ABOUT

Tell us who you are!

Claudine Adeyemi. Sole Legal Counsel at Wefarm and Founder and CEO at CareerEar

So what do you actually do?

Well as you can see, I have a bit of a portfolio career going on. I work part-time at a VC backed agtech startup called Wefarm. We're building the world's largest network of smallholder farmers and supporting them to share knowledge and access better quality and better priced input products in order for them to have more successful businesses. I provide legal (and compliance) support to the business. This means that I consider risk, provide advice from a legal perspective to support decision-making and ensure that the business is protected.

Separately, I run a small team at CareerEar building a community powered, data-driven online platform which supports individuals from underserved communities to make informed career choices. My role here is to set the strategy, build and lead the team, manage the finances of the business and develop the business to generate revenue.

What has your career path been?

I wanted to be a lawyer from a young age. I wanted to achieve something that my whole family would be proud of and to generate an income that would allow me to support everyone.

I worked hard at school and got straight A's at A Level which got me into UCL where I studied law. In my second year of university, I secured a training contract with a top law firm in London and so they covered the cost of the tuition fees for law school where I was awarded a distinction in the Legal Practice Course. After that, I started my training contract and qualified as the Firm's youngest lawyer in 2014. 

Sounds straightforward right? Wrong. At 16 years old I left home. I stayed in horrible B&Bs as well as a hostel throughout my A Levels and staying focused on the end goal was so hard. Then there was getting into law. I was naive. I did not appreciate that the legal sector was one of the most elitist sectors, or that being a young black woman would mean that I'm less likely to get in. I had no idea what the word "network" meant but I sure as hell didn't have one. I didn't know anyone who had been to university, never mind practised law. I had to figure it out for myself so I did things like begging high street law firms to give me work experience, speaking to a girl in my class to ask her dad if I could shadow him, taking up the random opportunities to do law taster courses or open days etc. through my school.

After my AS Levels, I won an award presented to me by Camila Batmanghelidjh and I became a Kids Company kid. They gave me a key worker who supported me and she found me a barrister who mentored me and helped me with my vacation scheme/training contract applications.
It wasn't until I arrived at my firm, with the imposter syndrome setting in, that I realised that I was the exception to the rule and people who looked like me or were from a similar background to me were really being held back. I set about trying to resolve this - through my ambassadorial duties with the Law Society, Diversity Committee at my firm, my non-profit organisation which supported over 500 young people with their careers through mentoring, insight days skills workshops and so on. Ultimately, I digitised this career support and CareerEar was born. I then took an extended sabbatical (almost 2 years) to work on it full time before returning to law part-time through Wefarm.

What is the best part of your job?

In both of my roles, the best part is the potential that we have to achieve significant impact at scale. I enjoy the day to day because I get to watch the journey unfold towards achieving the ultimate aim and know that my role in that journey is absolutely critical.

Why do you do your job?

I do both of my roles for a variety of different reasons. The main ones, I'd say, would be:

1. the challenges - every day presents something different and a new learning experience which enables me to keep developing and growing

2. the mission - being a part of and contributing to something that's greater than myself - sounds super cheesy, I know, but it's true. This is such an important driver for me. I have had experiences that I wouldn't want anyone else in this world to have, I've witnessed injustices and broken structures that I only wish I had the time, knowledge, skills and power to fix, but there are some areas that I can contribute to and I want that contribution to be as significant as it possibly can be.

One piece of advice for someone starting in your role?

Not for the faint-hearted x2!

So if you're looking to become a solicitor - you ought to really make sure that it's the path that you want to take. It's a highly competitive and intense experience just to get qualified but having a passion for the law and a burning desire to become a lawyer will help see you through. Thereafter, the intensity is likely to continue because being a lawyer comes with significant amounts of responsibility, involves regularly trying to solve complex problems and is intellectually challenging, so again, make sure that this kind of challenge is what you want from your career.

If you're thinking about going into business, becoming an entrepreneur and doing your own thing, then great, but again, try and explore whether this is truly a good fit for you. Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. It requires taking risks, coping with extreme uncertainty and can take a long time before you see financial and other returns on your investment of both time and money. As a first step, start a side hustle, or find a role in a business that enables you to be entrepreneurial. And also don't discount the value of intrapreneurship - creating businesses within an existing business.

Check out Claudine’s socials below!

DAY IN THE LIFE

Really hard because no day is typical, but I'll give it a go:

6am - 7am - Usually up somewhere between these times depending on how busy my day is going to be/how much I need to get done

7am - 8am - If there's lots to do at Wefarm then I'll log in during this time and start catching up on emails and Slack messages and planning my day. If not, I'll probably get some CareerEar bits done which will normally involve checking my to-do list on Trello and selecting something that will take no more than 45 mins to complete, or I'll clear some emails that I've not yet had a chance to digest

8am - 10am - planning the day or getting on with most urgent/important task I work best in the mornings and so I try and use this time for the most complex work or for when I just need to get my head down with as few interruptions as possible e.g. working through a data audit or reviewing a long contract to check that I'm comfortable with our CEO signing it.

10am - standup - everyday at Wefarm we have 15 mins in the diary to share what we're working on and any blockers that we have

10am - 12pm - at Wefarm, we operate in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and given the time difference, any meetings with the team usually take place before lunch. These happen virtually and could involve anything from supporting in relation to a contractual dispute to advising on things to think about when we collect data.

12pm - I start thinking about lunch, when to have it and whether myself or my partner will be in charge of making it - basically depends on whose diary is the craziest

12:30pm - 2pm - I typically have lunch at some point during this time, at my desk (sadly) whilst I clear any emails/Slack messages that I've missed throughout the day. I may also have other meetings, for example with our external lawyers in East Africa or with other teams within Wefarm - I work quite closely with Sales and Account Management for example.

2pm - 4pm - critical time to get any work done that I'd planned for the day but I invariably end up working on some enquiry that has come in on the day from someone in the team, for example a due diligence check on a new customer or an Non-Disclosure Agreement that needs reviewing in order for us to progress discussions with a potential partner

4pm - I usually have a catch up with my boss at this time, bringing him up to speed on things and receiving any important information from our Senior Leadership Team and the meetings that they have.

4:30pm - 6:30pm - I block this time out in my diary for no appointments. I usually take a 20 minute break (often end up checking CareerEar emails in this time) and then use the rest of the time as "spillover" time i.e. time to get through all the work that I had scheduled for the day but did not complete. Usually takes me past 6:30pm but I'm trying to be good about working reasonable hours and managing my mental health in the process.

6:30pm - usually go back to CareerEar to work through any important/small tasks and respond to Slack messages and emails and then start dinner (if it's on me to cook ;) )