In conversation with Sushil Kuner: qualifying, credit crash redundancies and becoming a financial, regulatory specialist

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This article has been produced in collaboration with Gowling WLG (UK) LLP.

We speak to Sushil Kuner, a principal associate advising on all aspects of financial services regulatory law. Sushil is head of Gowling WLG (UK) LLP’s fintech accelerator group, and a member and strategic lead of the firm’s EmbRACE network. Find out about Sushil’s journey into law, from qualifying, the credit crash, redundancies and becoming a financial regulatory specialist.

Can you talk about your journey into law?

At school, my year group was the first to be offered law as a subject and I decided to study it. I knew quite early on that I wanted to continue studying law at university, so I did a law degree at the University of Birmingham. Unfortunately, I hadn't obtained a training contract upon completion of my law degree, so I paid for the Legal Practice Course (LPC) myself, with parental support. Once I’d completed the LPC, I secured a training contract at a small but reputable commercial law firm in Coventry that had big-ticket work – similar to the national and London-based firms.

I qualified into corporate law in 2007 and then made the move to a Birmingham-based national law firm just before the credit crash. At the time, I had two years of buoyant activity, including back-to-back completions, but in 2009 the work dried up and there were mass redundancies across multiple law firms, especially in the corporate teams. Unfortunately, I was one of those redundancies. At that point, I decided I was unlikely to get another legal job within the UK market, so I took a one-year working VISA out in Canada. While I was there, I completed six months of backpacking around the Canadian Rockies and then secured a placement in Deloitte’s Vancouver office. This was when the world of financial services opened up to me. I was interested in financial services because of the personal impact that the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the credit crash had on me.

When I returned to the UK a year later, the legal market was still slow and no one was recruiting; however, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was busy and hiring quite heavily. While a lot of jobs weren’t suitable for me because they required financial industry expertise, there were many I could do – for example, financial promotion reviews and helping to tackle illegal or non-compliant financial promotions. I managed to get a six-month, temporary placement at the FCA, which ultimately led to an eight-year career. They extended the placement and then asked me to stay on as a permanent employee. I spent four years in the supervision division in various teams, and another four as a case lawyer and lead investigator in the enforcement division. I had so much exposure, which was incredibly beneficial and led me to become a financial regulatory specialist.

In 2018, I decided to leave the FCA but didn’t think that I’d be returning to private practice. I thought I’d end up in a compliance or head of legal role in a bank, financial services firm or with one of the big auditors. In the end, I went with my gut instinct after interviewing at a range of firms, and with Gowling WLG, I just loved the personalities I met and haven’t looked back since. I now predominantly work in an advisory capacity but also help with contentious matters, which are led by our disputes team. I also have my own clients and clients I support across the firm in terms of financial services regulatory issues.

This all showcases that things don’t always pan out the way you had intended but there are often silver linings. There have been multiple crossroads in my career journey – it’s not been straightforward but, looking back, I wouldn’t change anything.

What alternative routes into law does Gowling offer?

At Gowling WLG, you can qualify as a solicitor via an apprenticeship or a training contract. Where lots of law firms only offer the direct six-year solicitor apprenticeship to school leavers, Gowling WLG recruits people onto its two-year paralegal apprenticeship with the opportunity for apprentices to progress onto the solicitor apprenticeship should they wish. If a paralegal apprentice doesn’t wish to qualify as a solicitor because they’ve realised that law perhaps isn’t for them, they’ve got a great qualification and a set of transferable skills that’ll be applicable and attractive to so many different careers.

Cost is a massive issue if you go down the traditional route – for example, you’ve got university fees and accommodation costs. As an apprentice, though, you’re being paid from day one but need to be organised and fit in regular studying alongside a busy day job. It’s about finding what’s right for you and your circumstances.

Did you face any obstacles as you progressed? How did you overcome them?

To date, I’ve spent most of my career at the FCA, which is a hugely diverse organisation. In the conduct risk analysis team, I was a minority – not because of my ethnicity, but because I was one of a few Brits on the team. There were different skills required due to the analytical nature of the work, so we needed economists and actuarial support, as well as lawyers. As such, we had specialists who were Indian, Portuguese and Jamaican nationals – it was interesting to see all those cultures blend. For example, where Brits tend to be more reserved, this isn’t the case for all cultures. I saw first-hand the beauty of diversity in terms of how it gets individuals to open up and share their opinions, ultimately helping the team to identify better solutions.

I think I found my voice working at the FCA because it was such an inclusive environment. This is a skill that I brought with me when I moved to Gowling WLG. As a result, I’ve not really encountered any obstacles in my progression journey because I have a voice at the firm and I feel like I’ve been supported throughout my career.

What’s the biggest positive change you’ve seen since entering the profession?

There are now lots of different routes into law, which weren’t necessarily available when I was qualifying. There are also very different working environments, compared to when I qualified. There’s a lot more respect between people in the workplace, at all levels. When I qualified in 2007, it was a very different atmosphere and the profession in general was very hierarchical. Now, people have a voice at more junior levels and everyone feels empowered to speak up, which may not have been the case before.

There’s also a lot more conscious thought about diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in terms of recruitment and retention.

What work is Gowling doing in this area? How are you involved in this?

I’m heavily involved in Gowling’s EmbRACE network, both as a member and as strategic lead for the group. Everyone is welcome to get involved – it’s a safe space to talk about various issues and provides support to people from all backgrounds.

At the time of George Floyd’s death, there was a lot of publicity around the treatment of Black people, so we set up a forum that was widely attended to discuss the issue. This led to our Black Lives Matter action plan.

As a business, we reflected that this was something we needed to address – we had no Black partners at the time and we recognised that a specific plan was required to try to change this. Gowling WLG wasn’t an anomaly in that regard – there’s underrepresentation of the Black community across UK law firms. However, we’ve come a long way in terms of implementing changes right from the recruitment stage. There’s more focus on DE&I at this stage and ensuring that we provide a platform where everyone can excel and help even the playing field when it comes to recruitment. As part of this, we’re taking part in community initiatives, such as mentoring university students and our involvement in the Black Talent in Law bursary scheme with the University of Birmingham, where we mentor Black students from the university and provide them with a vacation scheme placement to help them develop the skills required to be a successful solicitor.

Once on the scheme, they’ll have the opportunity to take part in the application process for a training contract and would need to make a good impression and take part in the formal assessment process, before we decide to take them on as a trainee. As well as a focus on recruitment, it’s important that we also retain these individuals and support them to become future leaders or law firm partners.

The goal is to create an even playing field. We hope that we can achieve this by taking part in university workshops and mentoring to impart advice for certain demographics who might not have the assistance or support from elsewhere. When I was starting out, I didn’t have anyone. I was the first generation from my family going into law and, looking back, I can see where I went wrong in my applications.

We also have mental health initiatives, training on domestic violence and other gender initiatives. It’s only by a collective approach that we’ll see effective change.

What’s your top tip for candidates from underrepresented backgrounds who are keen to pursue a legal career?

Experience is king – legal or non-legal, paid employment or volunteering. Work experience will help individuals to build vital skills that law firms are looking for. At Gowling WLG, while grades are important, they’re not the deciding factor – we look at the transferable skills that a candidate has gained so far. 

On top of work experience, candidates should look to their hobbies and interests too. Are you part of a sports team, for example? What skills have you developed through this? You need to practise demonstrating those transferable skills. Don’t be limited in terms of what you think counts as experience. Lots of candidates feel at a disadvantage if they’ve not done much, if any, work experience in a law firm but that doesn’t matter – it always comes back to the skills that you’ve built up and how you can demonstrate they’re useful to a career in law.