The route to a career in law has changed a bit since Judith Shepherd, general counsel at Barclays Bank, global retail and commercial, went for her first job interview at a London law firm. ‘The whole interview process has been professionalised,’ she told the young audience at the Black Lawyers Directory Legal Launch Pad passing out ceremony. ‘I knew nothing about the law. I just wanted to be a lawyer because my boyfriend wanted to be a lawyer – it seemed a good thing to be.’ Her CV did not boast work experience at a magic circle firm, either, but did mention a holiday job she’d had as a children’s nanny. ‘We talked about how it was like being a governess in a Jane Austen novel,’ she told her boyfriend after the interview. To which the boyfriend replied: ‘But there are no governesses in Jane Austen.’ Shepherd managed to secure the job which launched her legal career despite her literary faux pas. But even more impressive, in Obiter’s view, she managed to find a man who has read a Jane Austen novel. What a heroine.