Catherine Wahlberg: mother, managing partner and keen gardener!
Updated: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:49:15 +0000 by alsters456
Catherine Wahlberg is mother of a young daughter (age 5) and, still in her 30s, she is one of the youngest female managing partners of a Legal 500 firm. She also enjoys a spot of gardening and is completely at home up to her elbows in fertilizer.
Having taken on the mantle of managing partner at Coventry and Warwickshire firm Alsters Kelley back in 2007 – less than ten years after qualifying in law – Catherine knows that success is not always about making popular decisions.
“When I was offered the role of managing partner I had to think very carefully about the opportunity,” said Catherine. “The business had lost its commercial focus. We were inefficient and not investing in the right technology or financial management.
“In order to really make it work, we needed to step back and take a long, hard look at how we did things. Just because something has always been done a particular way does not mean that way is the best.”
When Catherine took over as managing partner she gave up her role as a matrimonial solicitor. “We needed focused management,” she said, “not haphazardly dipping in to the business plan as and when time allowed.”
Catherine continued: “In the last two years, we’ve streamlined the partnership, invested in technology, changed our focus and hired specialist lawyers to head up new areas of business.
“Inevitably, we lost people along the way however, we’ve recently taken on two additional commercial property specialists, a conveyancing executive, a new immigration lawyer and rewarded two of our paralegals with training contracts.”
As a mother, Catherine understands the difficulties of balancing family and work.
“Entrants to the legal profession are now more likely to be female than male. If we are going to retain talented people in the legal profession – male and female – then we need to be providing a flexible culture which values people, where they feel able to grow both professionally and personally.
But, Catherine argues, women in law should not be the issue. “From my perspective, we’ve moved past the point where being a woman in the legal profession is a novelty. If firms are unable to accommodate family life – whether from a male or a female perspective – they are at risk of failing to retain and recruit the best talent.
“Law firms must start to see and treat themselves as commercial entities. We are businesses and we operate for the benefit of our customers. We need to be delivering the value that customers want through an innovative, sustainable and forward-thinking business model which gives our staff the space to shape their own career.”
Alsters Kelley is one of the largest firms of solicitors in Warwickshire and employs 109 people at its offices in Leamington Spa, Coventry and Nuneaton.
Having taken on the mantle of managing partner at Coventry and Warwickshire firm Alsters Kelley back in 2007 – less than ten years after qualifying in law – Catherine knows that success is not always about making popular decisions.
“When I was offered the role of managing partner I had to think very carefully about the opportunity,” said Catherine. “The business had lost its commercial focus. We were inefficient and not investing in the right technology or financial management.
“In order to really make it work, we needed to step back and take a long, hard look at how we did things. Just because something has always been done a particular way does not mean that way is the best.”
When Catherine took over as managing partner she gave up her role as a matrimonial solicitor. “We needed focused management,” she said, “not haphazardly dipping in to the business plan as and when time allowed.”
Catherine continued: “In the last two years, we’ve streamlined the partnership, invested in technology, changed our focus and hired specialist lawyers to head up new areas of business.
“Inevitably, we lost people along the way however, we’ve recently taken on two additional commercial property specialists, a conveyancing executive, a new immigration lawyer and rewarded two of our paralegals with training contracts.”
As a mother, Catherine understands the difficulties of balancing family and work.
“Entrants to the legal profession are now more likely to be female than male. If we are going to retain talented people in the legal profession – male and female – then we need to be providing a flexible culture which values people, where they feel able to grow both professionally and personally.
But, Catherine argues, women in law should not be the issue. “From my perspective, we’ve moved past the point where being a woman in the legal profession is a novelty. If firms are unable to accommodate family life – whether from a male or a female perspective – they are at risk of failing to retain and recruit the best talent.
“Law firms must start to see and treat themselves as commercial entities. We are businesses and we operate for the benefit of our customers. We need to be delivering the value that customers want through an innovative, sustainable and forward-thinking business model which gives our staff the space to shape their own career.”
Alsters Kelley is one of the largest firms of solicitors in Warwickshire and employs 109 people at its offices in Leamington Spa, Coventry and Nuneaton.