INSIGHT
SLS Insight – with Mumtaz Hussain What position do you hold within the SLS? I’m the Deputy Vice President. Why did you join the SLS Committee? I’ve lived in Surrey for most of my life, and I feel it’s crucial to give back to the community. What do you enjoy most about being on the Committee? Being able to represent the Surrey legal world, hear their concerns and to take whatever steps we as a committee can to help them thrive and succeed. What are you looking for in new Committee Members? People with the drive and passion to contribute to an organisation that benefits the Surrey legal community overall. It’s a voluntary role so it requires a commitment to really fully engage with the members. Why would you encourage someone to join the SLS? It’s always easier and more effective to have your views heard and needs met when you’re joined with a collective. While a lone voice can be powerful, a membership of many can leverage their collective voices to really affect significant and meaningful change. When & why did you become interested in the law? I think I was a lawyer even before I formally started to study and train to become a lawyer. From a very young age I’ve been naturally inclined to ask questions and probe for answers, and I’m naturally drawn to balance, fairness and equity. I know being a practitioner isn’t always quite that straightforward, and the reality can be far more nuanced. However, having an eye on what is the most likely truth, from a place of integrity is how I approached things in my younger days, and remains my fundamental approach now. What firm do you work at and what is your role there? I used to be a senior solicitor at The Parabis Group, and then started my own practice. When I closed that firm, I moved away from client facing work and across to the operational side of a law firm. What is a typical day for you at work? No two days are the same because part of my role involves client procurement, responding to requests for proposals, & preparing and delivering bids for work. Another part of my role is managing client accounts to ensure they are happy with the service and to see where we as a business can help them to thrive. It’s a far cry from the days of arriving at work with a new pile of files on my desk, waiting to be assessed – with hindsight that was the easy part of my career! What is the most enjoyable part of your role? I’m a very natural communicator (I used to be a radio presenter!) so a big part of my role is getting out and about, networking and meeting clients. At the moment, we’re in the middle of a global pandemic, so networking has moved online, and it’s 20 | SURREYLAWYER
actually more effective and efficient because I can meet with far more people that way than I can on a typical day of face to face meetings. Either way, whether face to face or virtually, nurturing client relationships comes very easily to me. I always say commercial relationships aren’t B2B or B2C – they are person to person. So if a C-Suite member of a client’s company likes their legal representative or ambassador, and you have a rapport with that client, the chances are you will not only retain them as a client, but they’re also likely to recommend you. So not only do I enjoy winning and retaining business, I also enjoy enhancing the firm’s reputation via authentic interactions to really nurture and grow those client accounts. What’s been your most memorable career highlight to date? I think balancing my legal career as a busy senior solicitor and being an unexpectedly single mum of 2 children under the age of 5 has got to be one of the things I’m most proud of. That and running my own law firm are two of my career highlights. What’s been the hardest challenge career-wise? See above!! Also it’s been a challenge to learn a new career which is effectively what I did when I moved across to business development and client relationship management. It’s often a lot more challenging than running a caseload, although both roles have had their specific challenges. What are the biggest challenges facing the legal profession in the next 10 years? I think firstly there are a number of huge economic challenges law firms are facing at the moment, as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic. There have been law firm closures due to a quite literal end in fee income, an end to work in progress, and no new work to replace it. Recovery from this will take time and careful strategic planning to rebuild and become profitable again. Aside from that unexpected impact, there are ongoing challenges within the criminal legal system which is suffering immensely as a result of huge spending cuts, affecting access to justice, as well as solicitors and barristers working in that sector. I also think there are challenges faced by firms who are running their businesses based on a model that doesn’t factor in competition from ABS’s (Alternative Business Structures) and non regulated suppliers of legal services. Law firms have traditionally been shielded from competition by dint of their deemed exclusivity in provision of legal services, but that is coming to an end in many sectors and lawyers must adjust their business models accordingly to remain relevant and competitive. ABOUT YOU What’s your favourite film? Fifth Element, although I am a huge fan of the original Star Wars film, A New Hope. So probably a tie between the two. What did you want to be when you grew up? An astronaut.
