#8: Why Lawyers Leave & How To Make Them Stay - with William Dougherty

This week’s guest is William Dougherty, founder of new legal tech company, Capacity. Hailing from a small town in Scotland, William found his way (somewhat luckily some might say, given his approach to applications) to Dentons in London where he qualified and practised as an IP lawyer. He recently gave up his solicitor role to take Capacity to new heights and fulfil his vision of creating a more inclusive and sustainable culture and working environment in the legal industry.

A man who’s clearly done his research, William kept me on my toes for this episode and we covered a vast range of topics in the hour that we chatted! Some of the key ones are:

From nursing home to London law firm, William’s journey to the City
The importance of early entrepreneurship for future solo success
The impact of poor work allocation in private practice
Legal tech and the future of being a lawyer
Autonomy as the silver bullet to many wellbeing issues
Systemic and cultural issues preventing diverse individuals from progressing in their careers
How lawyers being naturally risk averse prevents innovation and disruption of the industry
Alternative KPIs that firms should be using as a measure of success
Bonuses and high salaries - financial reward or an apology?
Alternative incentives and reward structures
The cause of long working hours and ways to manage them more effectively
Desirable and undesirable leavers - why do lawyers leave?
Meditation (including vipassana - listen to find out what that is!)

You can get in touch with William on LinkedIn or directly via email at [email protected] (very trendy).

The book William referred to is “The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety” by Alan Watts.

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