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In today’s rapidly evolving legal landscape, technical expertise alone is no longer enough to thrive. The ability to lead, influence, and take initiative has become a crucial asset for junior lawyers looking to accelerate their careers. But leadership isn’t just about holding a senior title - it’s about demonstrating key behaviours that encourage collaboration, problem-solving, and professional growth.

At Flex Legal’s first *Junior Lawyers Lunch* of 2025, hosted in partnership with Sewells, we explored how junior lawyers can develop leadership qualities from the outset of their careers. Titled *Leading without a title: A guide for junior lawyers*, the session provided valuable insights into how emerging legal professionals can take ownership of their development, build credibility, and make a lasting impact in their workplaces.

**Why leadership matters for junior lawyers**

Leadership skills are fundamental in shaping a successful legal career. They enable junior lawyers to:

- Build strong relationships with clients and colleagues.
- Communicate and collaborate effectively.
- Influence others and solve problems creatively.
- Establish professional credibility and trust.
- Navigate complex situations with confidence.

By actively developing these skills early on, junior lawyers can set themselves apart and create more opportunities for professional advancement.

## **Key leadership characteristics**

The session focused on five essential leadership traits that junior lawyers can develop:

**Positive attitude and mindset**

Do you light up a room when you walk in or walk out?

A leader's attitude is a chosen response to circumstances. While we can't always control situations, we can control how we respond to them. This involves being resilient, solution-focused, and maintaining a growth mindset even when facing challenges.

Practical steps to develop a positive mindset:

- Reflect on your own self talk and reframe how you think about things.
- Consider 2 or 3 successes/wins at the end of each day.
- Where possible maintain a healthy lifestyle – physical wellbeing is linked to mental wellbeing.
- Use positive affirmations “I am capable of…”
- Reduce exposure to negative influence, media, environments … other people!
- Spend time with those who demonstrate realistic optimism.
- Work on having a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset.

**Proactivity not reactivity**

Leadership means taking initiative rather than waiting for permission. While junior lawyers need guidance in certain areas, there are always opportunities to be proactive - whether it's volunteering for projects, seeking learning opportunities, or taking responsibility for your professional development.

- Stay informed and share information with others.
- Take control of your own development and put it into practice.
- Don’t wait for permission.
- Anticipate needs ahead of time.
- Offer solutions rather than waiting for problems to escalate.
- Build relationships that will support your future growth.

**Effective Communication**

Strong communication skills are fundamental to leadership. This goes beyond legal expertise to include:

- Asking insightful questions.
- Showing genuine interest in others.
- Active listening.
- Giving and receiving constructive feedback – asking for the feedback you don’t want.
- Building meaningful professional relationships.
- Consider how you can develop your coaching skills approach (a great leadership trait).

**Accountability**

Use the Accountability ladder to assess a situation that didn’t go well (see additional resource on the accountability ladder below).

**A useful tool:** The *Accountability Ladder* helps assess where your response to challenges fall - are you operating *below the line* (blaming others, making excuses) or *above the line* (owning your actions, seeking solutions)? By shifting towards accountability, junior lawyers can enhance their leadership capabilities.

**Teamwork**

Leadership isn't about individual success - it's about contributing to collective achievement. This involves:

- Collaboratively problem-solving to find solutions.
- Supporting colleagues when they need help.
- Contributing positively to team dynamics.
- Sharing knowledge and resources.
- Being willing to ask for help when needed.
- Share mistakes and insights to help others.

## **Developing your leadership skills**

Leadership is like a muscle - it grows stronger with practice. Here are some practical steps to develop your leadership capabilities:

1. Choose one leadership attribute to focus on and commit to daily or weekly practice.
2. Seek feedback from trusted colleagues or mentors.
3. Be more curious and engaged in meetings.
4. Take initiative on projects within your scope.
5. Practice self-reflection and regularly assess your growth.

