

00:49

So let’s get into it.

00:54

Welcome to the Legally Speaking podcast recording live in a swimming pool in Ibiza with two very special people.

01:02

Coming to you first, name and title please.

01:05

Kate Burt, founder and CEO of High Risk and co-founder of the Lawyers Retreat.

01:09

And yourself.

01:10

Hi, Kirsty Pappin. I am the founder and director of Ares Legal Practice Management and also co-founder of the Lawyers Retreat.

01:18

You both absolutely are, and it’s been an incredible experience.

01:22

So I want to come to you first, Kirsty.

01:25

What moment sparked the idea of the Lawyers Retreat?

01:29

So quick summary, Kate and I came to Ibiza July, August of 2024 to work on our business respectively, and when we walked into the hotel,here and looked over at Esfedra just as the sun was starting to set.

01:45

We had this massive moment and we just looked at each other and we just felt relaxed.

01:52

Roll on a couple of hours, we were sitting over there by the terrace having some dinner and sheer coincidence we just looked at each other and started talking at the same time.

02:05

We should bring our law firm clients out here, and we were like, Oh my god, yes, and yes, oh my god, I’ve been thinking it for the past few hours, and then from that, the next forty-eight hours were just incredible, just pulling ideas and collaborating to actually how we were going to make what has…

02:24

sadly starting to come to a close, but our inaugural lawyers retreat here in Ibiza.

02:32

But it’s been incredible.

02:34

Talk me through the name journey, Kate, because there’s a story there.

02:38

So the concept was alive and we could feel it, we could see our guests.

02:42

It’s really surreal looking around now because that was all set, we knew what had to happen.

02:46

We hadn’t come across the name yet, we didn’t know the name.

02:49

And Kirsty and I were walking down by the yoga studio and we were havingstill in very much planning mode, very much ops mode, thinking, shall we invite partners?

02:59

Who should we bring?

03:00

And Kirsty was acting out a telephone conversation with her partner, Ashley.

03:05

And she was saying, so Ashley, are you going to come to the lawyers’ retreat?

03:09

And I just stopped.

03:10

I said, Kirsty, it’s the lawyers’ retreat.

03:14

It’s the lawyers’ retreat.

03:15

Kirsty was screaming, jumping up and down.

03:17

We’re like, we’ve got to do it, we’ve got to do it.

03:19

We went fall in action mode as soon as we had that name.

03:22

We were on Canva.

03:24

We’d come upWe had the initial concept for what we’re now seeing on our t-shirts.

03:28

We bought the domain name within hours.

03:31

We already got our finance director to sort up and we were having the conversation, are we going to be VAT registered?

03:37

Are we not?

03:37

And we decided that that evening we will be VAT registered.

03:41

And we even got that level of detail in action straight away.

03:44

Love it.

03:45

And I love that you took action.

03:46

I always say ideas die at the graveyard and you just cracked on with it and you put on something exceptionally special over these past few days.

03:52

But for those people who weren’t able to attendthis time around.

03:55

What have you been going through over the past few days?

03:58

Wow, that is a really great question.

04:02

The past few days, it’s just been an incredible journey.

04:08

All the ideas we had of peopleCommunity, actually I’m going to summarise it in just community.

04:16

We’ve seen discussions start at 6.30am right through to 1, 2am where people have stayed up late talking.

04:24

And not just about themselves personally, about the trials, the tribulations, the successes of their businesses.

04:30

in the legal sector, both suppliers, partners, law firms, both business owners and those that work within a law firm.

04:41

And I think the successes that have come from all of this and the things we’ve seen have just been that sheer community and collaboration and the learnings that I think everyone’s coming away.

04:53

We always thought if we could get one learning that everyone comes away with, you’ve done a great job, but actually I thinkfrom what we’ve just had recently, we just had our insights and consolidation session, everyone’s leaving with handfuls, bagfuls of things to take back and this is so much more than we could have imagined.

05:10

Yeah, you’ve done a tremendous job and I guess sort of content wise looking forward, because I believe you have announced your next one, what can people expect, maybe some of the topics or content?

05:21

Absolutely, we’re going to continue with the vein of we are focusing on what’s next for law firm leaders, how domake the legal industry really strong and the community around that.

05:33

We’ve got a lot of work to do to unpack what we experienced and what it will eventually be.

05:38

We cannot say at this moment.

05:40

moment in terms of the agenda, but we know we can’t just rinse and repeat what we’ve done here.

05:46

We know it’s going to be bigger in terms of ambition.

05:49

We always want to keep it small enough to fill that exclusive community feel, but it will be bigger in terms of size, but also in terms of impact.

