Spotlight: RedLaw interviews...Bethan Owen, Kingsley Napley

So what keeps a lawyer at one firm for over 15 years? Just one of the many questions we put to Bethan Owen, Head of the Real Estate team at Kingsley Napley. We also spoke about her ambitions for the team, the Firm's response to the pandemic, her biggest inspiration and the big one, why law?

Bethan, you’ve been at Kingsley Napley (KN) for almost 17 years joining the Real Estate team after qualification. Why Kingsley Napley? What’s kept you at the Firm for so long?

The main reason I have stayed at Kingsley Napley is due to the people and the culture. The colleagues I work with make it fun, engaging and look after you, it’s like a big family. The Firm genuinely cares; people are top of the agenda. We’ve been the top Law Firm in the Times Best Companies to Work For list in each of the last four years.

You must know Kingsley Napley very well. But have you learned anything new about your firm from the way in which it has responded to the pandemic and this experience over the last year?

The Firm’s response to the pandemic showed me the importance of strong and real leadership. When the pandemic hit, my team were busy until May 2020 and then things suddenly fell off a cliff. The stance our Managing Partner, Linda Woolley, and the management team took was to remain calm, not panic and provide reassurance and support to all our people.

Two very clear and positive messages were communicated to everyone who works at Kingsley Napley; one of calm which helped everyone feel secure in a very unnerving situation, and the other of total support even in quieter periods of work. Linda was very aware that as a team we had worked extremely hard prior to the pandemic and so we did not rush into decisions about furloughing employees or reducing the team to four day weeks the way many other firms responded. As it was, things spiked back up again for the team in July and so we needed all hands on deck!

You were made partner in 2013. Tell us about your route to partnership. Was it smooth, conventional or were there any specific obstacles you had to overcome along the way?

I believe my route was smooth and conventional. I was very lucky as I was supported by the Head of my department at the time and by the management team generally. I was 32 when I was made up but age was never an issue, I believe I had learnt a lot in those eight years prior, so it was the right time. Being a woman has never presented itself as an obstacle at KN, it’s just not a thing for us. At Kingsley Napley over 50% of the Partners are women so it’s not unusual in our firm to have women in senior positions.

How has the pandemic affected your practice area? As Head of the Real Estate team, you have been actively recruiting to further build the team. As well as growth, what are your aims for your practice over the next year.

Growth is the main aim for the team. The property world is very busy at the moment so recruiting for our team is very competitive. Property lawyers are heads down concentrating on the work so when you do find the right person you have to act quickly and decisively. A construction partner joined us in March 2021, we will be welcoming a new property litigation partner in October and have also recently recruited four Associates.

The growth of our team is part of a wider plan to grow the non-contentious departments at Kingsley Napley.

In terms of client service, it’s been pretty much business as normal. The only real change has been trying to work out how to deal with original documents when we were all working from home. At the start of lockdown when you could only exercise for one hour a day, it felt like you were taking your life into our own hands heading into the office to sort out the paperwork on a transaction but we worked together as a team to make sure we were staying safe whilst also meeting our clients' needs.

Why law? What appealed most to you about being a lawyer? And if you weren’t a lawyer, what would you be?

I was lucky enough to go to a 6^th form that offered law as an option and law just clicked, it made sense to me. I went to Liverpool University where my property lecturer was amazing, he just brought law to life and that’s where I got my real passion for property law and he inspired me to be a property lawyer. I find property law fascinating. I love working with the other side to try and achieve a common goal, it’s amazing how many problems there are which need to be resolved!

When I was younger I wanted to be a “Manager”, of what I don’t know. I knew my dad was a “Manager” so I wanted to be one too. I think if I hadn’t become a lawyer, I would have gone into HR - I do like the people element of my role.

You are a member of Kingsley Napley’s LGBTQ & Allies Network. Tell us a little about the work this group does, its aims and why it’s important for you to be involved.

I went to a talk the Network put on with a speaker from Stonewall. The speaker told us about how he had been attacked just for being gay and how important it was for people to stand up and support colleagues and be a positive influencer for the LGBTQ community. I decided then that I wanted to be an ally to show my support for the work the group does.

Our LGBTQ and Allies Network is an active and engaging sub-group of Kingsley Napley's Diversity and Inclusion group. The Network holds monthly meetings where we come together to work towards an inclusive workplace. The Network helps to create a supportive and welcoming space for LGBTQ and Allies across the firm.

What, or who, is your biggest inspiration?

Paul Harbour, a partner at Kingsley Napley. I was employed to be his assistant back in 2004. He is the best property lawyer I know, his mind is just amazing, he works tirelessly for his clients but he’s also very supportive and funny. Everything you’d want someone to be as a boss. When something was going wrong, he would always say to me, “if that’s all you’re worrying about Bethan, it’s fine, don’t worry”, that is all you need to hear sometimes if something is going wrong.

What’s the best mistake you’ve ever made?

I ask this question in my interviews and it’s really interesting to see how people resolve them, we’re only human and we all make mistakes, it’s how you deal with it which is the important thing.

Funnily enough the best mistake I made was ‘discounting’ Kingsley Napley as a firm I wanted to work at. I was very lucky there were a lot of jobs for property lawyers when I qualified in 2004 so I was able to pick and choose. I wasn’t immediately very interested in KN, in my mind they were just criminal lawyers, why do I want to work there I thought, but I decided I would use it as my practice interview to get myself into the flow of interviewing.

This meant that I was a lot more relaxed when I went in than I probably would have been at another interview of a firm of my choice and I was able to be my complete self. I met Paul Harbour and another partner and we just clicked, the interview was really interesting and engaging and I came away from the interview panicking that I hadn’t prepared properly or as fully as I could have done and I really wanted the job. I went for other interviews at other firms and they were very dull and robotic and I remember calling my mum saying I’ve made such a mistake at my interview for Kingsley Napley. However, it wasn’t a mistake, they liked how I answered things openly and honestly and the rapport we had built in the interview.

What’s top of your bucket list or your top holiday destination once we are all back to ‘normal’?

The only continent I haven’t been to is South America so that’s top of my list. Not quite sure where as yet.

What’s been your ‘saviour’ during lockdown. This could be a person, a mantra, Netflix series, new hobby etc.

Sadly a friend and colleague, Brandusa Tataru-Marinescu, was diagnosed with melanoma in January 2020 and passed away in December 2020. During the lockdown a group from my team decided to train for a half marathon to raise funds for the charity, Melanoma Focus. I could only run just over 1km when we decided to do this and if you had told me at the start of lockdown I would be running a half marathon I would have laughed at you. But the training was my saviour. I ran with another colleague Vanessa Rhodes (socially distanced of course) – it gave structure to the lockdown days, we kept fit and active, had a chat, achieved a huge challenge and all for such a wonderful cause. We raised over £7,000 and, in honour of Brandusa, we have set up a scholarship with the Law Society in her name to support aspiring property lawyers.