Counsel's Collective

Bonike Bracewell, General Counsel and Company Secretary at Save the Children UK, came on Counsel’s Collective to talk about a side of legal leadership most people never see: leading teams and managing legal risk when your organisation is operating in war zones, responding to humanitarian crises, and navigating deeply emotional geopolitical conflict in real time. We also get into the realities of e...

Sam Plant, former General Counsel at Muller, spent years thinking he was one of the good guys. He wasn’t behaving badly, he wasn’t saying outrageous things, and he definitely wasn’t seeing himself as part of the problem. But as he started having more honest conversations with women around him, he realised that not doing harm and actively helping to change things are very different things. In this...

Henry Nelson Case: lawyer, TedX speaker and content creator came on Counsel’s Collective to talk about the kind of legal career story we do not hear enough about - the one where a toxic early experience could easily have knocked everything off course, but instead became the catalyst for something much bigger. In this episode, Henry shares what it was really like working in an environment so hostil...

Beth Sherman is an emmy-winning comedian and comedy writer (30 years in TV - Letterman, The Tonight Show, Ellen… casual) who now works as a keynote speaker helping leaders communicate like comedians: quickly, clearly, and with actual human connection. In this episode, Beth breaks down how comedians create rapport with strangers in seconds and why the same skills matter in law and leadership. You’l...

Andy Stewart spent 40 years as a lawyer - and quietly battled depression for the last 20 of them. In this episode of Counsel’s Collective , Andy shares the reality of building a successful legal career while struggling behind the scenes: the perfectionism, the people-pleasing, the 4am drafting sessions, and the stigma that kept him silent for nearly two decades. We also talk about what actually he...

Electra, Chief Product Officer and ex-Chief Legal Officer and at SimpleDocs, is deep in the legal AI world (and refreshingly honest about what it can actually do). In this episode of Counsel’s Collective , we get into the messy middle of AI adoption in legal: the hype, the disappointment, and the reality check that sits somewhere in between. Electra explains why the “AI will replace lawyers” panic...

Allia Khan is Head of Legal at Polo Works and the founder of Mansion 28 – a luxury modest wear brand that she describes not as a “side hustle”, but simply as part of who she is. In this episode, Allia shares what running Mansion 28 has taught her about creativity, questioning processes, and leading younger generations differently – and how that’s reshaped her legal leadership. You’ll learn: Why “i...

Sarah Clark is CEO at The Legal Director and a former General Counsel. In this episode, Sarah talks honestly about her own journey with ADHD, leadership, and why “attention deficit” might be one of the most misleading labels going. Drawing on her own late diagnosis and a zig-zag legal career spanning criminal law, in-house roles, private practice, and now scale-up leadership, Sarah shares what it...

Sam McGinty is the Lead General Counsel at the University of Nottingham.   In this episode, Sam came on to chat openly and honestly about his career as an in-house lawyer in higher education - the kind where “never a dull day” is less slogan and more survival strategy. Sam shared why he made the leap to Nottingham from a job he loved at Loughborough and what it really takes to manage pressure when...