S2E5 - Meet The Team: Emily Clarke

In this episode, we introduce Emily Clarke, our Operations and Business Development Assistant based in the Leeds office. Emily offers a behind-the-scenes look at her diverse role, her journey to joining Fenchurch Law, and her key contributions to organising major firm events, including the Symposia and wine tastings. Along the way, listeners can enjoy quick-fire questions and a love of Yorkshire.

Chapters

• 0:04 Welcome And Quick-Fire Icebreakers
• 1:03 Emily’s Role In Operations And BD
• 2:23 Joining Fenchurch And The Leeds Launch
• 2:57 Events That Build Community
• 3:35 London Symposium Plans
• 4:36 Wine Tastings And The Sideways Theme
• 5:36 Yorkshire Roots And Local Favourites
• 6:32 Tea, Coffee, And Regional Dinner Vs Tea
• 7:33 Wrap-Up And Thanks

Transcript

Dru Corfield 0:04

Hello and welcome to a new podcast series hosted by Fenchurch Law. The series aims to introduce every member of our offices in a short, informal podcast. Today I'm delighted to be joined by Emily Clark, who joined the Leeds office in 2022. A very warm welcome, Emily.

Emily Clarke 0:18

Thanks, Drew.

Dru Corfield 0:19

Before we dive into the pod, let's start with some quick fire questions. So, firstly, time travel to the past or the future?

Emily Clarke 0:27

Uh the past.

Dru Corfield 0:28

Yeah, we don't know what's going on in the future, do we? Do you prefer for a holiday, a city break or a beach holiday?

Emily Clarke 0:36

Oh, that's quite hard. A mix of both, I'd say.

Dru Corfield 0:38

Yeah, so you want a city on the beach?

Emily Clarke 0:40

Yes.

Dru Corfield 0:42

Okay, so if you could have unlimited snacks or unlimited naps, which one would you choose?

Emily Clarke 0:47

Naps, 100%. I love a nap.

Dru Corfield 0:48

Yeah, me too. Sadly, I don't have much opportunity during the day because I spent most of my time at work. And finally, Emily, what is your go-to karaoke song?

Emily Clarke 0:57

Uh probably anything by ABBA. Oh, yeah, I love ABBA.

Emily’s Role In Operations And BD

Dru Corfield 1:01

Yeah. No, great idea. So, Emily, it's great to have you on the pod, uh down by down from Leeds, obviously. And um, I guess Firstie, could you just explain a little bit more about your role here at Fenchurch Law? Because obviously, well, it's obvious to me, but you're not you're not a solicitor. So it'd be great to know a little bit about what you do here at the firm.

Emily Clarke 1:23

Uh yeah, so my role's quite varied. So I do operations and business development as an assistant, um, helping across both operations and business development.

Dru Corfield 1:34

And yeah, so well, aren't you also you're sort of hands-on in Leeds as well, helping everyone?

Emily Clarke 1:39

Yeah, yeah, helping yeah, with the day-to-day running of the Leeds office as well.

Dru Corfield 1:42

Yeah, I told you do an ex excellent job.

Emily Clarke 1:45

That's good to hear.

Dru Corfield 1:46

And um, and so how did you sort of end up in this career? I because I actually don't know this. Like, how did you end up at Fenchurch?

Emily Clarke 1:53

Um, so I was working at a construction like company before, um, and that was sort of it just wasn't for me. I wanted something a bit more exciting and this fair enough seemed like the right, right thing, right role.

Dru Corfield 2:06

So did you were you would was uh did the job opportunity come up or did you um like find Fenchurch and apply for it?

Emily Clarke 2:13

Uh no, I I was like looking actively for a new role and then I came in through.

Dru Corfield 2:18

And were you one of the original members of the Leeds office?

Joining Fenchurch And The Leeds Launch

Emily Clarke 2:21

Uh yeah, one of the first four. Yeah, there was.

Dru Corfield 2:23

And uh who who were the first four again?

Emily Clarke 2:24

Uh so there was Dan, uh Phil, then Toby joined, and then me.

Events That Build Community

Dru Corfield 2:29

And what a what a lineup. What a tea. All great people. So in you've obviously now been here for a for yeah, over over three years. In that time, is there one sort of project that you've worked on that you're sort of especially proud of? Um I don't think there's one specifically, but um I think a lot of the events that we've run, I think they're Yeah, because you are you are the sort of event runner extraordinaire, like you're you're very much vital, along with DJ Mike, as in Michael Hayes. You guys bet between the two of you, you're very good at um We love an event. Right, yeah, well no, you're the sort of the event king and queen. And um for the benefit of the listeners, please could you explain what the symposia are?

Emily Clarke 3:11

Yeah, so it's um an event that we host in Leeds, London and Belfast um throughout the year. Um it's a series of talks done by our team, and that's throughout the day or half day event. And yeah.

Dru Corfield 3:26

Who gets invited?

London Symposium Plans

Emily Clarke 3:27

Oh, so majority brokers. Um it's mainly a broker event, but we do have other other guests that join us from other law firms and things like that.

