I am an associate in the Environmental, Social and Governance practice at at Herbert Smith Freehills. I joined HSF as a Trainee in March 2017 and previously sat in the Disputes team, Corporate team and Projects team in Paris before qualifying into the Finance team in March 2019 and eventually moving to the Environmental, Social and Governance practice in March 2023.
A week before starting the final stages of my legal training, the Legal Practice Course, I was diagnosed with relatively severe dyslexia. I got assessed on the recommendation of a friend and although getting this diagnosis as an adult was a surprise, it also made sense when I remembered how hard I felt I was working to get to the same place as everyone else through university.
My job requires resilience and a strong work ethic and I have learnt these skills by putting in the extra work required to manage my dyslexia.
Whether dyslexic or not, everyone makes small mistakes but because I know that I won’t catch things on a first read, I don’t leave things up to chance and I always put in the extra time to check things over. I am also always up for trialling new software and finding unconventional but useful ways of doing things using technology.
It’s no wonder that people with dyslexia are known for being out of the box thinkers think Albert Einstein, Richard Branson, Jamie Oliver, Ingvar Kamprad (the founder of Ikea, a literal “out of the box thinker”!): if you are constantly navigating around conventional solutions which don’t quite work for you, your mind becomes very open to always considering unusual but potentially better alternatives. This lateral thinking, problem solving and “can do” attitude has served me well during my legal career.
I was reluctant to get tested for so long because I was afraid it might make people see me as sloppy or careless. After my diagnosis, however, the extra support I got finally made it possible to get the results I was aiming for at exams and in work without the additional anguish. I would therefore recommend others to be more open – you have a lot to be proud of for making it this far and you will gain a lot from the extra support.