In this course, we hear from a range of ex-City lawyers about:

• Their journeys into private practice.
• What they liked and didn't like about being a lawyer.
• Why they left the City.
• What they're doing now (operations, legal tech, property development, recruitment, journalism, cryptocurrencies, founding and advising start-ups, legal tech, working in-house, and more!).
• How their legal education and training has helped in a non-legal context.
• What they wish they had done differently when exploring careers.

Check out the bios below to learn more about our speakers.

Neil Tanna

Neil trained at Hogan Lovells, qualifying into the corporate team. Just over a year after qualification, he resigned to co-found a social-centric tech start-up called Howbout, taking on the role of CEO. He has since raised millions of pounds of investment and amassed hundreds of thousands of users, with the app often being listed as one of the top apps in its category in the app store. 

Hannah McCarthy

Hannah is a journalist based in Beirut reporting on the Middle East. She has written for The Guardian, The Telegraph and Condé Nast. She also produces radio reports and documentaries for RTÉ, the Irish national broadcaster. Before becoming a journalist Hannah worked for Freshfields in the UK and Russia, as well as for Kirkland & Ellis in London. She holds a law and business degree from Trinity College, Dublin and a masters in public policy from the University of Cambridge.

Michael Hey

Michael is from Perth, Australia, where he studied Law before moving to the UK. He trained at Freshfields (with Jake), before becoming one of fintech unicorn Revolut's first in-house lawyers. He then transitioned into a fully commercial role, leaving his practising certificate behind to work on strategy and operations for Revolut's crypto team.

Luke Mitchinson

Luke trained at Freshfields, where he qualified into the project finance team. 18 months after qualification, he moved to Ropes & Gray, where he shifted his practice specialism from project finance to private equity. He remained there for three years, before transitioning to a career in legal recruitment.

Giles Thompson

Giles spearheads Avvoka’s growth strategy, which involves working with in-house legal teams, leading law firms, and businesses. Previously, Giles worked as a City lawyer at Herbert Smith Freehills and Kirkland & Ellis. Giles also has in-house experience working for BP’s in-house legal team and in the regulatory division of PAX Labs/Juul.

Jasmine Fisher

Jasmine originally qualified and practised as a barrister, before moving to Freshfields to work as a solicitor in the dispute resolution team. She then worked as a freelance lawyer, before joining a boutique law firm. She eventually left her legal career to work as the creative director at a property development company.

Jake Schogger

Jake Schogger is a qualified lawyer, best-selling author, career coach, entrepreneur, copywriter and consultant. He trained at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP and now acts as a legal adviser to start-ups and scale-ups, whilst also working as a career coach and delivering career-related presentations at universities across the UK. He also works with technology start-ups and runs a variety of his own businesses, including a creative/commercial consultancy.

He is the founder and CEO of City Career Series, a publishing company that has sold ~50,000 handbooks designed to help students secure City careers, including the best-selling Training Contract Handbook and critically acclaimed Commercial Law Handbook. He also founded the Commercial Law Academy, a comprehensive e-learning platform for aspiring commercial lawyers, complete with hundreds of videos, articles, interactive quizzes, flow charts and downloadable e-guides.

James Richardson

James trained at Hogan Lovells, where he qualified into the insurance team and practiced for three years before leaving the City. He also ran a side hustle that produces revision guides for Law students during this time - Law Answered - which he still runs today. After Hogan Lovells, James worked as a W&I insurer, before moving into a Head of Legal role at insurtech start-up Cuvva.

Daniel Lo

Daniel studied a politics undergraduate degree in Canada, where he also founded and ran a student painting franchise. Next, he studied a law degree and the LPC in the UK, and then an LLM in securities and corporate law in Canada. At this stage, he secured a training contract with Dentons in Canada, where he eventually qualified into the M&A team. He subsequently moved in-house at a private equity firm in Hong Kong and then to UBS in Singapore, before securing his current role as Chief Legal Officer at a crypto company in Singapore. 

Jake Schogger

Jake Schogger is a best-selling author, qualified lawyer, entrepreneur, strategy consultant, and career coach. He is the founder and CEO of City Career Series and Commercial Law Academy, a publishing company and e-learning platform that has sold ~50,000 handbooks and developed 22 online courses designed to help young professionals transition into City careers. He also trained as a lawyer at Freshfields and now acts as a freelance legal adviser to start-ups and scale-ups, whilst also consulting on strategic and creative projects for a broad range of businesses.