//Past Events 2024

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Financial Planning Webinar (13 November)
Warwick Law Fair (22 October)
Pupillage Fair (19 October)
Student Evening (2 October)
Imposter Syndrome Seminar
BSB Equality Rules (19 September)
Employed Bar Garden Party (11 June)
FCA Enforcement Webinar (15 May)
Fraud Prevention Webinar (2 May)
Wine and Cheese (18 April)
Commerciality (17 April)
Gin Tasting (21 February)
Ethics Webinar (23 January)

"Owning Your Imposter" Seminar
26 September 2024

On 26th September, BACFI presented a talk on the Imposter Syndrome, “Owning Your Imposter” at the new offices of Proskauer Rose LLP at 8 Bishopsgate in London. The speakers were Judith Kark, an accredited counsellor with extensive experience in providing support and guidance to clients making decisions on their careers, and Ann Collier, an experienced Business and Career Coach, Trainer and Consultant who previously worked as a solicitor in the Litigation department of a magic circle law firm and now supports many legal professionals to successfully achieve their career aspirations. The discussion was guided by Heidi Stonecliffe KC, Chair of the Employed Barristers’ Committee of the Bar Council.

Our speakers emphasised that there is a skill in speaking and thinking highly about your own expertise and achievements. One obstacle to this is in attributing far greater knowledge, competence and achievements to individual others. While collectively a group may know more than you about a topic, it is highly unlikely that any one of the group knows everything that you want to communicate. A practical tip suggested was to keep a regularly updated list of things that you’ve achieved or which went well. These are easy to dismiss and forget, especially if you have a trait of feeling undeserving and imperfect which often go along with “imposter syndrome”.

We learnt that imposter syndrome is a type of anxiety, often due to lacking the internal resources to get through a situation, but is not a recognised disorder. It is distinct from: (i) actually being unprepared or unqualified for a task (ii) being disappointed when you know that you have underperformed or (iii) being belittled by another person. Imposter Syndrome can lead to physical sensations, such as “brain freeze” or hyperventilation and here it is particularly important to develop techniques to calm down the body’s stress response and allow the rational brain to reconnect. Mindfulness works.

On the positive side, we learnt that many of the traits of those with imposter syndrome - perfectionism, inability to delegate, self-identification as an expert and comparisons against others - are often shared with high achievers but we also were reminded that optimal performance is not achieved when working under too high or too low pressure. The presentation was informal and the audience offered many of their own examples of facing up to the “imposter syndrome”. Afterwards we continued our conversations over a fine selection of wines, cheeses and other refreshments kindly provided by our hosts at Proskauer Rose.

The evening received very positive feedback.

One attendee commented:
“I just wanted to reach out and say that this event really and truly was brilliant!! The session really did answer so many unanswered questions in my own mind, the speakers did a sterling job”.

Contact details for the speakers are:
Judith Kark: judith.kark@gmail.com
Ann Collier: ann.collier@sherwoodpsfconsulting.com

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