Alumni Profile: Polly Lane
Alumni Profile: Polly Lane was at HLC from 1987 to 1994 and was in York house. She was House Prefect and Athletics Captain.
Polly is an Associate Solicitor in the Human Rights and Specialist Litigation team at DAC Beachcroft in London. She defends complex Human Rights, discrimination and civil liberties cases for a range of largely public sector organisations, such as the police, social services departments and central government as well as some household name corporates.
Polly Lane – Alumni Profile
Please tell us more about your time at HLC – What was the best thing about the school experience? What are your fondest memories?
I recall laughing with funny friends, hot breakfasts, floppy croissants and chocolate slop. The choir, the choir, the choir: both as audience and participant. The stationery order form. The diction teacher who doubled as a therapist. The sports room cupboard that smelled of lacrosse stick oil and Dunlop tennis shoes.
What did you do straight after you left school?
Went to Oxford! Alright, not that Oxford. It turns out that a B, N & E in my A’ levels was not quite what the Russell Group Universities were after, so I went to do a short secretarial course to equip me with sufficient basic skills to enable me to survive in London. Thence to the capital – just 18 and without a clue – to become a star/make my fortune.
My first love was music, so after a spot of temping I landed a job in the music industry, doing TV & radio PR at a record company, and later organising live tours for bands and artists. Imagine an institutionalised gawky teenager trying to make polite chit chat with Bono or Tricky, and you get the rather awkward picture. Again it wasn’t a perfect fit, but it was an exhilarating ride.
Tell us about the journey from there to what you do now?
After 6 hazy years hanging out in music venues in Soho, a family tragedy brought home that life is short and carpe diem and all that, and so I went in search of my second love: politics (friends from Upper Six will recall me confidently and without any self-awareness whatsoever pronouncing that one day I would be Prime Minister). So in 2003 I went to Goldsmiths to study Political Sociology with an eye on a career in political journalism.
I then did a Masters and considered a PhD, opting instead for a law conversion. Careers in political journalism didn’t exactly fall in one’s lap apparently, and anyway that mortgage wasn’t going to pay itself, so law it was.
Very fortunately I landed a training contract at a human rights firm straight away and qualified two years later, doing criminal defence and police misconduct litigation. Everything from assaults in custody to murders.
After having my first child, I moved to the Government Legal Department, initially representing the Ministry of Defence in post-war human rights litigation, then as National Security legal advisor at the Home Office.
After 7 thrilling years in central Government, I re-joined the private sector to continue this trajectory in a more, shall we say, remunerative setting.
Tell us more about your experience of what you do now?
I am fortunate enough to be running fascinating cases involving novel questions of law – generally concerning abuse and neglect, sex or disability discrimination, or police misconduct – which occasionally make the news or change the law. There are no dull moments and lots of rather tense ones.
For example I am going to trial in 2025 on a case which directly addresses the legal definition of “woman” and trans rights to single sex spaces. I represent a number of organisations in inquests into the tragic, suspicious or unexplained deaths of young people. And a human rights case directly exploring the duty of police to investigate allegations of rape and sexual assault. The law can be mind-bending and the work highly pressured, but I fail to see how anyone could not find it fascinating and valuable.
What advice would you give to someone looking to take part in/join what you do now?
Perhaps don’t take a leaf out of my book and sleep through your A’ Levels. That said, a B, N & E is apparently no barrier to being a mature student apparently.
Achieve the very best degree grade you can – the profession is extremely competitive.
Patience – there is so much to learn; Rome wasn’t built in a day.
This is not corporate law – so lower your salary expectations. You won’t make your fortune, but you’ll be infinitely more interesting at dinner parties (and you’ll actually get to go to some. Work/life balance!).
What’s on the wish list for your future development?
I still haven’t quite given up on becoming a star or Prime Minister.
Failing that, there are plenty of legal paths still to tread. The next stage at my firm is Partnership, which brings with it many additional responsibilities and challenges. So we’ll see. Bono may still call.
Are you still in touch with girls that you went to school with?
Yes! I am great friends with one or two and was thrilled to see several old friends at the recent choir reunion. Probably the (only) best thing about social media is keeping these connections ticking over.
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