I'm a mover

Three solicitors who have made the move to dynamic business roles talk about their transition and how they navigated this career shift

This year, the In-House and Public Sector Committee examined the theme of lawyers moving from legal roles into business roles. 

As lawyers, we possess skills that makes us exceptionally well-suited for business roles. Our analytical thinking, attention to detail, and understanding of complex topics position us to excel in strategic decision-making and risk management.

So let’s hear what those who have made this change have to say.

Conor Stafford – SMBC Aviation Capital 

Conor holds a bachelor of law degree from UCD and qualified as a solicitor while working with McCann FitzGerald in Dublin. 

He left private practice to join an aircraft leasing company, where he moved from a legal role into a sales and marketing role in EMEA (based in Dublin), subsequently covering Asia (based in Singapore) and ultimately stepping into the head of leasing role (based in the US). 

Conor joined SMBC Aviation Capital in 2023 as head of airline marketing, leading the company’s airline customer relationship and marketing initiatives. 

What were the main drivers in your decision to move away from a purely legal role? 

My legal career was largely focused on transactional work in the aviation industry, which I enjoyed. However, when presented with a signed term sheet, I was always curious about how the deal first came to life, what seeded the opportunity, and how the pricing on the deal was analysed, negotiated, and agreed. 

I knew at an early stage that I wanted a role that was customer-facing and that allowed me to build relationships with stakeholders. It felt like a natural chain of events to move from working in a law firm, to moving in-house, to transitioning into a sales and marketing role. 

What elements of your legal training and experience have served you best in your new role? 

I firmly believe that legal training instils in you a discipline that is deep-rooted and that lends itself well to whichever career you ultimately end up pursuing.

The core fundamental skills that I honed during my legal training were an ability to absorb large amounts of information, distil down, and pinpoint the most relevant kernel of information to help inform strategy. 

Good attention to detail and strong negotiation skills have also lent themselves well to a more commercially focused career. 

Was there anything you were less prepared for than your peers by virtue of your legal background? 

There are so many different disciplines in legal careers, each with its own area of expertise. From my own experience, I do find that I have had to work harder to brush up on my knowledge of accounting and finance than others who came from non-legal backgrounds. 

Having a better understanding of these areas (and simply knowing the unknowns) has helped me to be able to form a more rounded opinion when making transactional and strategic decisions. 

Is there anything you miss since moving? 

My role still affords me the opportunity to use the skills I worked hard to hone during my legal days, and so I haven’t looked back. I’m a big believer in looking forward and backing the decisions you make.

Have you ever received any resistance from the organisation in having a ‘lawyer with a seat at the table’? 

When I first made the move into a commercial role, it was relatively rare for lawyers to move into sales and marketing roles in my industry, with more people from technical and financial backgrounds making the move. 

That said, I never experienced any significant pushback internally – at most, a stereotyping of strengths and weaknesses based on profession, but this was easily dispelled. 

In the meantime, it has become much more commonplace for lawyers in the aviation industry to move into other roles and, generally, I feel that people are less pigeon-holed these days. 

How did you establish boundaries both for yourself and your stakeholders that you were no longer a legal advisor? 

I think the most difficult part was stepping back from the responsibilities that had previously been in my domain when performing a legal role. There was a tendency for colleagues who were working in a legal role to at times fall back to expecting you to fulfil the previous role you had performed. 

There was also initially the temptation to ‘add red-ink’ as if working in a legal capacity when not strictly necessary, and I quickly learned the need to allow others to own this area.

Do you think solicitors are too slow to look at roles outside of the legal profession and, if so, why do you think that is? 

I think that within law firms there is a subculture that attaches huge importance to partnership, which is highly coveted. 

This can often blinker other options available outside of law firm life, and I think that some solicitors who do move outside of the legal profession often take a significant amount of time to consider other options. 

For me, a move to an in-house legal role was a stepping-stone into a role outside of the legal profession, and I found this way of changing focus was gradual and helped to facilitate the move. 

Would you move back into a legal role in the future? 

No – I am a firm believer in moving forward and not back.

Ruth McCarthy – Fexco 

Ruth is head of compliance, risk and policy for Fexco Group. Previously, she worked in a commercial role as CEO of Fexco Corporate Payments and as a solicitor specialising in financial regulation. 

Ruth is chair of the Fintech and Payments Association of Ireland and a member of the Industry Advisory Group for the Government’s Ireland for Finance strategy for financial services. 

