Employee Spotlight on Sarah Leask

This month’s Employee Spotlight features Sarah Leask, Director Membership and Engagement. Sarah re-joined the team in February in a new role. She talks about her role and what the WS Society membership offers. 

You joined in February 2024, what attracted you to work at the WS Society?

Not many people will know this, or realise, but I actually worked for the WS Society many years ago. Although the building remains the same, as does the history of the Society, a great deal has changed.

Since leaving university, I have worked in many roles, all have been customer centric and focused on enriching customer relationships and experiences. My role at the Society of Director, Membership and Engagement utilises my experience of working with professional service accounts during my recruitment career, along with my background of working with and supporting charities. I sincerely believe that building meaningful working relationships with integrity and respect is essential and translates universally.

Something I am passionate about, hopefully everyone is, is equality, diversity and inclusion. We need to ensure that all lawyers who want to become members of the WS Society have the opportunity and access to do so. Once admitted as a member, I hope all members will have a sense of belonging and identification with the Society and fellow members. This sense of community is what I want to build on and use as a significant part of the attraction to joining the Society.

So far, what have been your highlights whilst working for the WS Society?

I have had a busy first (nearly) year, with lots of highlights. I have been so impressed by all the work that goes on behind the scenes to produce the events at the Signet Library. It was really fascinating to work with all my colleagues to support the hosting of the Scottish Global Dialogues Lecture with Martin Griffiths OBE and First Minister John Swinney MSP. Recently it was our Annual Dinner and, again, it was a privilege to work with the executive team and Heritage Portfolio to produce such an exquisite event.

The Diet of Admission ceremonies that we host for our new members are wonderful events, rich in history and tradition. We do offer the option to swear the oath online, albeit that is a more functional experience and I recommend the magic of the in person version.

A new membership benefit which we have introduced, since I joined the Society, is our Special Interest Groups (SIGs). It’s so important that we support our members and offer the opportunity for them to meet one another and share their interests, knowledge, learnings and wisdom. The SIGs have just launched and are proving popular. We hope to grow this initiative, with the support of our members. Seeing the SIGs go from concept to completion has been a real highlight.

We also launched the Spotlight feature and here I am!

Tell us some facts about the WS Society membership benefits, that people might not know

Members are free to work in the West Library by prior arrangement with our Research Principal, James Hamilton. James is on hand in the West Library to provide research support. To have James on hand, with his knowledge and expertise, is an incredible benefit in itself and to have this work space available, in such splendid surroundings, is an added bonus! For members requiring a private space for a meeting or to work, the Commissioners’ Room, Minto Room or Napier Room are available to book. Members of the WS Society are eligible for up to three hours of meeting room hire free of charge per week. There are discounted rates for our much acclaimed CPD events, and members receive a 50% discount on venue hire rates and a 15% discount for Colonnades.

As mentioned, we have introduced Special Interest Groups. This is already proving to be a popular benefit and we want to make this a core privilege of being a member, having access to these group meetings. It’s a great way to meet other members — students, affiliates, associates working and retired WS — where everyone has a perspective and can contribute. We need our members to take the initiative to establish more SIGs, whether it’s in their practice area or sector, or whether it’s an interest outside the law. Meetings can be organised online on Zoom to allow everyone access regardless of location, and the Signet Library is always available as a special venue for an in person meeting from time to time, when suits. Often the library will be able to contribute something relevant to the discussion from its collections in law, literature, history and culture. SIG meetings are open to all members, regardless of qualification or level of knowledge.

The SIGs are by members for members with the Society as the organising nexus. I urge any member with an idea or desire for a SIG to get in touch with me, please. I will make it happen!

Contact

Sarah can be contacted at sleask@wssociety.co.uk.

Spotlight on Thomas Murdock WS

We are delighted to introduce our new feature, Spotlight. Spotlight will showcase WS members and WS employees.

Our first member is Thomas Murdock WS. Thomas is Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel EMEA at Blue Yonder and a WS Council member. We asked Thomas about law as a career, law in commercial tech and what being a member of the WS Society means to him.

What/who made you consider law as a career?

I actually moved into a graduate LLB after studying music at undergrad level, and my plan was to find a way of combining these two interests. But when I qualified in 2012 there wasn’t a great deal of opportunity for a Scots lawyer without the right connections to move into media law, plus there wasn’t really a media law presence in Scotland at that time. I took an NQ job at a venture capital plc specialising in tech startups in a very commercial role crossing business, tech and law, and the rest is history.

