Kate Blackburn
Kate works with individuals on a one-to-one basis as well as with a variety of senior members and heads of department/committees within chambers or law firms.
She has worked with clients to review their organisational structures and systems, design and deliver training and development programmes for individuals and teams, improve performance with coaching and mentoring (for example first 100 days for those taking on new roles such as Head of Chambers or CEO), develop recruitment and interviewing processes, follow through change management projects and develop strategic planning.
In the last few years, the introduction of competency based interview systems for silk and judicial appointments has created a need for individual training and coaching support as well as wider interview training within chambers and law firms. Kate is the lead practitioner on the successful development of this initiative within Sherwood.
Career and education background
- Sherwood member since 2004
- Meyler Campbell Business Coaching course (2009-2010)
- Qualified as an MBTI practitioner (2009)
- Meyler Campbell Psychology for Coaches course (2008)
- Regular conference speaker e.g. CLT, LPMA and IBC
- New role as Chief Executive in a leading multi-disciplinary set of barristers’ chamber in Bristol which was the first set on the Western Circuit to achieve Quality Mark for the Bar (2000-2004)
- Bar Council Working Party; Equality & Diversity – Access to the Bar (2003)
- Legal Practice Management Association (LPMA) Committee, regional representative (2001-2003)
- Bar Conference Organising Board (2002-2004)
- NVQ Assessor, Freshfields and Law Society accredited trainer (1999)
- MBA in Legal Practice, Nottingham Law School (1996-1998)
- Freshfields where she was initially responsible for a team of 50 administrative staff; her next role was as International Project Manager working direct to the CEO and Managing Partner. This involved integrating different working and national cultures into new office space as part of the firm’s merger expansion and helping ensure that service delivery standards were consistent across the firm (1991-2000)
- Officer in the British Army including recruit training with responsibility for introducing weapon training for women joining the Army, two years in the Military Police in Northern Ireland and working in Army Operations in Whitehall during the first Gulf War (1983-1991)
- BSc (Hons) Institutional Management, Cardiff University (1980-1983)
Interests
Outside Sherwood Kate publishes a local community magazine, loves skiing and yoga (not at the same time!) and is kept busy training her boisterous black Labrador.
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