PQE coaches

Impartial career advice from those who know the legal sector best

To make the best career decisions, insight from others is crucial. So we've created a select group of experienced legal sector professionals and development experts for you – those who really know the sector and have successfully managed their own career, and the careers of thousands of other legal services professionals.

This community can share their wisdom on a number of issues to guide you. Our aim is to offer you unique breadth of input, so you'll find a range of people who have been managing partners in major law firms, developed careers in-house, become legal entrepreneurs, or used their transferrable skills to move into roles outside the sector.

Executive coaches

Maria Antoniou

Executive Coach
Maria Antoniou, Managing Director of Prothos, has been coaching for the last 20 years. Prior to setting up her consultancy, Maria was the Head of Learning & Development at a leading global law firm...

Ruth Girardet

Executive Coach
I have over twenty years of corporate experience at executive and non-executive director level in the corporate as well as the public sector. I moved into the field of leadership consulting and...

Heather Johnston

Executive Coach
Heather has 20+ years' experience as an executive and careers coach, facilitator and organisational development consultant. An entrepreneur, with a background in investment banking, and consulting...

Stephen Newton

Executive Coach
I have had a varied career as an army officer, sales director of a major mutual funds business, operations director at two major investment managers, as an executive coach and consultant to major...

Nigel Spencer

Executive Coach
Nigel coaches senior lawyers and other senior leaders in firms, focusing on building confidence and capability, and accelerating performance, especially at moments of career transition.

Mila Trezza

Executive Coach
Mila has 25 years of international experience as a lawyer, including 10 years as regional General Counsel for the oil and gas major Eni. In this role, she led, recruited, coached, and developed...

Legal "brains"

James Alao

Legal Brain
I am a management consultant at McKinsey, having previously worked as a private equity lawyer at Clifford Chance for almost 6 years. During that time I did a secondment to Barclays for 6 months and...

Veronica Blackmore

Legal Brain
I have been a capital markets lawyer for over 30 years, first at Allen Overy, where I was a partner for 7 years, before moving to US firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, as a partner for the last 17 years. In...

Michael Chissick

Legal Brain
I was promoted to partner in 1996 at Fieldfisher where I was the head of the Technology practice before becoming Global Managing Partner of Fieldfisher in 2012 where I led the firm for over a decade....

Ian Ferguson

Legal Brain
I am a lawyer and entrepreneur. I am a founder, board director and General Counsel of Elixirr International plc, an Aim-listed business strategy consulting company. Prior to that I was a founder and...

Jo Holdsworth

Legal Brain
Before becoming a full time artist in 2017, I was a commercial and outsourcing lawyer at Linklaters for 7 years, after which I joined the IPIT team at Practical Law, where I also launched and ran the...

Nadja Schmitt-Zehe

Legal Brain
I have had a very varied legal career. For the last 20+ years I have been an IP solicitor doing both contentious and non-contentious work. I am the founder of a boutique IP and trademarks firm, S and...

Jeremy Tobias-Tarsh

Legal Brain
I have been a lawyer (CC and Paul Hastings), legal entrepreneur (Totallylegal.com and Practical Law Company), charitable trustee (Chair Grief Encounter, Hackney Aquatics) and mental health champion...

Andrew Woolf

Legal Brain
I have been a corporate partner for 20 years in a variety of types of firms, including City, National and West End. I have also had stints in house and as a corporate financier. I have held a number...

Daniel van Binsbergen

Legal Brain
I was a corporate finance lawyer for 6 years at leading Dutch firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek in Amsterdam, then London, as well as a secondee to GDF SUEZ in Brussels, before founding the legal...