Spotlight. RedLaw interviews...Sara Maccallum, Senior Partner, Boodle Hatfield LLP

With a history dating back to 1722, Sara talks to RedLaw about her future ambitions for the firm, being a trailblazer for gender equality and the most inspirational person in her life.

Sara, congratulations on winning Gold in the recent Citywealth Powerwomen Awards for Woman of the Year – Leadership. In fact two other female partners were winners too for Business Growth and Future Leaders categories. What factors do you attribute to the team’s performance and such a wonderful achievement at the awards?

We were delighted to win two Golds and a Silver at the recent awards. Salpy Kouyoumjian and Shaima Jillood were the other winners and I believe that it is a fitting tribute to the hard work and flair they have both put in to building Boodle Hatfield's Middle East Private Office, which has been an exciting new development for us. Shaima leads our Middle East residential property team and Salpy leads our Middle East private wealth team. As a tax lawyer I am fortunate to work alongside both of them and have seen at first hand the dedication and commitment they both have to their clients and their understanding of the needs of Middle Eastern clients.

Salpy and Shaima have both joined Boodle Hatfield in the last four years and I hope demonstrate the way in which we invest in our lateral hires. We strongly believe in recruiting good young partners who have strong practices which complement and extend the Boodle Hatfield business. We are firmly committed to working with them from the start to identify synergies, to integrate them into the firm and to provide strong BD support. We are delighted that our approach has been recognised by the Citywealth judges.

62% of equity partners are female...... What advantages are there in having an inclusive and gender balanced culture for employees and clients?

Boodle Hatfield has long been a trailblazer for gender equality in the legal world. For some decades now we have passionately believed that we should support the right person for the job and do what we can to ensure they succeed. As a result, we have a strong history of women working at the highest levels. We were one of the earlier firms to provide maternity leave to our rising stars over 30 years ago, the first being to my partner Sue Laing who remains one of the most highly respected people in the private client world today. These role models demonstrate that we live and breathe our policies and young women genuinely believe they can juggle family life with a successful career. I can say that from personal experience that when I was considering starting my family some years ago I was hugely reassured by having strong role models. To know that the culture of the firm was supportive of my aims and to have people I could talk to get practical advice was very important to me then and I am committed today to ensuring other people have the same support at Boodle Hatfield and elsewhere today. Of course it is equally important for the men to have the same opportunities for workplace balance and we aim to achieve that for all.

I believe in having a balanced team and I am pleased that we have a good split of men and women across all practice areas and our business services. Research shows this makes for better management decisions and I believe it generates the right culture of openness and fairness. This works well for our clients as well. Many just want the best person for the job but in some areas such as family some clients have a strong preference for either a male or female lawyer. We can provide both.

Boodle Hatfield’s beginnings date back to 1722. What values hold good today.

We are very proud to have been in business for nearly 300 years and to still work for our very first client. Of course that client has changed as much as we have in that time. However, it is true to say that our strong values of working closely with our clients and providing them with the highest level of legal advice and client care in order to build long term relationships holds true today. This applies as much to working alongside a young entrepreneur who is passionately pursuing their dream to set up a new business to guiding an overseas investor through their first investment into UK real estate or advising a multi-generational family business on their succession plan. We work closely with individuals, business owners and private investors so developing the type of trusted relationship which is integral to our culture is key to our success.

Sara, you were the first female Senior Partner to be appointed in 2015. What are your main ambitions for the Firm?

I was honoured to be elected the first female Senior Partner of such an historic and prestigious firm. The role brings with it a strong sense of stewardship and I am determined to hand it on in due course to my successor as a profitable and well managed firm which is set to handle the challenges that we are inevitably facing in the increasingly fast changing world. We are developing and investing into a number of projects to ensure we have the right technology and work processes in place to ensure we are keenly competitive with our peers.

I want to see the firm achieve good growth in all its core areas. Whilst we operate in a number of sectors our core expertise is providing top notch advice to private clients, successful families and their business interests and building our reputation further in even more international markets is a clear aim. On a personal note there is nothing I like better than seeing people who joined the firm as trainees make it to senior and partnership roles and I hope to see the Firm continue to expand to enable that as it is always rewarding to see young lawyers come through and start confidently developing their own practice.. Finally we are almost at our 300 year birthday and so I hope we have a really good party!

What gives you most pleasure in your role? And what has/have been your proudest professional achievement(s)?

I really enjoy the balance of management and client work which I have at the moment. I continue to head up our commercial tax team and thoroughly enjoy working with our clients and solving the tax problems which will make a real difference to the way they undertake a transaction. Equally I enjoy charting the course for the Boodle Hatfield of the future and working with the teams to develop their strategy. I think many of my achievements have been a collective effort with others as that is very much the ethos of the firm. Thinking of something purely personal I think I would pick passing my CTA (Chartered Tax Adviser) exams some years ago. At the time it was unusual for lawyers to take and pass these exams and I did well and even won a prize. This has also enabled friends and colleagues to laugh at me over the years for having a medal for tax.

What challenges have you faced being a senior woman in law, if any? And how have attitudes towards the career development and rise of female professionals changed during your career?

I have been very fortunate in my career and I don't think that I have been hindered by the fact I am a woman. I believe that this is in part is due to the fact I have been at a firm with a modern approach for many years and this has given me the confidence to believe that I can advance. I am however fully conscious that this is not the case for all and there have been significant impediments for people elsewhere. This is changing and that change is very welcome.

Who has been the most inspirational person in your life and why?

The most inspirational person in my life is my mother. She didn't go to university or even do A levels but she was so supportive of me for wanting to do so and encouraged me every step of the way.

RedLaw is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. To mark this, we are asking; what did you want to be when you were 10?

When I was 10 years old I wanted to be a teacher but it had to be in a boarding school and ideally one run along the lines of the Chalet School books as that seemed to me the ideal mix of learning, adventure and travel. Obviously this changed and after university I qualified as a solicitor but I had the chance to try out my teaching dream for 4 years when I worked as a lecturer at The College of Law. During that time, I thoroughly enjoyed the teaching and I have some very happy memories but in the end I missed the buzz of tackling the tax problems for clients. Therefore, in the end I returned to practice and joined Boodle Hatfield as a young tax lawyer in 1997.