**Key takeaway**

Remember: You don't need a title to be a leader. Every day presents opportunities to demonstrate leadership through small actions - whether asking thoughtful questions, supporting team members, or taking initiative on projects. These consistent, small actions build the foundation for strong leadership skills that will serve you throughout your career.

### About Sewells

Sewells specialises in leadership development, people performance, and culture change. With decades of experience, they help organisations unlock potential and create high-performing teams. Sewells' approach combines research-backed methodologies with practical application, empowering professionals across industries - including the legal sector - to become authentic leaders.

For more insights on leadership and professional development, visit their website: [**www.sewells.com**](http://www.sewells.com).

Sign up for the Sewells newsletter to receive regular insights and practical leadership strategies: [**sign up here.**](https://sewells-training.com/en-gb/insights-for-forward-thinking-leaders-0)

## **The Accountability Ladder: A guide for junior lawyers**

[Download the Accountability Ladder here](https://a.storyblok.com/f/91079/x/7158c53890/accountability-ladder-a-guide.pdf)

The Accountability Ladder is a powerful model that illustrates the journey from victim behaviours to leadership accountability. Understanding where you are on this ladder can help you develop stronger leadership skills and take more control of your professional development.

**Below the line (victim behaviours):**

- **Blaming others** – Shifting responsibility to clients, colleagues, or circumstances.
- **Making excuses** – Justifying inaction or mistakes without seeking improvement.
- **"I can’t" mindset** – Viewing challenges as insurmountable due to a lack of skills or support.
- **Waiting and hoping** – Avoiding taking action and expecting problems to resolve themselves.

**The Turning Point**

This crucial transition marks the shift from victim behaviours to leadership behaviours. It's where we begin to operate in a sphere of influence rather than a sphere of concern.

**Above the line (leadership behaviours):**

- **Acknowledging reality** – Recognising issues and accepting responsibility.
- **Owning it** – Taking accountability and committing to improvement.
- **Finding solutions** – Seeking constructive ways to address challenges.
- **Making it happen** – Taking decisive action and following through.

**Practical application for junior lawyers**

To apply this model in your legal career:

- **Self-reflection**: Regularly assess where your responses fall on the ladder.
- **Situation analysis**: When facing challenges, consciously move your response up the ladder.
- **Professional development**: Use the ladder as a framework for growing your leadership skills.
- **Team dynamics**: Help create a culture of accountability by modelling "above the line" behaviours.

By consistently operating *above the line*, junior lawyers can build a reputation as proactive and reliable professionals, setting the foundation for future leadership roles.

**Key takeaway**

The most effective leaders consistently operate above the line, taking ownership of situations regardless of their formal position or title. By understanding and applying the Accountability Ladder, junior lawyers can demonstrate leadership qualities early in their careers, building a foundation for long-term professional success.

# **Leadership self-assessment tool: Using spider charts for development**

[Download the Spider Chart here ](https://a.storyblok.com/f/91079/x/d5b5f05643/blank-spider-chart.pdf)and user guide [here](https://a.storyblok.com/f/91079/x/a582b32649/spider-chart-guide.pdf)

For those looking to assess their current leadership strengths, the *Spider Chart* is a simple yet powerful self-assessment tool. It helps visualise personal strengths and areas for development across five key leadership attributes:

1. Mindset and Attitude
2. Proactivity
3. Communication
4. Accountability
5. Teamwork

**How to conduct your self-assessment**

- Rate yourself on a scale of 1-5 for each attribute.
- Connect the points to create a visual representation of your leadership profile.
- Identify areas for growth and set actionable goals for improvement.
- Seek external feedback from colleagues or mentors for additional perspective.
- Reassess periodically to track progress and development.

Leadership is not about waiting for a promotion or a formal title - it’s about how you show up, take initiative, and influence those around you. By adopting a proactive mindset, communicating effectively, and taking ownership of your professional development, you can demonstrate leadership from day one.

Every interaction, every challenge, and every opportunity is a chance to refine your leadership skills. Start small, stay consistent, and embrace the journey.

