Contributors
Présentation de Siân. French, Russian, German and English speaker, she’s a multilingual lawyer and true creative spirit. She joined Womble Bond Dickinson three years ago following a tapestry of fairly unexpected (but incredibly meaningful) career choices. After starting out at one of London’s largest firms, she took her expertise and ambition to the world of local government. She moved to the South Coast and, over a period of ten years, became Head of Legal Services and Deputy Monitoring Officer for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. Feeling drawn to taking on a more key legal advisory role in the delivery of regeneration projects, she made the move firm-side once more.
That’s the potted history version. Her real story is one of love and learning. And it began in Paris. It’s where Siân wanted to live after finishing her degree in French, Russian and German. Cheese. Wine. She quite fancied the lifestyle – long before Emily made her Netflix trip. And it was where her love for culture, challenge and creating an impact was first ignited. After several months as a bilingual legal secretary, her firm asked about her plans for the future. She didn’t have any – at least not beyond Saturday night. That’s when they suggested she should look at law. So, Siân came back to the UK, completed her training, and qualified into the firm's Real Estate team. Over the next six years, she worked her way up to become a Senior Associate. Her team specialised in high value and cross-border transactions. The kinds of deals that made the front page of the Financial Times.
While on secondment in Moscow in 2009, Siân discovered she was expecting her daughter. The deep freeze of the Russian winter and the clouds of cigarette smoke that filled the city's bars and restaurants led to a period of self-imposed confinement (which Siân spent binge watching Tudor documentaries in her flat). But it did give her the perfect window to research her soon-to-be daughter’s name. When she got back to business after her daughter was born, she planned to stay on at her firm. She wanted to push her career, but the long commute and longer hours led her to leave the city and make the (perhaps unexpected) leap into local government. It was a move that changed everything for Siân. Her outlook. Her politics. Her respect for local authorities and just how much they do behind the scenes. And it’s where she found her true passion – building communities. Or, as she calls them, “the fabric of life”.
From then on, her career skyrocketed. She moved from management, to leadership. There wasn’t a project or area she didn’t get involved in. Whether it was adult social care, planning, waste services, or environmental initiatives – you name it, Siân got stuck in. And her excitement, appreciation and admiration for local government teams grew and grew. She saw how committed colleagues were, despite the hard time they often got in the media. And she got to meet everyone from social workers, to tree surgeons and library volunteers. It was an experience so far removed from her time in the city, and one she wouldn’t have found anywhere else. It’s where she learned what it meant to be truly innovative, creative and dedicated.
But it was no surprise that after her time in local government, ever-determined Siân was on the lookout for a new challenge. That’s when her head was turned, once again, by delivery. She was managing large projects and outsourcing work to other lawyers in the sector, all while thinking “I could do this, and I really want to”. So, she made the move to Womble Bond Dickinson as a Legal Director. Today, she’s a Partner and an expert in real-estate, regeneration, and development work. And she works mainly with public sector and education clients, helping to deliver projects that make a real difference in society.
Breathing life back into communities is something that excites her; and her experience, contacts and skills from working in-house are all instrumental to her role. Whatever the obstacle, she’s got people on hand who've been there, done that and know the legalities. She can phone a friend and ask, “What do you think about this? What’s your experience?”. And that goes for contacts in the private or public sectors. She thrives in a collaborative environment and is always looking for more intel on different markets. She sees her role not as selling legal services, but as helping clients to deliver. She often acts as a sounding board as to the right approach to take, and shares her ideas on how to overcome challenges. With her clients, she appreciates the pressures they face because she too has lived them. She understands the objectives of a local authority – where others might not have such clear insight. To this day, she still logs in to watch council meetings (yes, really). That active interest in local democracy and the impact it can make is something that can’t be taught – and it’s incredibly powerful.
Siân’s landed in a space where she’s able to advise in both public law and local government law, as well as real estate practice. And she knows the value of putting the right governance in place. The work she does is often an element of a much broader transaction, but it all makes a difference. If there’s a large transport project, she’s the first to help planning colleagues work through decision making and legal requirements. She’s got a keen eye for detail. That’s because, with every project or scheme, she’s always been just as passionate about the softer, seemingly smaller elements as the larger, more structural ones. For Siân, it’s not just about thinking, “we need 850 new houses on the ground”. There are other, vital ingredients. Like creating bee bus stops and community book swaps. It’s those little things that really make her smile.
She’s currently working on a project to create a new college hub – set to be used this autumn. Another of her projects involves a site earmarked for homes that’s been undelivered for decades. And it’s those kinds of challenging briefs that bring out the best of Siân’s knowledge. A legal chameleon, she helps clients take ideas from one scheme to the next, forever asking, “Have you thought about doing this?”. It’s exactly the kind of approach you need to take when facing a complex regeneration scheme and all the legalities surrounding it. And it’s the attitude that will help clients to breathe life back into an area.
In every project she tackles, what’s unique about Siân is her determination to get a good deal. To deliver the best value for her clients and ultimately, the taxpayer. It’s something that ignites a fire in her. After seeing the challenges, austerity, and everything local authorities have had to face, she’s got a laser focus on value for money.
She’s also hugely invested in driving net zero, and loves to be involved in anything that furthers the move to a greener, more sustainable society. It’s why she’s proud of our net zero commitments at Womble Bond Dickinson, and she’s looking forward to working on more sustainable energy projects with colleagues in the future.
Outside work, you’ll find Siân paintbrush (or pen) in hand creating beautiful watercolour prints and writing children’s books. The more rhymes, the better. Anything pretty, joyous and full of life is her modus operandi. And she tries to keep up her languages, too. Admittedly, she’s had the most luck with French (thanks to the pull of the sun, sea and Sauvignon) while enjoying beautiful Bordeaux summers with her children, family and friends. And, in her quest to brush up on her German, she’s inadvertently developed a passion for Austrian dumplings. Who could say nein?
Her daughter has decided to learn Russian on Duolingo. Something that gives Siân a great deal of pride. And it’s clear that a thirst for knowledge is strong in the family genes. Throughout her career, learning has been a common thread for Siân. It stems from the way she was brought up. She comes from a small market town in Lincolnshire. Both her parents were teachers, and they have always placed a high value on education and where it could take you – supporting Siân and her brothers at every stage. And you can tell that zest for absorbing knowledge has never quite left. Now, as a mother, she sees the joy of learning from the other side. Thanks to her parents, the experiences she’s had are allowing her daughter to think about her future career beyond geographical boundaries. Although her she’s not currently considering a legal career, Siân thinks her daughter would make a great barrister. What she does want to do is travel, learn languages and work with people. Exactly the trail that Sian has blazed. And that’s no coincidence. It’s people like Siân who help you, not just to get a different view of the world, but to get excited by it too.