Law wasn’t actually my first choice of career, more of a pragmatic solution, and I don’t think it’ll be my only career. I’m really excited about portfolio careers, the agility and portability of skills in the workplace now and in the future. I think it’s fair to say that the legal profession was brought hesitantly into the 21st century and I think necessity will dictate that traditional roles will give way to something more dynamic, as the commercial landscape changes and integrated AI solutions become an accepted norm. Change is the only constant, and I’m excited about what the future holds.

What attracted you to work in commercial tech?

Something I came to realise as I got older was that I have a short attention span and can get bored easily, so moving into a dynamic area like tech made sense, since the landscape is constantly evolving. I also knew I was unsuited to private practice – the suit and tie, time-served, deferential thing just didn’t click with me. Tech companies seemed to have a more youthful, diverse, meritocratic outlook and so I fitted in much better with my growth/ disruptive mindset, particularly working in-house viewing everything through a commercial lens. For me, Tech was the antidote to what I’d experienced in private practice, and felt full of opportunity.

Tell us about your role and what a typical week looks like, for you?

I’m one of the three regional heads of legal in a global tech business with 7,000+ employees, so anything and everything can (and does) hit my desk within my EMEA purview. My team primarily focus on revenue transactions, negotiating complex and high value deals, but Blue Yonder is in a transformative period and so there’s no shortage of strategic projects to work on, like acquisitions, integration, go-to-market planning, training, and the usual in-house lawyer staple of implementing process (especially using tech) to grow and scale. I also look after EMEA housekeeping items like HR escalations, bricks and mortar management, and working with our global Privacy and Compliance leads to navigate and cascade EMEA-specific considerations amongst my team and the business.

How did you first come to hear about the WS Society and what made you want to become a member?

I first came to hear of the WS Society as a child, seeing ‘WS’ on law firm letterheads and wondering what it meant. Fast-forward to my traineeship and I remember discussing with one of the Edinburgh-based partners, who was a WS, about the Society and what it meant to them. Being a relative outsider, becoming a WS did feel something unattainable and like ‘part of the establishment’, but that posed an instant challenge and becoming a member was intriguing to me.

“My WS membership has extended my professional network, and provides a sense of belonging to a heritage where law, history, and culture interconnect and inform.”

After nearly 10 years of membership, in November 2023 I also became one of the WS Council members. The Council has an important consultative function in providing the Society’s Trustees with feedback on the Society’s activities, in pursuit of our charitable objects and providing subscriber engagement.

Being able to bring my experience to the table at the WS Society, both as a member and Council member, felt important to me. I’m an out gay man, and although that does not define me, being my authentic self has not always been easy in the workplace. Having experienced rejection, prejudice and both conscious and unconscious bias in my career, I’ve tried to take every opportunity to represent and advocate for diversity and inclusion within the roles that I’ve had, both employed and voluntary. I’ve found the WS Society to be open, inquisitive, inclusive and evolving to be fit for purpose now and in future.

In what way has the WS Society played a role in your career?

The WS Society offers professional, social and networking opportunities, both in Edinburgh and remotely, and has reconnected me with past colleagues. There’s also an excellent CPD programme, the extensive library itself – which can also be used as a great place for quiet working – and a variety of events throughout the year, for example when Senator John Kerry came to present last summer.

I’ve worked with a number of US and international tech companies since qualifying, and made some assertive career moves. Being a ‘WS’ has prompted questions and raised the profile of my Scots Law background amongst hiring managers, started interesting discussions and set me apart from other candidates. When potential employers understand more about the WS Society and the role it plays within the Legal profession in Scotland, it’s been seen as a positive differentiator.

What would you say to any lawyer considering WS membership?

My WS membership has extended my professional network, and provides a sense of belonging to a heritage where law, history, and culture interconnect and inform. The WS Society has changed a lot over the years and will continue to evolve, with a real focus on increasing diversity. In doing this, we hope to achieve a sense of belonging for our members. It’s crucial that we continue to attract and embrace lawyers with diversity of background, beliefs and journeys into law, and so I’d encourage anyone interested to visit the website or social media to find out more, and take the plunge.

If you would like to feature in a future Member Spotlight please contact Sarah Leask, Director, Engagement and Membership (sleask@wssociety.co.uk).