Expertise
Sophie leads the team of professional support lawyers at Gateley Plc and also manages the firm’s Information Resources team. As a Corporate PSL, it is Sophie’s job to make sure that Gateley’s lawyers and clients are kept up to date with new law and market practice in the dynamic world of corporate finance.
Sophie’s role includes analysing new law and practice to advise how these could affect Gateley’s clients and their transactions. She also identifies future developments, including innovations in legal technology, and designs novel processes to help Gateley deliver commercial legal services efficiently and effectively.
Sophie has been named as a ‘Star legal writer’ three times by The Lawyer.
Sophie is an accomplished public speaker and effective trainer, regularly designing and delivering tailored sessions to Gateley Legal clients and contacts.
Before working as a PSL, Sophie was a partner in the Corporate team for five years where she advised on a wide variety of corporate transactions, including acquisitions, disposals and private equity investments.
How do you help clients?
I help our lawyers quickly assemble complex transaction documents by using automation technology to produce highly technical materials efficiently and effectively.
Lawyers perform a dual role, with responsibility for both carrying out legal work and also managing that work within a budget and timeframe. I help our lawyers perform this non-legal role by delivering tailored training on project management skills. This training is supported by a range of materials to embed the project management process throughout a legal matter.
I ensure our wide range of clients receive legal advice which is clear and accessible by delivering training on drafting skills for lawyers and driving a ‘plain English’ approach to our written materials.
I help develop our staff by delivering engaging and informative training sessions on legal topics as well as a range of soft skills.
Experience
- Chairing the ARK KM Legal and Professional Support Lawyer Conference in March 2019 at which she also discussed ways of securing a seat for professional support at the partnership table. She has spoken at numerous other conferences on topics including how law firms can maximise the value of professional support and ways of overcoming the barriers to knowledge sharing that exist in law firms.
- Designing and delivering a day-long interactive conference for UK Sport, focusing on corporate governance and directors’ duties for UK sporting bodies.
- Writing legal updates for Accountancy magazine. Also contributing articles to KM Insight, sharing her thoughts on legal knowledge management, as well as writing about ‘legal tech’ in the Solicitors’ Journal.