Dru Corfield 3:36

Yeah, no, they're always they're always great. Well, they're sort of a good balance of very heavy on information and also quite enjoyable. Quite, sorry, very enjoyable. I'm only saying quite because I've I've had the privilege of speaking at one or two, and up until you've done your talk, it's quite nerve-wracking it. Yeah, you're worried that you're worried about your talk, and then after it, it's great fun. So we have the we have the London Symposium coming up in November. How are the I mean it's obviously only July. Well, it's about to be August, but how are the preparations going going for that?

Emily Clarke 4:07

Yeah, great. Yeah, we've yeah, already started to put together our guest list. We've got people already signed up together.

Dru Corfield 4:14

Can we say where it is or is that still a secret?

Emily Clarke 4:17

Uh not a secret. No, it's at the Merchant Tailers Hall again this year.

Dru Corfield 4:20

Yeah.

Emily Clarke 4:20

So the same.

Dru Corfield 4:21

Wonderful building. Yeah.

Emily Clarke 4:22

Such a nice venue. Yeah, it was really, really nice. Um, and the team that that run that work at the Merchant Tailers Hall are all really lovely as well.

Wine Tastings And The Sideways Theme

Dru Corfield 4:31

And we also host uh wine tastings and we recently recently had the Leeds wine tasting. Can you um explain a little bit what I mean, obviously it involves tasting wine, but can you explain a bit more about the wine tasting?

Emily Clarke 4:45

Yeah, so we get in a specialist wine person, which I don't know what they're called, and and they come in and we have a theme each year, um, and so there's I think there's about between 10 and 12 wines. It's a lot of wine. Um, and we have lots of food that go with it, like sort of pairs nicely. Um, this year's theme for Leeds was Sideways, which Oh, the movie. Yeah, which we've done in London and we've done it in Leeds, and I've still not watched the film, which is really bad.

Dru Corfield 5:17

I actually I saw it just before the London Symposium last year. It's it's a good it's a good movie.

Emily Clarke 5:22

Yeah, I've watched clips of it, like the best bits. Me and Michael put together like a slideshow of all the best bits, but that's as far as my movie of watching of that has gone.

Yorkshire Roots And Local Favourites

Dru Corfield 5:31

Well, don't worry, we we won't tell anyone, notwithstanding that this is a podcast. So moving away from uh sort of work chat and on to what is obviously very dear to your heart, which is Yorkshire. Yes. So where are you whereabouts in Yorkshire are you from?

Emily Clarke 5:47

Uh so I'm from Bradford.

Dru Corfield 5:49

Right, okay. That is in sorry, this is gonna demonstrate how awful my geography is, but that is still it's still in Yorkshire, isn't it?

Emily Clarke 5:54

Yeah, West Yorkshire, yeah.

Dru Corfield 5:56

Okay. And do you have a sort of favourite part of Yorkshire?

Emily Clarke 5:59

Ooh. All of it. Who doesn't love Yorkshire?

Dru Corfield 6:03

Because people they say that the is it the Dales are absolutely amazing, yeah, so pretty. And we both like Skipton.

Emily Clarke 6:09

We do love Skipton, yes.

Dru Corfield 6:11

Yes, Gabrian Skipton.

Emily Clarke 6:12

Is there?

Dru Corfield 6:13

Yeah, I think it's called the I'm not gonna say it because I'll get it wrong and that will be embarrassing. But uh not to be stereotypical, but you also you love a cupper, don't you?

Emily Clarke 6:23

Oh, I love a cup of tea, yeah.

Dru Corfield 6:24

Uh favourite cup of tea?

Emily Clarke 6:26

Favourite cup of tea?

Tea, Coffee, And Regional Dinner Vs Tea

Dru Corfield 6:27

Yeah, is it okay? So I had this with Abby where she was like, There is only one type of tea, and it's English breakfast. So when I said what's your favourite type of tea, she was saying, There's not that's not a real question.

Emily Clarke 6:37

Yorkshire tea.

Dru Corfield 6:38

Yeah, there okay. How many cups of tea do you have a day, do you reckon?

Emily Clarke 6:43

Not as many as you would think. Probably about four.

Dru Corfield 6:49

Do you drink coffee or are you?

Emily Clarke 6:51

I hate coffee. I would never drink coffee, no.

Dru Corfield 6:54

Okay, and finally, if we could just please um put this to bed on on record because it does confuse me. You when you come down to London, you always ask me what I'm having for my for my dinner, but it's and then you say what are you having for your tea? And I get confused what's what. So could you translate the dinner and tea things?

Emily Clarke 7:11

Yeah, so breakfast, dinner, and tea. Dinner is lunch to you.

Dru Corfield 7:15

Okay.

Emily Clarke 7:15

And tea, I think, is dinner to you.

Dru Corfield 7:18

Yeah, that makes sense. Because you always ask me what I'm having for dinner at quarter past eleven, and I'm like, I haven't made my mind up, it's several hours away.

Emily Clarke 7:26

Still not had your lunch.

Dru Corfield 7:27

And then you say, no, what you haven't for your lunch? And I'm like, oh, but okay, she's talking about lunch.

Emily Clarke 7:31

Lunch time.

Wrap-Up And Thanks

Dru Corfield 7:32

Emily, this has been great fun. Always always enjoyed chatting to you. Yeah, and and thanks so much. Thanks so much for being on the pod. You've been you've been a ray of sunshine. Oh, great. Thanks for having me. As you always are, I can never never get bored of your your wonderful accent either. Thank you so much. No, thanks, Emily. Bye-bye.