If You Ask Me

In this episode of If You Ask Me, we are joined by Louise O’Byrne, Partner and Head of the Commercial Department at Arthur Cox.
Louise has spent nearly two decades at the firm, specialising in employment law and progressing through partnership while raising a young family. She reflects on making partner while heavily pregnant with her first child, navigating three maternity leaves and later advancing to equity partnership amid a particularly challenging time in her personal life.
During the conversation, Louise speaks candidly about the realities of combining a demanding legal career with motherhood. She considers why the idea of “having it all” can be misleading, how learning to work alongside uncertainty and organised chaos became part of daily life, and what it means to take on senior leadership while being open about the pressures that can come with it.
The discussion explores the assumptions that can arise when women return from maternity leave, the importance of direct and honest communication within teams, and the shared responsibility involved in managing career progression during periods of change. Louise also reflects on how hybrid working has altered the experience of working parents and what may be driving stronger retention and progression of women within Irish firms compared with some UK-based practices.
Her perspective offers a grounded account of ambition, trade-offs and the evolving shape of leadership across a long legal career.

Host: Sarah Lyons, Founding Director of BlueSky
Host: Hannah Bradshaw, Founding Director of BlueSky
Guest: Louise O’Byrne, Partner at Arthur Cox

In this episode of If You Ask Me, we speak with Lauren Gosnell, Partner at Kennedys and Manchester lead of the firm’s Serious and Catastrophic Injury team.
Lauren’s career in law began with an early interest in the profession, influenced by her father’s work in the legal world. Over nearly two decades in practice, she has developed a specialism in complex, high-value defendant claims, acting in cases involving spinal cord and brain injury, and managing technical evidence on causation and life expectancy. Since joining Kennedys, she has grown the Manchester team from a single lawyer into a team of 25.
Alongside building her career, Lauren became a mother, an experience she describes as significantly influencing how she approaches her work. She reflects on returning from maternity leave during the pandemic, adjusting to remote work during a time of personal and professional transition, and stepping into partnership with a renewed sense of clarity and confidence.
During the conversation, Lauren discusses her partnership interview, the decision to introduce herself first as a parent, and why acknowledging life outside work has become central to how she leads and connects with others. She considers how attitudes towards family life have shifted across the legal profession over the course of her career and how hybrid working has changed the way lawyers participate in meetings and client relationships.
Lauren also speaks about leading a growing team in Manchester, setting clear boundaries around family commitments, and creating an environment where colleagues feel able to balance professional responsibility with life outside the office. She reflects on supporting team members returning from maternity leave and modelling the behaviours she hopes to see within her team.
Host: Hannah Bradshaw, Founding Director of BlueSky
Host: Sarah Lyons, Founding Director of BlueSky
Guest: Lauren Gosnell, Partner at Kennedys

In this episode of If You Ask Me, we speak about maternity leave, returning to work and what it really takes to keep moving toward partnership in law.
We reflect on how becoming mothers changed the way we were seen professionally and how those shifts are often subtle rather than explicit. The expectations that appear on return. The assumptions that are made about ambition, availability and commitment. And the gap between how legal careers are meant to work on paper and how they often feel in practice.
Our own experiences as employment lawyers, and later as founders of BlueSky, shaped these reflections. We saw first-hand how many women struggle to name what feels different after maternity leave, even when their capability and drive remain unchanged.
In this episode, we reflect on:
What maternity leave and return to work felt like for us
How perceptions can change once women become mothers
Why progression toward partnership can feel more uncertain after leave
The structural challenges that sit inside legal career frameworks
What we have learned from coaching women navigating return and progression
What genuinely supports women who want to keep moving forward
This conversation is honest and reflective. It is about law, about motherhood, and about what it takes to sustain a long and meaningful legal career after maternity leave.
Host: Sarah Lyons, Founding Director of BlueSky
Host: Hannah Bradshaw, Founding Director of BlueSky

In this episode of If You Ask Me, we are joined by Rebecca Jason, a partner in the Banking and Finance team at Winckworth Sherwood.
During the conversation, Rebecca shares how motherhood reshaped her confidence, judgement and approach to what mattered most in her career. She also shares how a partnership opportunity first arose while she was on maternity leave, how that possibility took shape over time, and what it was like stepping into her first partner role while adjusting to life with two young children.
The discussion explores how ambition, progression and sustainability can coexist over the long term, even when career paths do not follow an expected or linear route.
Host: Hannah Bradshaw, Founding Director of BlueSky
Host: Sarah Lyons, Founding Director of BlueSky
Guest: Rebecca Jason, Partner at Winckworth Sherwood

In this episode of If You Ask Me, we are joined by Carolyn Miller, a partner at Lewis Silkin and one of the lawyers responsible for opening the firm’s Glasgow office.
Before returning to private practice, Carolyn spent several years running her own consultancy, Fish to Water. During this time, she provided HR and employment law advice while creating greater flexibility to be present with her children. Her career reflects a non-linear path shaped by senior leadership responsibility, family life and deliberate professional choices.
Earlier in her career, Carolyn reached a senior role in a large firm and began to question the personal cost of the traditional model. She decided to step away from firm life, not from the law itself, and continued practising independently. Throughout this period, she maintained her practicing certificate, built a client portfolio on her own terms, and developed a working style that better aligned with her family commitments.
In the conversation, Carolyn speaks openly about the emotional and financial trade-offs involved in stepping away from private practice, the realities of the motherhood penalty and fatherhood bonus, and what it was like to return to partnership after a long break. She also reflects on the importance of firm culture, flexible working and the conditions that made her return to private practice possible.
Carolyn’s experience offers a grounded perspective on career breaks, senior leadership and what it takes for legal careers to remain sustainable over the long term.
Host: Hannah Bradshaw, Founding Director of BlueSky
Host: Sarah Lyons, Founding Director of BlueSky
Guest: Carolyn Miller, Partner in the Employment Team at Lewis Silkin