Welcome to the If You Ask Me podcast, hosted by Hannah Bradshaw and Sarah Lyons, two former employment lawyers turned coaches and the co founders of BlueSky.
This podcast is about the big conversations we wish were happening more often. We talk to women in leadership positions across law firms, both those who have been through it themselves and those who bring fresh insights into how the profession can evolve. Our aim is to create a space that is uplifting and practical, where law meets life and possibility opens up.
New episodes released weekly.
LinkedIn for Lawyers: How to Be Visible Without the Cringe – with Helen Burness
Send us Fan Mail LinkedIn can be an incredibly powerful business development tool for lawyers, but only if you use it with purpose. In this episode, Hannah speaks to Helen Burness, founder of Saltmarsh Marketing and one of the UK’s leading voices on LinkedIn strategy for the legal profession. Helen explains why LinkedIn is now an essential part of building a legal career, developing a personal brand and creating genuine business opportunities. They discuss how the LinkedIn algorithm has chang...
2 Sept 2026
I Thought I Wanted to Be Managing Partner: Suzi Sendama on Redefining Ambition
Send us Fan Mail Suzi Sendama once had her sights set on becoming Managing Partner of Mishcon de Reya. Instead, after 12 years at the firm, she took a leap into the unknown and built a legal career entirely on her own terms. Now a Partner at Level, Suzi advises artists, designers, musicians and other creative entrepreneurs. She joins Hannah and Sarah to talk about trusting her instincts, finding clients through genuine connection and why ambition doesn’t disappear when you leave the tradition...
15 Jul 2026
What Happens When an Equity Partner Goes on Maternity Leave? With Selina Hinchliffe
In this episode of If You Ask Me, Hannah and Sarah are joined by Selina Hinchliffe, Partner and Head of Commercial Services at Shakespeare Martineau, for a refreshingly honest conversation about ambition, motherhood, partnership and finding your voice in law. Selina shares the career pivots that took her from Eversheds to Browne Jacobson and then to Shakespeare Martineau, and reflects on how COVID unexpectedly changed the course of her family life. After years of moving at full speed, lockdow...
1 Jul 2026
From juggling Motherhood and a Training Contract to Family Law Partner
In this episode of If You Ask Me, Hannah and Sarah are joined by Katherine Res Pritchard, Partner at Howard Kennedy and one of the UK's leading family lawyers. Katherine shares her unconventional route into law, from working in magazine publishing to retraining as a solicitor while raising a young daughter. She reflects on building a legal career alongside motherhood, why becoming a parent sharpened her ambition, and the practical advice that helped her succeed as a trainee and beyond. The co...
24 Jun 2026
The Career Move That Changed Everything with Francesca Ainsworth
In this episode of If You Ask Me, Hannah and Sarah speak with Francesca Ainsworth, Corporate Partner at Lewis Silkin, about her journey from training and qualifying at Linklaters to becoming a partner while on parental leave. Francesca shares why she chose to leave Big Law just three years after qualification, how she found a firm culture that aligned with her ambitions and values, and the moment she realised partnership was a goal worth pursuing. The conversation explores: Why leaving ...
17 Jun 2026
From Career Break to Partner: How Natalie Quinlivan Rebuilt Her Career After Motherhood
In this episode of If You Ask Me, Hannah and Sarah speak with Natalie Quinlivan, Partner in the Dispute Resolution team at Fieldfisher, about her route to partnership and what she learned from briefly stepping away from private practice to raise her young family. Natalie shares how she took a two-and-a-half-year career break, navigated the uncertainty of returning to law during the pandemic, and deliberately set herself the challenge of making partner within two years of returning to pr...
2 Jun 2026
The Squiggly Moments That Shape Your Career with Aoife McDonagh
In this episode of If You Ask Me, Hannah and Sarah speak with Aoife McDonagh, Partner in the Funds & Investment Management Group at Maples Group, about building a successful legal career while navigating motherhood, ambition, leadership and career change. Aoife reflects on beginning her career during the global financial crisis, securing a training contract at a time when opportunities were scarce and how the relationships and team culture she experienced early on continue to shape ...
5 May 2026
The Freedom to Choose: Law, Leadership and Financial Independence with Louise Jeffers
In this episode of If You Ask Me, we speak to Louise Jeffers, partner in clinical negligence at Browne Jacobson, about building a successful legal career in a way that is both ambitious and sustainable. Louise reflects on her route into law, her move from claimant to defendant work, and the career path that led her to partnership while raising two young children. She talks openly about the realities of combining leadership and motherhood, the support systems that made it possible, and why bec...
22 Apr 2026
Motherhood, ambition and making partner in law, with Marianne McJannett
In this episode of If You Ask Me, Hannah and Sarah speak to Marianne McJannett, employment law partner at Aberdein Considine, about building a legal career on her own terms. Marianne shares the story of how she stepped into leadership unusually early, taking on major responsibility just months after qualifying, and how that shaped the way she thinks about confidence, networks and career development. She also talks candidly about using LinkedIn to raise her profile, build credibility and open ...