Get in touch

Leading without a title: How junior lawyers can develop leadership skills

It was November 2022, and the University of York’s complaints team were facing an increased workload. Tom Richens (Deputy Head of Student Administration - Student and Academic Services) and Kathryn Lucas (Student Administration Manager – Complaints) were new to their roles, and found themselves inheriting a substantial backlog of complaints to process and resolve. Additionally the sector was facing strike action, with university staff [engaged in industrial action](https://thetab.com/uk/york/2023/01/13/university-of-york-staff-set-to-strike-for-18-days-this-term-29730) prompting yet more student complaints.

The complaints backlog was already a big problem, and it was still growing. The implications for not addressing the issue were significant. Effective complaint handling is vital to the student experience at university. It provides organisational accountability and introspective prompts to review processes that perhaps aren’t working as well as they should. Without good complaints handling, a university suffers.

With a mounting caseload and an urgent need to get on top of the situation, Tom and Kathryn decided to temporarily increase the capacity of their team. Their hope was that by delegating high-volume casework investigation work away to interim staff, they could thereby free up their time to focus on compliance aspects of the backlog. To that end, they reached out to Flex Legal.

## **Why paralegals are perfect for complaints handling**

Complaints handling is difficult. Really difficult. Even its most basic level, it involves analysing cases, triaging them, conducting in-depth research into the factual merits of the case, liaising with concerned parties on both sides of the complaint, compiling and analysing information, and finally making well informed outcome recommendations. All of this must be carefully balanced alongside many other cases, and whilst empathetically and effectively engaging with potentially aggrieved parties.

If you are a legal professional reading through that list, there’s a good chance you will identify with the work involved in complaints handling. There is a *very* clear overlap with the skills involved in legal casework and complaints casework. This is precisely why the University of York decided to contact Flex, and employ the services of interim paralegals as opposed to more generalist admin professionals.

It takes 6 months on average for a complaints officer to become fully trained on all aspects of an organisation’s complaints process. Given the urgency of the problem they had inherited, fully training new junior colleagues was simply not an option for Tom and Kathryn. Recruiting paralegals with existing transferable skills, however, very much was. On the morning of November 4th, Tom filled out [the Contact Form](/contact) on Flex Legal’s website. A few hours later, he was on a Zoom call and speaking with Flex’s Client Services Team about the nature of the task at hand. The wheels were in motion.

## **Finding the perfect paralegals for job**

Once Tom had explained the problems his team was facing, we immediately got to work searching our platform for available paralegals with suitable experience. Flex has always sought to facilitate *perfect* pairings of organisations and interim legal professionals, which is why we pre-vet every single platform user with onboarding interviews and tests.

 We compiled a bespoke candidate shortlist and sent it Tom and Kathryn. The shortlist contained comprehensive online profiles of each paralegal, complete with CVs and self-filmed videos explaining a bit more about who they were and what kind of experience they were looking for. Tom and Kathryn decided to conduct their own interviews with each candidate, which was by no means a requirement but we were more than happy for them to do so.  
  
After interviewing each paralegal, they were decidedly impressed with [Susan Mobolaji](https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-mobolaji/) and [Cristina Boaghi](https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-boaghi-5416a4149/), and felt they were the right fit for their team. Susan had previously qualified as a lawyer in Nigeria, before moving to the UK an obtaining a Master’s Degree in Law from the [University of Hull](https://www.hull.ac.uk/). Cristina had previously worked as a Senior Legal Advisor in the [Moldovan Parliament](https://moldova.md/en/content/parliament), a Deputy Minister in the [Moldovan Ministry of Education](https://mec.gov.md/en), and earned her Master’s Degree in International and Institutional Law from the [Free International University of Moldova](https://www.masterstudies.co.uk/institutions/free-international-university-of-moldova) before moving to the UK. Both were seasoned legal experts, who were drawn to Flex Legal by their shared interest in accruing more UK legal work experience.

