Marina Ufaeva - who spent eight years at Hogan Lovells and Hughes Hubbard - is now a designer and the owner of the ‘employ New York’ dress range. She explained why her lawyer’s wardrobe became so important to her: ‘The life of an attorney is working all the time, you have to be available all the time, and you don't sleep while you're working on the deal. I would literally sleep on the floor on the office with the expectation that in the morning I had to look great, smell good, not be wrinkled, and be on, so the dress had to be not only good in day, but carry me through the night, literally! and be good in the morning still.’

Detail oriented

Ella McHugh, the designer behind ‘Ella McHugh handbags’, is given as another example of lawyers-turned-designers. On a working trip to Shanghai, she realised she was unhappy in the law and began a path which led her to start her own handbag factory in Italy. She said: ‘It [the practice of law] makes you detail oriented which helps in the production process and working with the manufacturers is incredibly detail oriented.’ 

Happy life

Samantha Levine, founder of Auburn Jewelry, said: ‘I worked for a corporate immigration attorney for three years and there's not much creativity in that. It's not conducive to a happy life.’ Source: Hollywood Reporter