She is a member of the EU Commission Payment Services Market Experts Group, a chartered director, and a regular contributor to publications and events relating to the Irish fintech industry.

What were the main drivers in your decision to move away from a purely legal role? 

The opportunity to go beyond giving advice and to get involved in the practical side of business was exciting to me. 

What elements of your legal training and experience have served you best in your new role?

Good research skills and problem-solving skills have been very helpful in my commercial career. I also got exposure to large, complex projects with tight timelines when I worked as a lawyer, and that experience has been immensely valuable in everything that I’ve done subsequently.

Was there anything you were less prepared for than your peers by virtue of your legal background?

Coming from a legal background, I was nervous about anything to do with finance, but I have fantastic colleagues in our finance function who demystified the area for me. 

Is there anything you miss since moving? 

I miss being able to take the time to master a particular topic. Also, lawyers enjoy the luxury of knowing they are right, whereas, in business, there is usually no one right answer. 

Have you ever received any resistance from the business in having a ‘lawyer with a seat at the table’? 

Never!

How did you establish boundaries both for yourself and your stakeholders that you were no longer a legal advisor? 

I gave up my practising cert when I began working in a business role, and I made it clear that I was no longer able to give legal advice. I don’t think I can dabble in being a lawyer. 

Do you think solicitors are too slow to look at roles outside of the legal profession and, if so, why do you think that is? 

Yes. As lawyers, we learn to be good at what we do and to get it right every time. A step into another line of work requires us to start again in a new field where we have limited knowledge and possibly no direct experience. It is unfortunate that lawyers don’t move outside the profession very often, because we have so much to give to the business world once we make the leap. 

Would you move back into a legal role in the future? 

I would love to go back to being a lawyer someday. I think I did my best work as a lawyer, but I get a lot more done in a business function!

Colm Kincaid – Central Bank

Colm was appointed to the role of director of consumer protection in October 2021. Prior to this, he was director of securities and markets supervision and, before that, head of consumer protection: policy and authorisations and deputy head of the Legal Division at the Central Bank of Ireland. 

He joined the Central Bank in 2004 and has also practised as a solicitor in commercial practice in London and Dublin, specialising in financial regulation and structured finance. 

What were the main drivers in your decision to move away from a purely legal role?

The law was once described to me as ‘applied philosophy’, and the public policy drivers and objectives of the law always interested me most. 

I had spent many years learning my craft as a lawyer specialising in regulation and structured finance, including in the Central Bank through the crucible of the banking crisis and then the sovereign crisis. 

So, in 2013, I decided to leave my role as a legal adviser in the Central Bank and move more fully into a policy and regulation role in consumer protection at the bank. 

For me, at that point in my career and since then, it was more fulfilling to provide public service through the lens of the policy objectives we are trying to achieve to improve financial services for people than to continue to focus on the legal aspects. 

What elements of your legal training and experience have served you best in your new role? 

I believe a legal training (and perhaps, particularly, practice as a commercial solicitor) provides a unique way of thinking and problem-solving compared to any other discipline, as well as honing negotiation skills. It also taught me how to work without sleep! 

More profoundly, it provided me with a strong appreciation of the role the law plays in society, which has served me well as a public servant. 

Was there anything you were less prepared for than your peers by virtue of your legal background? 

The biggest change I found was moving from addressing a topic through the lens of a particular discipline one is trained in (the law) to having to make judgement-based decisions across a range of aspects in a matter where one is not the expert.

However, I don’t know that I faced this challenge any more than peers who moved into such a role from other disciplines. All in all, I think the law sets you up really well for any role. 

Is there anything you miss since moving? 

I have very fond memories of my time as a lawyer, and I am especially proud of the service I got to give the State during the banking and sovereign crises. I don’t really spend time thinking about the past or missing it. 

Part of this is, I guess, because the time was right for me to move on to another chapter in my career. And of course, as a regulator, I still get to interact with the law on a regular basis! 

Do you think solicitors are too slow to look at roles outside of the legal profession and, if so, why do you think that is?

Everyone has to chart their own course, and society needs a strong independent legal profession with experienced lawyers. 

But I would encourage lawyers to consider taking a step into other fields, even for a period (if only to get the perspective from the client side of things, which can be an eye-opener!). In-house legal roles can provide a nice bridge for this, if you want something different but not to leave legal practice behind.