15 Apr 2026
You Can Have a Big Career and a Family: Joy Davey on Partnership, Ambition and Motherhood
In this episode of If You Ask Me, we speak to Joy Davey, partner at CMS, co-founder of Women Who Work, and mother of three, about what it really takes to build a senior legal career alongside family life. Joy shares her path into law, her determination to make partner, and the reality of navigating promotions, maternity leave and career moves with young children. We talk about the impact of post-Covid flexibility, the pressure many women feel to scale back after becoming mothers, and why ambi...
25 Mar 2026
Motherhood, Partnership and letting go of perfection with Georgie Field
This episode explores the reality of building a senior legal career while raising a young family and why trying to “do it all” simply doesn’t work. Georgie Field, partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, shares her journey from returning from maternity leave unsure about her future, to making partner with two young children. She talks candidly about the pressure, self-doubt, and emotional load that comes with that transition, and what ultimately helped her move forward. The conversation covers the i...
11 Mar 2026
Why career progression and motherhood do not have to be competing parts with Harriet Miller
In this episode, we are joined by Harriet Miller, an investment management partner at Macfarlanes, and someone who has built her entire legal career within the firm. Harriet trained at Macfarlanes, discovered her passion for private funds early on, and has now been with the firm for 15 years. She was made partner four years ago while on her second maternity leave. In this conversation, Harriet talks openly about what she learned on each maternity leave and how that time helped her come ...
4 Mar 2026
Beyond “having it all”: partnership, parenthood and trade-offs in law with Louise O’Byrne
In this episode of If You Ask Me, we are joined by Louise O’Byrne, Partner and Head of the Commercial Department at Arthur Cox. Louise has spent nearly two decades at the firm, specialising in employment law and progressing through partnership while raising a young family. She reflects on making partner while heavily pregnant with her first child, navigating three maternity leaves and later advancing to equity partnership amid a particularly challenging time in her personal life. During the c...
24 Feb 2026
Confidence, parenthood and progression in law with Lauren Gosnell
In this episode of If You Ask Me, we speak with Lauren Gosnell, Partner at Kennedys and Manchester lead of the firm’s Serious and Catastrophic Injury team. Lauren’s career in law began with an early interest in the profession, influenced by her father’s work in the legal world. Over nearly two decades in practice, she has developed a specialism in complex, high-value defendant claims, acting in cases involving spinal cord and brain injury, and managing technical evidence on causation and life...
17 Feb 2026
Still Ambitious: Law, Motherhood & The Perception Problem with Hannah & Sarah
In this episode of If You Ask Me, we speak about maternity leave, returning to work and what it really takes to keep moving toward partnership in law. We reflect on how becoming mothers changed the way we were seen professionally and how those shifts are often subtle rather than explicit. The expectations that appear on return. The assumptions that are made about ambition, availability and commitment. And the gap between how legal careers are meant to work on paper and how they often feel in ...
10 Feb 2026
Motherhood, progression and stepping into partnership in law with Rebecca Jason
In this episode of If You Ask Me, we are joined by Rebecca Jason, a partner in the Banking and Finance team at Winckworth Sherwood. During the conversation, Rebecca shares how motherhood reshaped her confidence, judgement and approach to what mattered most in her career. She also shares how a partnership opportunity first arose while she was on maternity leave, how that possibility took shape over time, and what it was like stepping into her first partner role while adjusting to life with two...
4 Feb 2026
When redesigning work becomes the only way to stay in law with Carolyn Miller
In this episode of If You Ask Me, we are joined by Carolyn Miller, a partner at Lewis Silkin and one of the lawyers responsible for opening the firm’s Glasgow office. Before returning to private practice, Carolyn spent several years running her own consultancy, Fish to Water. During this time, she provided HR and employment law advice while creating greater flexibility to be present with her children. Her career reflects a non-linear path shaped by senior leadership responsibility, family lif...
28 Jan 2026
Leadership, motherhood and building a career that lasts in law with Alison Eddy
In this episode of If You Ask Me, we speak with Alison Eddy, Partner and Ambassador for Inclusion at Irwin Mitchell and former London Managing Partner, a position she held for over a decade. Alison’s career has been shaped by her work as a medical negligence lawyer and her role in growing Irwin Mitchell’s London office from its early beginnings into a large, full-service practice. She joined the firm in the mid-1990s at a time when she was raising five young children and managing considerable...
19 Jan 2026
The moment we realised women in law deserved more with Hannah & Sarah
In this very first episode of If You Ask Me, we wanted to share our story. Why we left law, what it was really like to come back from maternity leave, and why we decided to build BlueSky. We talk about the moments that stayed with us. Being told we “wouldn’t be hungry enough” for a partnership. Watching colleagues praise fathers for doing a single nursery pick-up while mothers were questioned on their commitment. Realising that traditional coaching was not shifting the dial for women in law. ...
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