What has your journey into Edelman looked like and how did you get into the communications industry?
I began my career as a solicitor at a global law firm, at a large office in my hometown of Melbourne. I started out as a litigator and later specialised in Corporate Mergers & Acquisitions, which involved the buying and selling of companies and their assets, merging and demerging, corporate restructurings and finance, equity listings and general commercial contracting. This taught me a lot about the commercial world, as well as how to operate effectively in a fast-paced corporate environment that’s client service-oriented. When I moved to London I took a job at a specialist litigation and crisis communications agency, before joining Edelman.
What prompted your move from law into issues & crisis communications? Do you see similarities between the skills required?
My curiosity about the comms industry was piqued when I did a 6-month secondment with one of my law firm’s major corporate clients. I was still practicing as a lawyer but worked alongside the in-house comms team on some occasions, which gave me a taste of what a comms career might be like. I was immediately drawn to it, so over the next few months I went for coffees with lots of people who worked across different comms disciplines, to learn more about the industry. I had always enjoyed operating in fast-paced environments and having plenty of variety in my work, so issues & crisis felt right for me.
There’s a great deal of skills overlap between crisis comms and the law. As an advisor in issues & crisis, success rests on good judgement and your ability to get to the heart of a matter quickly – in other words, identifying the most critical aspects of a client’s situation among many other moving parts, and deciding what to do about them. At the same time, it’s essential to think holistically – every action taken in response to an evolving crisis must first be assessed in terms of how it might impact the client’s business as a whole. This is all just as important when you’re advising on complex legal issues. Throughout my career, “what’s most important?” and “what could go wrong?” are questions I’ve always asked myself before advising clients, irrespective of which profession I’ve been in!
What achievement are you most proud of?
Stepping away from legal practice into the communications industry. It felt like a huge leap of faith to be giving up an established career in the law for something I’d never tried before. I also had to up-skill quickly, which was challenging yet rewarding.
What do you find most rewarding about the job?
Building strong, trusted relationships with my clients. There’s a huge amount of satisfaction that comes from being the person a client picks up the phone to as soon as something challenging happens. It’s also a huge privilege.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced throughout your time at Edelman?
In my first year I felt the strain of some skills gaps I had at the time. Given I hadn’t worked in communications for most of my career, some aspects of the job were still new to me, like doing sophisticated analysis of online data and intelligence, for instance. So, I had to work hard both on and off the job to learn what I needed to. Thankfully I had very supportive colleagues around me who were generous with their knowledge and their time.
How do you stay motivated?
Getting better at the job means access to more interesting and challenging work, which has always propelled me. Reaching the point where you can pass your own knowledge on to others is also really rewarding, which comes with experience and effort.
If you could offer one piece advice to someone considering a role in the I&C team, what would it be?
It’s a learning environment, take full advantage of it! Nobody is expected to know everything as we all come from different professional backgrounds. Members of our team at all levels will exchange perspectives on challenging issues before advising clients on how to manage them - that’s an essential part of this job. So always ask questions, share your views and (when you really don’t know something) educate yourself. There are many resources available at Edelman, but news websites and good old Google are there too.
On this last point, it’s also really important to keep abreast of the news agenda locally and globally, as this will teach you how high-profile crises can unfold and help you spot key issues and risks for your clients.
What do you do outside work to relax?
Chat to my family in Australia, catch up with friends, visit galleries and the theatre, yoga, cooking and reading. If I’m REALLY feeling burnt out, a massage and a glass of wine never fails.
Explore the latest careers at Edelman