06:00

Yeah, and to your point, you know, people are leaving with bags full because you’ve been doing everything from digital marketing to, you know, it could be how to have those difficult conversations from feedback withinfirm to a whole host of different things.

06:12

It’s just been masterclass after masterclass, but in an informal setting.

06:16

So coming to you, Kirsty, why do offsites and informal in settings like this really unlock deeper insights?

06:23

Time.

06:25

People have had time.

06:26

No one has been rushed into the 9 till 5.

06:33

we started with people actually arriving on the Monday and conversations began then we had to be here to set up and get things ready and a few people you know they arrived a little bit earlier you know Dinesh our ambassador he arrived on Monday too to you know to support us and and just as we you know been working working through all of that as I’ve mentioned things started at 6:30 a.m.

06:59

they went all the way through we we didn’tWe hoped and we didn’t rush anything.

07:05

if the schedule went off a bit, which it did on our first day because conversations continued straight after, we didn’t try to rush everybody together again.

07:16

We gave them that moment to finish that conversation.

07:18

We gave refreshments and reflection.

07:20

We gave breather breaks and we allowed long afternoons.

07:25

So if people wanted to do activities or mull around the pool or in the terrace, go back to the room and do whatever they needed to do.

07:31

And I thinkThat’s what makes this work.

07:34

Yeah, and for me, I feel like leadership and understanding how you can operate your firm and do things better can also be fun.

07:43

And I think you’ve injected a whole host of that.

07:45

There’s just a real energy across all the attendees, the speakers, the partners, the sponsors, us as your, you know, proud media partner for this as well.

07:52

So I guess coming to you, if you can, in 60 seconds or less, Kate, and then I’ll come back to you, Kirsty, just sum up your first ever Lawyers Retreat, the Lawyers Retreat experience.

08:01

Surreal.

08:02

It’s one word, it’s surreal.

08:04

Absolutely incredible and I think it’s going to take a few days to unpack everything.

08:08

But the standout thing for me with the retreat is so much…

08:13

affection for each other, for new people that we’ve met or old friends and old contacts, there’s a gelling that’s occurred and a real community feel and a real kindness that runs through all of that.

08:27

And that matters.

08:28

So for you and 60 seconds or less, if you can, Kirsty, sum up your first The Loyers Retreat experience.

08:32

I’m real, genuinely.

08:35

It’s morethan we could have ever imagined.

08:39

I tried to come without expectations of how it was going to work out.

08:45

We did have rain in the middle.

08:49

It all started halfway through our keynote speech, but in actual fact, it couldn’t have been better weather for the visualisation experience that we had in the yoga studio.

09:02

And the attendees loved that, the rain on the roof and outside, it just made itelectric and so much more powerful and people didn’t mind the rain and what we found from that is it made the community stronger so actually that people are resilient and can just get on wherever and I think, yeah, unreal, just unreal.

09:23

I couldn’t agree more and we’ve absolutely loved every minute of this.

09:26

So I’d just like to say thank you to you, Kate and Kirsty, for collaborating with us.

09:31

And if people want to get involved for the next Lawyers Retreat, listening to this, getting lots of FOMO, where can they go and what do they need to do?

09:38

Feel free to shout out some handles or websites or e-mail addresses, Kate.

09:41

Yeah, absolutely.

09:42

Well, follow us on LinkedIn, the Lawyers Retreat.

09:44

We have our own business page.

09:45

will also be, by the time this airs, we’ll have the Eventbrite page ready, ready so you can book this year straight on.

09:52

Kirsty, do you want to give any?

09:54

Yeah, I guess the really important piece of information are the dates.

09:58

So the next Lawyers Retreat will be next year 2026 here in Ibiza from the Tuesday the 19th of May to Friday the 22nd of May and as Kate said you can find tickets on EventbriteAnd we look forward to welcoming more of the legal sector and community here.

10:20

Absolutely.

10:21

And as they say, all good things must come to an end, but this absolutely will be continuing in 2026.

10:26

So again, thank you both so much for an incredible few days we’ve had out here in Ibiza.

10:32

But from all of us on the Legally Speaking podcast, for now, tuning out over and out.

10:38

And that’s a wrap on the Legally on the Move strategy, scaling, sunshine, and success from Ibiza, brought to you by us,The Legally Speaking podcast in proud partnership with the Lawyers Retreat.

10:49

From yoga studios to full side panel chats and even sea view hikes, we’ve explored how legal leaders think differently when they step away from the day-to-day and return sharper, bolder, and more connected.

11:01

This wasn’t just a break, it was strategy, it was scaling, it was sunshine, and yes, it was success.

11:07

To our inspiring guests and curious listeners, thank you, stay bold, and as always, stay Legally Speaking, over and out.