## **How Susan and Cristina helped the University of York**

Susan and Cristina began to work with the University of York on a hybrid basis, working partly from home and partly on campus. Their initial onboarding covered some University of York-specific GDPR training and a brief on how the department and its processes work. It was also important that they were trained in how to work with students with Special Education Needs, which was new to both Susan and Cristina. During the onboarding, Kathryn noted how willing to learn the paralegals were, and they in turn found the in-house University of York team to be incredibly supportive. Things were off to a flying start!  
  
Once Susan and Cristina had settled in, they got to work on the student complaints backlog. Each case was entirely unique and needed to be approached with nuance and consideration. One moment they could be contacting the originating department of a complaint for more information, the next they could be liaising with a student to keep them updated and provide them with timeframes for their complaint. It was a mixed bag of administrative and communication tasks, all falling under the overarching umbrella of their responsibility to take on time-consuming, high-volume tasks.   
  
With the paralegals moving cases on at speed, the permanent complaints team were free to focus on more intricate and detailed work. Susan and Cristina also helped the team to prepare case summaries for when complaints needed to be escalated and considered by an academic registrar. As the paralegals continued to work in the complaints department, their skills developed and their relationship with the complaints team matured and their skills in research and dispute resolution blossomed.

In time, the complaints backlog was all but cleared. Susan and Cristina have now finished their placements, and the time of writing find themselves in new roles. Cristina is utilising the skills she refined at the University of York with her new position at [the UK Home Office](https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office), and Susan is working with the renowned law firm [Leigh Day](https://www.leighday.co.uk/).

**Additional resources:**

* [Hire a Flex paralegal](/hire/paralegals) - If reading this case study has you scratching your chin, wondering if hiring a Flex paralegal is a good idea, then why not learn more? Click the link to get the ball rolling.
* [How Saad went from Flex Paralegal to Flex Trainee](/blog/how-saad-went-from-flex-paralegal-to-flex-trainee) - Paralegals working through Flex don’t stay that way forever. Some of them graduate onto the Flex Trainee scheme, just like Saad did. Read more!
* [Apply to be a Flex paralegal](/apply/) - Are you interested in interim paralegal opportunities? Flex Legal is here for you! Submit your CV today and apply to the platform.

