Managing director of Hedges Law and co-founder of Oak Legal Group
My conversation with Nicola Poole begins not with her legal career but with the fact that she was diagnosed with terminal cancer 20 years ago. However, it turned out not to be cancer but a rare disease caused by a parasite bite on holiday. Before starting chemotherapy, a junior doctor went back to the lab and checked her biopsies again, which resulted in her receiving the correct treatment.
‘I was dying before their eyes. There was nothing they could do. They couldn’t find out what was going on,’ Nicola recalls. Biopsies were sent to other hospitals, including in the US. She was turned ‘inside and out’. All the signs pointed to cancer. ‘They said, “If it looks like cancer, it must be cancer”. It ended up being a parasite.’
Nicola explains that one place where doctors could not conduct a biopsy was the spleen. In an ‘absolute miracle’, they found a rogue cell. She was pregnant when bitten by a sandfly. ‘When you’re pregnant, your immune system is compromised. The thing had got in. It took a year to show up in my system.’ Nicola says the chemo or the disease could have killed her. ‘I’m pretty lucky to be here.’ She has often been told she is driven. ‘Why wouldn’t I be driven? I have a life I wasn’t expecting to have.’
Nicola attended a comprehensive school and cleaned houses to pay for university. On why she became a lawyer, she relates that her mum died when she was eight months old. She later found out that the death was caused by medical negligence and there had been no accountability. Nicola’s dad wanted to fight for justice and even saw lawyers. But with three very young children to look after, and warned that the fight would be tough, he decided to stop.
'Where is the joy sitting there with a great big lion’s share of the profit and people are not sharing it? We have got to reward people who helped build that success'
Having discovered what happened to her mum, Nicola says: ‘I thought I would go and become a medical negligence lawyer to avenge her death and help sue doctors.’ After her law degree, she was offered articles at regional firm Cole & Cole, following a summer placement. She did six months of medical negligence work ‘and realised that to avenge her death was the worst possible motivation’. She also did six months of family law. ‘I literally thought, “Oh my god, I’ve come home. This is my calling”.’
Nicola spent 35 years doing family law. ‘I absolutely loved it. It was my happy place. It was a real privilege to be right next to people as you took them through some of the hardest parts of their life.’ She never planned to end up in law firm management. ‘The irony is, when I did my A-levels, I did business studies. I did it because it fit the timetable and left after six weeks because I hated it. I did law instead just to fit into my timetable. Now I’m running a business.’
In 2000, she left Morgan Cole (as the firm was then known) to set up a family legal aid practice. After having her first child, she took time out. Her time at Hedges Law began when she covered a friend’s maternity leave.
Hedges Law was founded in 1789. ‘I looked at this small law firm that had an incredible history. They had really high-end clients.’ She wanted to bring the firm ‘into the 21st century’ and says the partners were incredibly amenable to her suggestions. In 2021, she turned Hedges Law into an employee-owned firm. ‘Where is the joy sitting there with a great big lion’s share of the profit and people are not sharing it? We have got to reward people who helped build that success.’
Hedges Law recently secured backing from private investment office CKM3 and has become the founding firm of Oak Legal Group, a new professional services model to protect law firm legacies in a rapidly consolidating market. Nicola is co-founder of Oak Legal Group and managing director of Hedges Law. ‘The private investment piece is about wanting to be in collaboration with someone who understands the value of individual brands, is respectful, not just chasing ROI, not just chasing growth for growth’s sake.’
Nicola spends her free time doing charity work. She recently skydived to raise money for grief support charity SeeSaw, which supports children, young people and their families. ‘I’d like to think mum is looking down and thinking, “you did good”.’
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