University of York Logo

How paralegals helped the University of York complaints team

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mooreje/">James Moore</a>, <a href="https://flex.legal/">F-LEX’s</a> Co-Founder and CTO, recently ran a webinar in collaboration with <a href="https://www.lawnet.co.uk/">LawNet</a> where he shared his top tips on effectively managing a remote team.&nbsp;James has been managing remote teams for 15 years. These have incorporated different time zones, geographies and cultures, and have made James well-accustomed with the different obstacles which may hinder remote workers. Now managing an entirely remote team, James has found the adjustment to current conditions relatively seamless.The biggest question a remote manager must ask themselves is ‘how can the project progress?’ Fortunately for readers, James has found a few key strategies which help to answer this.<h1 style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Distinguish between co-located and remote teams</h1>When everyone works remotely, there are fewer communication issues because everyone is in the same working environment. However, problems can arise when a team is split, with some working together in the office and some working remotely. This is because the team in the office could agree something verbally which doesn’t get relayed to those working remotely, for instance. Team integration is another big concern. An office environment often leads to lots of informal interactions between team members throughout the day, for instance having a quick chat as you make a coffee or going out together to grab lunch. This strengthens team cohesion and collegiality, however for remote workers it can lead to feelings of isolation and detachment from the rest of the team, which ultimately impacts on efficiency and the quality of work being produced.So what is the solution? If it is possible, try to separate teams into those working together in-person and those working remotely. By doing so, remote workers are less likely to feel that they are missing out on the office environment because the rest of their team is also working remotely. If this distinction isn’t feasible, it is important to address the unequal footing of remote workers. Team meetings play a huge part here because they offer a platform for everyone’s thoughts and problems to be heard and considered equally. Further, regular informal catch-ups between team members and supervisors helps to make remote workers feel included and engaged with the team.<h1 style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Encourage asynchronous communication</h1>In an effective team, everyone is communicating constantly. However not all communication is equal, and it is important to understand the nuances of its different forms. Asynchronous communication means that you don’t expect a response to a message or query straight away, but instead within a reasonable timeframe. Conversely, synchronous communication means that a response is expected almost instantly, and can leave you sitting at your screen waiting for it to appear.James has found that encouraging asynchronous communication and work practices to be the best approach for workflows and enhanced productivity. This is because the stress levels and pressure felt by employees increase when they feel the need to respond instantly to every question they are sent. This can often mean they are ‘firefighting’ by responding to these messages instead of completing more productive work. Asynchronous communication removes this pressure, and means that their thought processes aren’t interrupted by every new notification. As a remote manager, encouraging this communication style is a great way to increase team productivity.<h1 style="white-space:pre-wrap;">But synchronous communication still has its place!</h1>Despite the above, synchronous communication should still be used where appropriate. An example may be daily update meetings with your team. Here, James asks team members what they did the day before, what they are planning to do that day, and what may be preventing them from completing it. This helps people to feel supported, and ensures that work-quality is high and that resources are being properly allocated. James also has 1-to-1 catch ups with his team every two weeks, where he has a wider chat about work and how they are getting on generally. This helps to set goals for each team member, and shows an investment into personal relationships which helps with team cohesion and wellbeing.<h1 style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Deconstruct large tasks</h1>James’s final tip is to break down large pieces of work into smaller tasks which can be more effectively allocated without overwhelming individuals. By doing so, tasks are also more easily reviewed by peers. This contributes to a rigorous quality-checking system, and allows for accountability to be shared between a team for a large project, instead of one person having to carry complete responsibility.<h1 style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Some FAQs about remote management</h1>How do we ensure junior people have enough supervision and are keeping their profile up?&nbsp;It can be tricky for more junior team members to work remotely. James has found the peer-review mechanism useful for collegiate work because it allows junior members to constantly learn, and also for their individual wins to be celebrated. By doing so, confidence within the team also increases, meaning junior members are more likely to reach out for help when they need it.How do you deal with huge email traffic and highlight important messages?&nbsp;We can all be captive to our emails. A simple way to manage emails is to set up labels and tags in your inbox, which help to automatically file away unimportant messages. This leaves your inbox as a ‘to-do’ list, which only contains messages which need actioning and helps avoid distractions.Further, James recommends the book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport (2016). This book helps to break down some of concepts discussed in this post, and highlights the difficulty of returning to a task once your focus has been broken.Do any of you have examples of good practice you have adopted around supervising junior team members?<ul data-rte-list="default"><li>Open door policy: It is important to be approachable and make time for team members, particularly junior members who may have more questions compared to more established colleagues. Making the effort to reach out to your team on an individual basis also helps to create a supportive and collegiate working environment, and stops junior members from ‘suffering in silence’.</li></ul><ul data-rte-list="default"><li>Technology: Zoom, Slack, and OfficeVibe are all pieces of technology that F-LEX uses on a daily basis to stay connected and ensure that an accurate understanding of team morale is being gauged.</li></ul><ul data-rte-list="default"><li>Retrospective meetings: These are held every two months, and allow the team to break down what has gone well recently and what can be improved on going forwards.</li></ul><ul data-rte-list="default"><li>Elevensies: F-LEX has implemented ‘Elevensies’ since the start of lockdown which allows the whole company to catch up informally over a coffee at 11am every Friday. We hold this over Zoom for around 30 minutes, and each week someone sets a trivia quiz. This has been great because it means everyone gets to chat to people in different teams that we may not be working with on a daily basis! </li></ul>

Leading without a title: How junior lawyers can develop leadership skills

How paralegals helped the University of York complaints team

Check Your Distance: How to Effectively Manage Remote Teams